The Rolling Stones are Being Sued for Copyright Infringement

March 13, 2023

The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are being sued for copyright infringement over the band’s 2020 track ‘Living In A Ghost Town’. A songwriter called Sergio Garcia Fernandez, who performs under the name Angelslang, claims Jagger and Richards lifted elements of two of his songs from 2006 and 2007.

Fernandez is claiming Jagger and Richards “misappropriated many of the recognisable and key protected elements” of his songs ‘So Sorry‘ and ‘Seed Of God’. Fernandez alleges the “vocal melodies, the chord progressions, the drum beat patterns, the harmonica parts, the electric bass line parts, the tempos, and other key signatures” of ‘So Sorry’ were used by The Rolling Stones, as was the chord progression and melody from ‘Seed Of God’.

The Rolling Stones: ‘Living In A Ghost Town’

Fernandez claims that he gave a CD featuring demos of the tracks to an “immediate” family member of Jagger, who allegedly said the Rolling Stones would be interested in using elements of the tracks. “The immediate family member … confirmed receipt … to the plaintiff via e-mail, and expressed that the musical works of the plaintiff and its style was a sound The Rolling Stones would be interested in using,” Fernandez’s lawyers claimed in court documents filed in New Orleans, as per Billboard. The email was not reproduced by Fernandez’s lawyers.

The Rolling Stones hadn’t responded to the lawsuit at the time of writing.

‘Living In A Ghost Town’ was released in 2020 in the middle of worldwide COVID lockdowns, and was the first piece of original music from the Stones in eight years. It was praised as “their best new song in years” by The Guardian.

The band recently released the live album GRRR Live!, which was recorded in Newark, New Jersey back in 2012 and featured a number of special guests including Lady Gaga and John Mayer.