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Dropkick Murphy's to Scott Walker: 'Stop using our music, we literally hate you'

Punk rockers have a history of clashes with the Wisconsin GOP.

By Matt Bradwell
Dropkick Murphys perform the National Anthem at Fenway Park. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
Dropkick Murphys perform the National Anthem at Fenway Park. UPI/Kevin Dietsch | License Photo

BOSTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- American Celtic punk rockers Dropkick Murphys offered harsh words for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker after learning the Republican used their single "Shipping Off to Boston" as his entrance music at Saturday's Iowa Freedom Summit.

"Please stop music using our music in any way," the group tweeted to Walker the day after conservative rally, adding, "We literally hate you ... Love, Dropkick Murphy's."

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The incident is hardly the group's first run in with Walker and the Wisconsin GOP, as in 2012 they took to Facebook to offer a lengthier, more specific, take down of former Wisconsin Speaker of the State Assembly Jeff Fitzgerald when Fitzgerald used "Shipping Off to Boston" in his failed 2012 Senate campaign.

In 2011, the band had their first public clash with Walker, releasing the single "Take 'Em Down" to raise money for emergency responds funds for the AFL-CIO, SEIU and other labor groups opposed to Walker's state budget that stripped public employees in the state of their collective bargaining rights.

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Such culture clashes between musicians and politicians are not unheard of in the American political landscape. In 1984, Ronald Reagan inadvertently pushed Bruce Springsteen into his ongoing role as a progressive political activist, when the Republican president used "Born in the U.S.A." in his 1984 re-election campaign, much to Springsteen's dismay.

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