Ed Sheeran Vows To End His Music Career If Jury Found Guilty Of Plagiaring Ed Townsend’s Classic ‘Let’s Get It On’ ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
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English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is one of the leading musicians in the music industry. He is well-known for singles like “Shape of You’, ‘Castle on the Hill’, ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and many more. However, now the singer is accused of plagiarism by the heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend.
For the unversed, Ed Townsend collaborated with singer Marvin Gaye in 1973 to release the classic ‘Let’s Get It On’. Kathryn Townsend Griffin, the daughter of legendary American singer, claims that Sheeran mimicked the iconic tune during the creation of his 2014 single ‘Thinking Out Loud’, which went to number one.
Kathryn Townsend Griffin claimed there are “striking similarities” between the two tracks and “overt common elements” that violate their copyright, as per UK-based entertainment website Joe. Ed Sheeran, however, denied the claim and assured that if the jury does find him guilty, he will quit with music.
As per the report, the British singer-songwriter’s lawyer revealed that he vowed, “If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping. I find it really insulting to devote my whole life to being a performer and a songwriter and have someone diminish it.”
Kathryn Townsend is asking for $100 million in compensation. A video of Ed Sheeran seamlessly switching between the songs “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On” during a live performance was shown last week by the solicitors for Ed Townsend‘s heirs, who claimed that this amounted to a confession that he had plagiarised the music.
The British singer, however, said that he frequently performs these “mash-ups” with other musicians and that he had in the past combined Van Morrison‘s ‘Crazy Love’ and Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ into one song. He further asserted that when a professional witness for the heirs transposed his music, the chords and melody had been altered to sound more like ‘Let’s Get It On.’
