Ed Sheeran calls claims in Marvin Gaye copyright trial ‘really insulting’

NEW YORK – Musician Ed Sheeran told jurors he finds the claim that he stole from a classic Marvin Gaye song really “insulting”, during court testimony that included the British recording artiste

singing, playing the guitar and frequently sparring with a lawyer

for the opposing side.

Heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, claim Sheeran, 32, lifted elements from the 1973 hit for Thinking Out Loud in 2014 and that the singer-songwriter is liable for copyright infringement.

In testimony on Monday, Sheeran played riffs from his songs and those of other songwriters as a trial over the copyright claims entered the second week. Sheeran made clear he thinks the claims are baseless.

The case is being closely watched by the music industry, as a verdict for Townsend could make musicians and their music labels more vulnerable to suit. 

“This sort of stuff is really common in songwriting now,” Sheeran said of the claims. “If you write songs and you’re successful, people come after you.”

Sheeran’s team is trying to prove that any overlap between Thinking Out Loud and Let’s Get It On is just the result of musical “building blocks” – such as chord progressions, rhythm and harmonies – that are available to all musicians and used in countless songs.

The Townsend heirs, who own partial rights to Let’s Get It On, argue the similarities are striking and that Sheeran’s hit was constructed on the musical bones of that enduring American song.

They say they are seeking to protect Townsend’s musical legacy and ensure he gets the credit he deserves.

Townsend died at the age of 74 in 2003. Gaye died aged 44 in 1984.

Sheeran told the jury of four women and three men that he and his frequent collaborator Amy Wadge wrote the song in February 2014. Wadge, who is not named as a defendant in the case, was called to the stand after Sheeran.

Sheeran was frequently combative under cross-examination by Mr Patrick Frank, a lawyer for the Townsend heirs.

The singer seemed particularly irritated by the testimony that had been given by Dr Alexander Stewart, a musicologist who testified as an expert witness for the Townsend heirs.

Dr Stewart testified that the chords in the opening 24 seconds of Thinking Out Loud line up with those in Let’s Get It On. Sheeran said the expert has the chords wrong.

“How would Dr Stewart know?” he asked, in apparent frustration. “Me personally, I knew what I was playing on guitar because it was me playing it on guitar. Does that make sense?”

At times, Sheeran’s side seemed to be making a case that he had cribbed from Van Morrison, a singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland whom Sheeran called “one of the greatest artistes of all time”, rather than from Townsend, someone he said he had not heard of before being sued by the songwriter’s family in 2017. 

Sheeran played bits from the Morrison songs Tupelo Honey and Crazy Love, showing how similar they are to pieces of Thinking Out Loud.

He testified that people at his record label even referred to Thinking Out Loud as “The Van Morrison Song”.

Asked on cross-examination if he had given Morrison a writing credit on the song, he said: “I didn’t credit Van Morrison for Thinking Out Loud because I wrote Thinking Out Loud, not Van Morrison.”

Sheeran testified that a concert mash-up viewed by the jury, in which he transitioned from Thinking Out Loud to Let’s Get It On and back again, shows that many songs can be played together because they share common chord progressions.

A lawyer for the Townsend heirs argued in his opening statement that the mash-up is the “smoking gun” that proves Sheeran copied from Let’s Get It On.

Sheeran testified that he and other artistes frequently play such mash-ups in concert.

“Every now and then, it’s nice to throw in a few curveballs to spice it up a bit,” he said.

During Sheeran’s time on the stand, he was asked how he would feel if the jury decides he copied from Let’s Get It On.

“If that happens, I’m done,” he said. BLOOMBERG