Singer Ed Sheeran is quitting the music industry — well, not so fast.
He said he will make that move only if he loses the copyright infringement lawsuit he faces, the New York Post reported.
The declaration came during Sheeran’s testimony Monday in a Manhattan courtroom when his attorney, Ilene Farkas, asked what he would do if he lost the case.
“If that happens, I’m done — I’m stopping,” Sheeran said.
The 32-year-old added, “I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish it.”
The lawsuit claims the four-chord progression in Sheeran’s 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud” was swiped from the 1973 Marvin Gaye classic “Let’s Get It On.” He has vehemently denied the claim.
The copyright infringement suit was filed by the wife and descendants of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote Gaye’s hit.
Here is Sheeran’s song:
And Gaye’s R&B classic:
Amy Wadge, Sheeran’s co-writer, testified she believes the song more resembles Van Morrison’s “Have I Told You Lately,” recalling a discussion she had with Sheeran, according to the Post.
“Once we had written and Ed started playing it from the phone, we both said it was a Van [Morrison] song. It had the same sort of feel as a Van Morrison song,” Wadge told jurors.
We might as well add Morrison’s song for comparison’s sake:
Sheeran attempted to prove this in court and grabbed his guitar for a mini-concert. During the set, he performed a mashup of various Morrison songs with the four-cord sequence at the core of the lawsuit.
In addition, the “Shape of You” crooner took aim at Alexander Stewart, a musicologist who testified the two songs are similar.
“If I have to be honest, what he’s doing here is criminal,” Sheeran said.
“I don’t know how he could be an expert,” the singer said. “Obviously, just my opinion here.”
Sheeran isn’t the first artist to be taken to court over one of Gaye’s songs.
Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had a five-year battle that ended with the two having to pay millions as their hit “Blurred Lines” was found to be ripped off from Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up,” NBC News reported.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.