John McCain had better be planning on using instrumental music from the 19th century for his next Senate seat run. After a lawsuit he filed against singer/songwriter Jackson Browne in the U.S. District Court in California this week, he'll probably alienate any musicians who haven't already asked him to stop using their songs during his failed presidential bid.

You may recall that back in August, Browne filed suit against McCain's campaign for using his song, "Running on Empty," in a campaign ad, citing copyright infringement and false endorsement. The laid-back California rocker was among a group of musicians — which also included Heart, the Foo Fighters and Van Halen — who asked McCain to stop using their songs in the Republican senator's appearances during his White House bid.

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We're not so arrogant as to think that the McCain and Palin spend their downtime reading the Newsroom blog. We know they're busy and all. So, maybe they didn't read our story earlier this week about how '80s rockers Survivor weren't too happy about the campaign using their "Rocky III" song, "Eye of the Tiger," at rallies.

And maybe they missed the stories about the Foo Fighters, Van Halen, Heart and Jackson Browne complaining about the same thing. We're not saying an intervention is in order, but while five is troubling, six is definitely a sign of a problem.

The latest? Jersey icons Bon Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi told TMZ that the band was "surprised to hear that our song 'Who Says You Can't Go Home,' was used by the McCain campaign at rallies yesterday and today.

"We wrote this song as a thank you to those who have supported us over the past twenty-five years," JBJ continued. "The song has since become a banner for our home state of New Jersey and the defacto theme song for our partnerships around the country to build homes and rebuild communities. Although we were not asked, we do not approve of their use of 'Home.'

McCain certainly should have seen this one coming, what with the singer throwing a $30,800-a-plate dinner at his house for Obama last month.

What do you think of McCain's musical miscues? Does the campaign need to be more careful, or do these musicians need to lighten up?

Last week, right before Republican presidential candidate John McCain introduced the world to his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, in Dayton, Ohio, he strutted out to the sounds of Van Halen's "Right Now." A few hours later, Van Halen's publicist told MTV News that the POTUS hopeful was never granted permission to use the track, and had permission been sought, it would never have been granted.

Now, Heart are furious with the McCain campaign for its use of their 1977 hit "Barracuda" as Palin's unofficial theme song during the RNC. (When the governor was a high school basketball champ, her teammates nicknamed her "Sarah Barracuda.") Heart's reps fired off a statement saying they'd asked the Republicans to stop using the song, and in a phone call to EW.com, Nancy Wilson said she felt "completely f---ed over."

It seems McCain's people just can't find the right tunes. Considering how liberal most recording artists are, it's likely this will continue to be a problem for the GOP. Perhaps John should just stick with John Rich's "Raising McCain."

If you had to pick a song to capture the spirit of McCain's or Senator Barack Obama's campaign, which song would you go with? Tell us!

Friday morning, minutes before presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain revealed Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, he strutted out onto a stage in Dayton, Ohio, where 15,000 supporters had gathered for a rally the day after Senator Barack Obama made history during his DNC-closing address, with Van Halen's inspirational 1991 track "Right Now" booming through the speakers at the Nutter Center.

Read more of Van Halen's reaction and see the video after the jump.
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It takes a special kind of crazy to impersonate a celebrity beyond Las Vegas' city limits, but David Kuntz isn't just nuts — he's the kind of dude who could inspire the American Psychiatric Association to consider a total revamp of the DSM. That's because he's been trying to pass himself off as Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth.

Last week, several news organizations reported that Canadian authorities had pulled Diamond Dave over for driving erratically and that he'd told the cops he was speeding because of an allergic reaction he was having to peanuts. Seeing as Roth is a certified EMT, it didn't seem quite right or believable. The cops brought the man they thought was Roth to the hospital anyway, and he was seen later that evening in a bar with two women in hospital scrubs. Read more...

There are plenty of ways for veteran bands to score new lead singers. You can go the Journey route, and pick a guy (or guys) who kind of sounds like the old dude, but looks nothing like him. Or, you could pull a Van Halen, and go with a singer who sounds nothing like your original frontman, score tons of hits with him, then boot him too and replace him with a hair-band reject -- only to go back to the first guy for the big cash-in reunion tour .

Then there’s Velvet Revolver. Now that the band of ex-Guns N’ Roses members is singer-less after an ugly split with former and once-again Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland, guitarist Slash says the band is talking about building a website to audition potential new lead singers.

We’re not suggesting that this is a horrible idea (because it totally-in-every-way is), but perhaps Slash has forgotten about their original search for a singer for the project then called, uh, “The Project.” The crew listened to 600 demo tapes -- such as this one, this one, and this one -- and auditioned everyone from ex-Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach to Neurotica’s Kelly Shaefer, singer-songwriter Beth Hart, Days of the News’ Travis Meeks. They even put feelers out to gonzo rocker/rapper Mike Patton.

Then again, Slash has probably got plenty of time on his hands these days and while he’ll probably get plenty of this and this, when all else fails, there’s always this guy.

Now that Scott Weiland’s reunion with the Stone Temple Pilots is finally official, what’s next for Velvet Revolver, the band the singer was booted from just last week? Already, guitarist Slash has promised a third record from VR, and he even said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone that the band's got a few fellas in mind to take over behind the mike. Slash even admitted that, as recently as last month, the band auditioned at least one hopeful -- right around the time that rumors of the band’s split started gaining speed.

So, who do we think would work well with Velvet Revolver? Here’s a couple of possible hopefuls the band should consider, after the jump... Read more...

· "It's 3am and your children are safe and asleep..." Not Trent Reznor, though. Late Sunday, saw the release of a new Nine Inch Nails album, Ghost I-IV, online. A vocal critic of the music industry - and a recent record label free-agent - Reznor released the 36 new instrumental tunes as a digital-download only, available at Amazon MP3 and NIN.com. On his website, Reznor says that the tracks were recorded over "an intense ten week period last fall." He adds, "I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference." Reznor had been teasing the release date on his site the last couple of weeks.

· Last fall, during rehearsals for the "VH1 Hip-Hop Honors" in New York, MTV News was interviewing Pharrell out in front of the venue when we ran into Chris Rock. He had just come from seeing Van Halen the night before and was desperately trying to convince Pharrell that if he ever wanted to know what pure rock 'n roll sounds like, he needed to go see Van Halen. Let's hope Pharrell got his chance, because TMZ is reporting that the remaining dates on the Van Halen tour have now been cancelled. Something about Eddie and "issues." (BTW, Chris Rock correctly remembered that VH's 5150 and Run DMC's Raising Hell were released on the same day). UPDATED: They're not cancelled, they're postponed. Um, and we corrected the proper VH album that came out in 1986!

· The Arcade Fire's Win and Will Butler, Regine Chassagne and Jeremy Gara played a free show at Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio, Sunday, in support of Barack Obama. They play another free show at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland Monday night. The band's publicist said that though the Arcade Fire is known as a Canadian band, "Win and Will were born and raised in the U.S. (and spent their formative years in Texas), Regine is a dual citizen whose dad served in Vietnam, and Jeremy Gara is just a really nice Canadian who likes playing music and is sick of explaining to Americans what universal health care means." So why aren't they playing in Texas?

· Winona Ryder is engaged to be married to Rilo Kiley guitarist Blake Sennett, thus shattering the dreams of an entire generation of musicians who probably started their bands thinking they had a shot. [via Stereogum]
UPDATE: Ryder's rep denies the rumors. We'll sort it out.