REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Fresh off his eight-year copyright infringement battle, Ed Sheeran—who prevailed in court last week in New York—is just “really glad it’s over.”
During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, the singer reflected on the lawsuit, in which “Let’s Get It On” co-writer Ed Townsend’s heirs alleged that Sheeran ripped off the Marvin Gaye hit with his own song “Thinking Out Loud.” Sheeran stood by his claim in court that had he lost the suit, he would have quit music entirely.
The supposed smoking gun in attorney Benjamin Crump’s case against Sheeran was a 2014 concert where the British singer performed “Thinking Out Loud” and Gaye’s hit as a medley. Crump pointed out in court “how similar the defendant’s song is to ‘Let’s Get It On.’ The melody never changed, the chord progression never changed, the harmony never changed, and the harmonic compositions never changed.”