The party anthem of a generation just became a political battlefield. The B-52s are publicly ripping Texas Senator John Cornyn after his campaign dropped an AI-generated attack ad parodying their iconic 1989 hit “Love Shack” to smear his opponent Ken Paxton.
The 80-second ad, released Tuesday, features an AI-generated figure resembling Paxton in a car with two women whose faces are obscured by black squares labeled “Mistress #1” and “Mistress #2”. The lyrics twist the beloved chorus into a political weapon: “He’s heading down the corrupt highway, looking for his lying getaway. Got himself a ride, it’s an Uber tonight, heading on down to the Love Shack”.
The B-52s responded swiftly and furiously. In an exclusive statement, the band made their position unmistakably clear.
“Today we learned that our song ‘Love Shack’ is being used without our approval for a political attack between two politicians in the beautiful state of Texas,” the statement reads. “We do not endorse either candidate. We have already formally demanded the song immediately cease to be used in this tasteless and illegal way”.
The statement carries the signatures of core members Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, and Cindy Wilson, the creative forces behind the 50-year-old band.
For the B-52s, this isn’t just about copyright. It’s about what the song actually means. “The B-52s have always stood for love and inclusion between all human beings,” their statement continues. “The ‘Love Shack’ symbolizes a ‘place where we can get together.’ All people, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age and also regardless of politics. Our music is and has been for almost 50 years, about love, inclusion, positivity and treating one another with respect”.
The ad weaponizes Paxton’s very real scandals. The lyrics reference his 2023 impeachment trial, where records showed an Uber account created under the alias “Dave P.” used to visit a woman with whom the attorney general was allegedly having an extramarital affair . Paxton’s wife Angela filed for divorce last year on “biblical grounds,” citing adultery.
This marks the latest escalation in AI-generated political warfare. Texas law bans deepfakes in state races, but that restriction doesn’t apply to federal campaigns like this U.S. Senate runoff . Cornyn’s ad follows Paxton’s own AI-generated spot featuring Cornyn dancing with Rep. Jasmine Crockett earlier this year.
University of Houston Law Professor Seth Chandler warns that regulating AI in politics carries its own risks. “This may be an area in which the cure is worse than the disease,” Chandler told FOX 4. “When you start saying that, well, because they used AI, we can have additional censoring of the message, that starts to get very, very dangerous”.
Cornyn’s campaign defended the ad as legitimate political speech. “The parody video reminds Texans of just a few of Ken Paxton’s scandals,” they said in a release . Paxton’s campaign has not responded to requests for comment.
The Texas GOP runoff election is scheduled for May 26, with President Trump remaining notably neutral in the contest. But the B-52s have already made their choice clear: they want their song out of the fight entirely.
For a band that spent five decades spreading joy through quirky new wave anthems, watching “Love Shack” get dragged into a bitter political war is apparently one party they never signed up for.
