Ed Sheeran is in the midst of trial for a lawsuit that claims his song “Thinking Out Loud” rips off the Marvin Gaye classic “Let’s Get It On.” His attorneys have spent the past few months unsuccessfully trying to get the case dismissed, but now, he’s raising the stakes by threatening to quit music entirely if he’s found guilty of copyright infringement.
Per New York Post, when Sheeran’s attorney asked what he’d do if the plaintiffs won the case, he responded: “If that happens, I’m done. I’m stopping… I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish it.”
Sheeran has vehemently insisted that any similarities between his 2014 hit and Gaye’s 1973 song are purely coincidental, and that those similarities were too common to constitute copyright infringement. To drive his point home, he reportedly “belted out various mashups of Van Morrison songs for the courtroom on Monday” during his testimony, which probably did not help him as much as he thought it might.
The federal copyright infringement case was filed back in 2018 by Structured Asset Sales, an entity that owns part of the copyrights of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On.” In September 2022, Judge Louis Stanton decided that Sheeran and Structured Asset Sales would have to argue their points in front of a jury, who would then decide if “Thinking Out Loud” indeed copied “Let’s Get It On.”
Sheeran didn’t appear to address whether or not the verdict would impact his upcoming “Mathematics Tour,” which kicks off this week. The North American run comprises arena gigs as well as a handful of intimate theater shows. Check for seats and deals via StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.
