Tuesday, July 6th, 2004

Filmmaker Michael Moore claims in an interview with Film Comment that Pete refused use of "Won't Get Fooled Again" for Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11 because "Word came to us that he is not a fan of Michael Moore's and in fact supports the war and supports Tony Blair and doesn't want the song used in any way that would make Blair look bad. Harvey [Weinstein, producer and long-time friend of Pete's] personally made an appeal to him to reconsider. And he wouldn't."  In the coming days Pete would blog about this and the media would report on it

 

• • MOORE: "At the end of the film Bush says 'Fool me once, shame on me. I won't get fooled again.' Clearly that moment demands that we hear Roger Daltrey scream, 'Won't get fooled again!' That's how I had it cut.
  • Pete Townsend blocked it, would not allow the song to be used. Word came to us that he is not a fan of Michael Moore's and in fact supports the war and supports Tony Blair and doesn't want the song used in any way that would make Blair look bad. Harvey Weinstein personally made an appeal to him to reconsider. And he wouldn't.
  • At that point, we're about a week away from going to Cannes. So, I remembered while I was driving in Michigan 'Rockin' in the Free World' came on the radio and I thought this would be a cool song to have in the movie. So we said, 'Let's see how this works,' and it worked perfectly.
  • Called up Neil Young and he said, 'Whatever you need. Absolutely. It's yours.'
  • Once we started playing it in the movie, we quickly forgot about The Who. In fact, after Cannes, we got a call from their manager who said they might be willing to reconsider. And I said, 'No, uh uh. That's bad karma. This is Neil Young's moment.'
  • People leave the theaters, that's what I want them hearing. In fact I don't want them hearing a song that has the line, 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.' Because the new boss I sincerely hope won't be the same as the old boss. I don't want that song. It gave me a chance to have a line at the end too, cause you can't go right into 'Rockin' in the Free World.'

So I get to say 'For once I agree with Bush - we won't get fooled again.' ""