AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – John Legend says he’s concerned that the “Blurred Lines” verdict could set a scary precedent for artists creating music inspired by others.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, the Grammy winner said understands why people say 2013’s biggest hit song by Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke sounds like “Got to Give It Up,” Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit, adding: “I said that when I first heard it, too.”
But he said he doesn’t agree with the jury that determined the performers copied elements of Gaye’s work.
“You have to be careful when it comes to copyrights, whether just sounding like or feeling like something is enough to say you violated their copyrights,” the singer-songwriter told The Associated Press on Saturday before performing at the South by Southwest music festival. “Because there’s a lot of music out there, and there’s a lot of things that feel like other things that are influenced by other things. And you don’t want to get into that thing where all of us are suing each other all the time because this and that song feels like another song.”
Williams, with whom Legend has worked in the past, and Thicke also were ordered to pay nearly $7.4 million to three of Gaye’s children.