Ed Sheeran has taken the witness stand at a New York courthouse to defend his hit song Thinking Out Loud in a copyright trial.
The British singer and songwriter, 32, denies that the track ripped off Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend’s soul classic Let’s Get It On, written in 1973.
He was called to testify in the civil trial by the heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer.
The family has accused the English star of violating their copyright, claiming his 2014 hit bore “striking similarities” and “overt common elements” to the famed track.
Sheeran was adamant that he had come up with the song himself, disagreeing at times with the family’s lawyer, Keisha Rice, on the subject of “independent creation”.
In response to video played in the courtroom, which showed the musician segueing on stage between the two songs, Mr Sheeran noted it was very common for musicians to weave other artists’ songs into their live shows.
Earlier in the day, a lawyer for Mr Townsend’s heirs, Ben Crump, had told jurors that the merging of the two songs was the equivalent of “a confession”.
“We have a smoking gun,” he said of the concert footage showing Sheeran flipping between the two songs.
Mr Crump said the case was about “giving credit where credit is due”.
Sheeran looked on as his lawyer, Ilene Farkas, insisted that his client and a co-writer, Amy Wadge, wrote their song independently and did not steal from Townsend and Gaye.
She said they created the heartfelt song without copying Let’s Get It On.
The chord progression and basic building blocks in Sheeran’s song are frequently used, and did not appear first in Let’s Get It On, his lawyer said.
Sheeran compared interchanging the two songs with being able to interchange Let It Be by The Beatles, with No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley, the BBC reported.
“If I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be a quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that,” he told the courtroom, according to the BBC.
Let’s Get It On has been heard in countless films and commercials and garnered hundreds of millions of streams, spins and radio plays since it came out in 1973.
Thinking Out Loud won a Grammy for song of the year in 2016.
The lawsuit was filed in 2017. The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.
Townsend, who also wrote the 1958 R&B hit For Your Love, was a singer, songwriter and lawyer. He died in 2003.
Kathryn Townsend Griffin, his daughter, is leading the lawsuit.
“I think Mr Sheeran is a great artist with a great future,” shesaid. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but I have to protect my father’s legacy.”
