Sheeran was sued by the co-writer of “Let’s Get It On”.
Ed Sheeran picked up his guitar and performed a mash-up of his and Marvin Gaye’s songs while trying to demonstrate how common the four-string progression of the “Thinking Out Loud” hit is.
The small ceremony came Monday as Sheeran continued his testimony in his copyright infringement trial.
Sheeran has been accused of copying the sheet music for “Let’s Get It On” by the family of the song’s late co-writer, Ed Townsend.
Defense attorney Elaine Farkas asked “Did you copy anything from ‘Let’s Get It On’ when you wrote ‘Thinking Out Loud’?”
Sheeran replied, “No.”
“Were you thinking ‘Let’s go,'” Farkas asked.
Sheeran replied, “No.”
He testified that the producers came to refer to “Thinking Out Loud” as Sheeran’s Van Morrison because of the similarities and the influence Sheeran said the singer made in Northern Ireland.
Sheeran also played some of “Thinking Out Loud” on Thursday, the last day of the trial, when he discussed the process of creating it. The song was co-written by singer-songwriter Amy Wedge in February 2014, and he said he heard her play some chords from another part of the house and told her they needed to use it for a song.
This isn’t the first time either man’s music has been at the center of a copyright litigation. Sheeran won a copyright infringement case last year related to “Shape of You,” while Gaye’s heirs, who are not involved in this current lawsuit, won a case in 2015 against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams involving “Got to Give it Up.” .
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