November 23rd, 2005

Many fans recently have written about the use of "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" in a Republican National Committee Video about opposition to the war in Iraq. Steve Winwood was not aware of the RNC's plan to use Traffic's music, nor did he authorize the song's use in any way. We are currently working to have the song removed from the video.

Update:

Around December 23rd 2005, Steve Winwood's legal team received the following letter from the Republican National Committee's Chief Counsel:

"I am in receipt of your letter dated December 9th, 2005 regarding the RNC web video, "Democrats: Dishonest on Iraq" and specifically the musical composition "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys." We regret any inconvenience the use of the composition in the video may have caused your client. As you know, the composition was removed from the video on November 28th, 2005, and we have been assured by our media consultant that this situation will not occur again."

"With these assurances we trust this will satisfy your concerns. However, we respectfully decline to place anything further regarding this video on our website."