The Rolling Stones have recently been sued for allegedly basing the band’s 2020 standalone single ‘Living in a Ghost Town’ on two of songwriter Sergio Garcia Fernandez, who performs under the name Angelslang‘s own compositions.
In court documents filed in New Orleans, Fernandez claimed that the Stones piece was based on ‘So Sorry’ and ‘Seed of God,’ written by the songwriter in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The musician also claimed that he had given a demo CD of the songs to one of Jagger’s family members, and he had gotten a hold of the disc and heard the tracks.
The court files also revealed that Fernandez revealed that ‘Living In A Ghost Town’ had taken vocal melodies, tempos, and several other signature parts from his track ‘So Sorry’ and had implemented and misappropriated into their track without consent.
When the track was released in 2020 during the pandemic, which was such an unprecedented time, Jagger revealed that his favorite track was completed in isolation as they had started recording it before the lockdowns.
Sergio Garcia Fernandez’s claims against The Rolling Stones read:
“[Rolling Stones] misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements [of two of own compositions – 2006’s ‘So Sorry’ and the following year’s ‘Seed of God’ – for ‘Living In A Ghost Town.’]”
Mick Jagger’s words at the time about the tracks read:
“So the Stones were in the studio recording some new material before the lockdown, and there was one song we thought would resonate through the times that we’re living in right now.”
After they completed the track, it was not only the band’s first release of original material in eight years but also the perfect message they wanted to spread during the challenging time for the world. The Rolling Stones have not yet responded to the lawsuit, so their next move regarding the court files remains unknown. We’ll have to wait and see what comes from it for both parties.
