Canadian band bills Pentagon for using its music at Guantánamo

The Canadian band Skinny Puppy has billed the U.S. military for allegedly using its music on detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

The industrial rock band said its music has been used in interrogations, and the group sent the Pentagon an invoice for $666,000.

{mosads}“We sent them an invoice for our musical services, considering they had gone ahead and used our music without our knowledge and used it as an actual weapon against somebody,” cEvin Key, born Kevin William Crompton, the band’s keyboardist, told Canada’s CTV News.

Key said a former Guantánamo guard who was a fan of the band reached out to let Skinny Puppy know its music was being used.

“I think he was coming at it from the fact that he was shocked that our music was being used because, although he was a guard at Guantánamo Bay, he also happened to be a fan of our music,” Key said.

The keyboardist said the members of the band, which has been playing for more than 30 years, were “offended” to learn their music was used to “inflict damage” on detainees.

Key said the band initially had planned to design an album cover as an invoice, but then they were told they could sue the Pentagon for using their music without permission.

A Pentagon spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the invoice or the military’s response.

The use of music against detainees at Guantánamo has been previously documented, and ranged from bands like Metallica and AC/DC to rap artists like Eminem and even music from the children’s show “Sesame Street.”

Key told CTV News that, while his band’s music would be “a terrible nightmare to some,” the group’s fans see it as “a creative artistic endeavor that plays with dark writings and dark cinema.”