Ed Sheeran Denies ‘Smoking Gun’ Claim He Copied Marvin Gaye Song

Ed Sheeran, on trial for allegedly stealing from the Marvin Gaye classic “Let’s Get It On” for his own 2014 hit, told jurors he would be “quite an idiot” to perform the two songs together publicly if the copyright infringement claims against him were true.

Sheeran took the stand in a lawsuit by the heirs of Gaye’s co-author, Ed Townsend, who claim he lifted melody, chord progression, harmonies and rhythm from the older song for his 2014 Grammy-winning “Thinking Out Loud.” Earlier in the day, a lawyer for the Townsends claimed Sheeran’s live performance of a “mashup” of the two ...