Elvis Costello has defended Olivia Rodrigo while hitting out at “arrogant” artists who take credit for other people’s work.
The singer recently gave an interview with The Times. There, the interviewer posed whether Costello could sue Rodrigo for her song ‘Brutal’, which appeared on her debut album ‘Sour‘, and its similarities to his own ‘Pump It Up’.
He dismissed the plagiarism accusations as “too silly to talk about”, continuing: “Well, I met Olivia, and she was lovely.
“I said, look, this is just a riff, and how could I be arrogant enough to sue on the basis of originality when my song is based on ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’? Did Bob Dylan sue me? He teased me about it but didn’t sue,” he added. “And did Chuck Berry sue Bob because his song was like ‘Too Much Monkey Business’?”
This is not the first time Costello has defended Rodrigo from plagiarism claims. In 2021, he responded to a tweet saying ‘Brutal’ was “pretty much a direct lift from Elvis Costello”. “This is fine by me,” he wrote, explaining: “It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did.”
He went on to call the idea of suing Rodrigo “ludicrous” in 2024.
Rodrigo notably gave co-writing credits to Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent for her song ‘Deja Vu’, which Rodrigo publicly said was inspired by Swift’s ‘Cruel Summer’.
Swift was also given a writing credit on Rodrigo’s track ‘1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back’, which interpolates a piano riff from Swift’s ‘New Year’s Day’.
The ‘Drop Dead’ singer later said that criticism of the originality of her songwriting was misguided. “I think it’s disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman’s work,” Rodrigo said.
“All music is inspired by each other. Obviously, I write all of my lyrics from my heart and my life first. I came up with the lyrics and the melody for ‘good 4 u’ one morning in the shower.”
She added that “every single artist is inspired by artists who have come before them,” explaining: “It’s sort of a fun, beautiful sharing process. Nothing in music is ever new. There’s four chords in every song. That’s the fun part — trying to make that your own.”
Elsewhere, Olivia Rodrigo says she had an “anxiety attack” before her Glastonbury 2025 headline set.
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