In 2010, the Fox TV show Glee was all the rage. Before Glee could use music from popular artists or bands, they needed to first get permission. The producers of Glee approached the Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses and Kings of Leon, who all refused to let their music be licensed.
Slash Refuses to License Guns N’ Roses Music to Glee
Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist Slash revealed in January of 2011 to Entertainment Weekly, that he said no to the TV show licensing Guns N’ Roses music saying, “Glee is worse than Greece and Greece is bad enough.”
The guitarist didn’t have a hard-line stance against licensing Guns N’ Roses music but preferred to lend his music and image to projects he endorsed.
Glee creator, Ryan Murphy would respond several weeks after Slash made his comments to Entertainment Weekly. He was pretty vitriolic in his response, not only attacking Guns N’ Roses, but also Kings of Leon for publicly rejecting an offer to have their music in an episode of the hit series. Murphy would tell The Hollywood Reporter that Kings of Leon are, “self-centered a-holes and they missed the big picture”.
According to Murphy, the bands are missing the opportunity to inspire kids taking up music saying, ‘A 7 year old kid can see someone close to their age singing a Kings of Leon song which will make them want to join a glee club or pick up a musical instrument. It’s like okay hate on arts education. You can make fun of Glee all you want but at its heart, what we really do is turn kids on to music.”
“… We’re just not sure where the anger is coming from.” – Caleb Followill
Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill offered a more even-handed response to Murphy’s comments in the article saying, “This whole Glee thing is a shock to us. It’s gotten out of hand. At the time of the request we hadn’t even seen the show. It came at the end of that record cycle and we were over promoting ‘Use Somebody’. This was never meant as a slap in the face to Glee or to the music education or to fans of the show. We’re just not sure where the anger is coming from.”
In the same article, Murphy would also respond to Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash saying, “Usually I find that people who make those comments, their careers are over. Their uneducated and quite stupid.”
Dave Grohl Defends Kings of Leon and Guns N’ Roses
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl would go on the Howard Stern Show in 2011 and defend Kings of Leon and Guns N’ Roses for saying no to the show, “…Glee never approached us to do music. That came up in conversation when we were doing an interview for The Hollywood Reporter… I think it’s important that bands don’t feel pressured to do that sort of big business thing… That’s not fair that he thinks that everyone should do the show… Slash and the guys from Kings of Leon, I know those guys. Like, they’re nice guys.”
Ryan Murphy Issues Public Apology
Several months after the war of words in April of 2011, Ryan Murphy would walk back his comments and publicly apologize saying, “I didn’t speak with as much clarity as I would have liked. Who am I to say eff you? That’s not what I meant. I completely understand when artists don’t want a show or another artist to interpret their songs, in fact, I respect it. It’s their personal work and I’d feel the same way. We get turned down all the time and I don’t fight it or even go back after a rejection.”
Murphy would point to a recent request to use a song by Icelandic singer Björk in the show, which the Icelandic singer turned down saying, “She read the scene and didn’t really think it was the right fit for her song. I told her that’s completely cool and she said come back to her down the road. We deal with that every day.”
“I support artists and what they choose to do.” – Ryan Murphy
Grohl’s words seem to have stung Ryan Murphy and emitted Foo Fighters fans saying, “I’ve never felt that if you don’t give Glee your music ,there’s something diabolical about you. I support artists and what they choose to do. The Foo Fighters are brilliant. We’d love to do one of their songs if they were ever interested but if it’s not their thing, then okay. I personally wish them luck and will still listen to their new music.
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