Tom Petty estate exploring legal options after ‘stolen’ song used in Kari Lake video

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — The Tom Petty estate says GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake used one of the late musician’s songs without permission in a recent video posted on social media. Now the estate says it’s exploring legal options.

Days after the AP and other news outlets projected Democrat Katie Hobbs as the winner of the Arizona governor’s race, on Wednesday, Lake uploaded a campaign video using Petty’s 1989 hit, “I Won’t Back Down.”

Thursday evening, the estate posted the following message:

As of Friday morning, the nearly two-minute-long video in question appears to have been removed from Lake’s official Twitter account but is still accessible on her Facebook page.

The same song was played during a June 2020 campaign rally in Oklahoma for former President Donald Trump. The estate posted a similar message then, saying, “Tom Petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together.” Petty died in 2017 at the age of 66.

In addition to this video, Lake posted a recorded message Thursday morning where she refused to concede, saying she’s busy “collecting evidence and data” regarding claims of disenfranchised Republican voters in Maricopa County.

With just over 10,000 ballots left to count statewide, Hobbs leads Lake by nearly 17,000 votes.

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