Ed Sheeran is stoked that he's finally free from his eight-year copyright infringement battle, revealing he was teetering on the edge of retirement had he lost.
In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, Marvin Gaye’s 'Let’s Get It On' co-writer Ed Townsend’s daughter Kathryn Griffin-Townsend and the Marvin Gaye Estate accused Sheeran of ripping off the Marvin Gaye hit with his own song 'Thinking Out Loud.'
During a recent appearance on ‘The Howard Stern Show’, Ed gave his raw and honest thoughts about the lawsuit.
Had he lost, Sheeran would have quit music entirely.
He said: “It would have meant sitting down to write music and thinking, ‘I can’t use a C chord to a G chord because someone in the ’60s used a C chord to a G chord.’”
“[IT] JUST SUCKS THE FUN OUT OF [SONGWRITING].”
To prove his point, Sheeran pulled out his guitar and played several songs that all rely on the same chord progression as the two songs in question.
Ed played ‘Have I Told You Lately That I Love You,’ ‘People Get Ready,’ ‘You’re Still the One,’ ‘Just Like a Woman,’ and ‘My Girl.’
Sheeran explained the examples could go on and on.
“This is my livelihood, and this is the thing that I’ve worked my entire life to do,” Sheeran told Stern.
He added: “To have someone disbelieve it and diminish it, and just say that you’ve stolen it, I really felt like I had to take a stand and go to it.”
But let’s be real, regardless of the outcome, either way, Ed would have lost. He said, “Because you spend God knows what to win the case, and then you don’t get that back. And if you lose the case, you lose. ... And then there’s also the stain on your reputation.”
All in all, let’s just be glad it’s over for Ed and let’s keep the music pumping!
