Jury Reaches Verdict in Ed Sheeran Marvin Gaye Copyright Lawsuit
A federal jury found in favor of Ed Sheeran Thursday, deciding that he did not steal parts of Marvin Gaye's 1973 hit "Let's Get It On" when he wrote his own hit, "Thinking Out Loud." The heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote Gaye's hit, accused Sheeran of violating the song's copyright. The trial lasted two weeks and included emotional moments from Sheeran, who warned that he would have to quit music if the verdict was in the Townsend family's favor.
After the jury's verdict was read, Sheeran spoke with the plaintiffs, including Townsend's daughter, for about 10 minutes, reports The Associated Press. He then told reporters outside the New York City courtroom he was "very happy" with the outcome, as it "looks like I'm not going to retire from my day job."
However, Sheeran couldn't completely hide his frustration with the situation. "I am unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all," he read from a prepared statement. Sheeran said he also missed his grandmother's funeral on Wednesday in Ireland because of the case.
During the trial, the Townsends' attorney, Ben Crump, told the jury that Sheeran's onstage medleys of "Let's Get It On" and "Thinking Out Loud" was "smoking gun" proof that the singer lifted from Gaye's hit. When Sheeran testified, he said he usually performs medleys like these to "spice it up a bit" for his audience. Sheeran also told his lawyer, Ilene Farkas, he would be "done" with music if the jury found against him. "I find it to be really insulting," Sheeran said, reports PEOPLE. "I work really hard to be where I'm at."
Amy Wadge, who co-wrote "Thinking Out Loud," testified that they were more influenced by Van Morrison songs, specifically "Have I Told You Lately," than Gaye's music. She said Morrison's song and Sheeran's song include the same chords but in a different key. "It was pretty devastating and pretty frightening because it's something we did not do," she said about being accused of copying "Let's Get It On."
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning filmed before the verdict, Sheeran predicted there will be many more copyright infringement lawsuits involving pop songs because so many use the same four chords. "There's four chords that get used in pop songs and there's however many notes, eight notes or whatever, and there's 60,000 songs released every single day," the singer said. "And if you just think mathematically the likelihood of this song having the same chords as this song ... You are going to get this with every single pop song from now on, like, unless it just stops, which I don't think it does because it's a big money business to take things to court."
Sheeran's legal drama played out at a busy time for him professionally. His newest album - (Subtract) will be released on Friday. He also starts the tour to support the album on Saturday. His Disney+ documentary series Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All was released on Wednesday. Sheeran will also be a guest judge on American Idol Sunday.