Array
Ed Sheeran said he’d have to be an “idiot” to rip off Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get it On” and then perform it for thousands of fans — growing agitated as he was grilled on the stand Tuesday in a federal lawsuit accusing him of copyright infringement.
The British singer-songwriter attempted to rebuff claims that a video of him performing a mash-up version of Gaye’s 1973 R&B classic and his own Grammy-winning track “Thinking Out Loud” at a 2014 concert amounted to a “confession.”
“If I had done what you are accusing me of doing, I would be quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that,” an irate Sheeran, 32, said in Manhattan federal court.
The “Shape of You” singer had a tense back and forth with Keisha Rice, an attorney for the heirs of the late Ed Townsend — Gaye’s co-writer on the soul track — who filed suit against Sheeran in 2017.
During opening statements, another of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Ben Crump, argued Sheeran made a “confession” when he combined both hit songs during a live performance in Zurich, Switzerland.
