Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Sue My Chemical Romance Over Hollywood Bowl Uniforms
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have taken My Chemical Romance to court over what the band wore on stage at the Hollywood Bowl.
Pro Silver Star Ltd., the company that owns the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders brand, filed for a temporary restraining order and a temporary injunction against the band on Friday, October 23, according to reporting by TheWrap, TMZ and the New York Post. The filing, made by attorney Alex Spiro, asks a judge to intervene urgently before the band's remaining Hollywood Bowl dates.
The dispute centres on the band's October 21 performance of The Black Parade at the Los Angeles venue. The show was staged as a theatrical production set in a fictional dictatorship, complete with pyrotechnics and simulated gun battles, TheWrap reported. During that performance, female dancers appeared in blue-and-white uniforms closely resembling the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders' costume, the filing says.
According to the legal documents, those performers then took up rifles, joined a staged firefight and were shown being shot before crawling off stage. The filing argues that audience members and social media users mistook the dancers for the real Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and that posts making that mistaken identification continue to circulate online.
The owners say they tried to resolve the matter first. They sent a cease-and-desist letter on October 22, the New York Post reported, but the petition claims the band continued to use the uniforms anyway. It also includes costume comparisons and social media screenshots, in support of the claim that the uniform is a federally registered mark.
Notably, the filing does not ask the band to change its show. Quoted by TheWrap, it states that Silver Star does not ask the defendants to change their setlist, narrative, politics or choreography, or even to stop putting gun-toting performers on stage. Its request is narrower: that the performers simply do not wear the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders uniform while doing it.
That framing matters, because the case is likely to raise questions about where trademark protection ends and artistic expression begins. The New York Post said My Chemical Romance had been contacted for comment. Nothing has yet been decided by a judge, and the claims are allegations, not findings.
Timing is central to the application. The band, made up of Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Mikey Way and Frank Iero, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Black Parade, with further Hollywood Bowl shows scheduled for October 24, 30 and 31. The owners want urgent relief so the disputed uniforms are not used again at those shows.
For fans, the practical question is whether the staging will look different at the next Hollywood Bowl night, even if the music stays the same.