The Rolling Stones Sued Over ‘Living In A Ghost Town’

March 12, 2023 53 3 5

A songwriter has launched a lawsuit against the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, alleging that the band’s 2020 standalone single “Living in a Ghost Town” was based on two of his own compositions.

In court papers filed in a New Orleans court on Friday (March 12), Sergio Garcia – who performs under the name Angelslang – said the Stones’ track was based on “So Sorry” and “Seed of God,” which he wrote in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Billboard reported that the lawsuit said Jagger and Richards had “misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements” from the older songs, adding that those elements included “vocal melodies, the chord progressions, the drum beat patterns, the harmonica parts, the electric bass line parts, the tempos, and other key signatures” from “So Sorry” and the “harmonic and chord progression and melody” from “Seed of God.”

How would members of the iconic band have heard those songs, which have less than 1,000 spins on Spotify? Fernandez claims he gave a demo CD to “an immediate family member” of Jagger.

“The immediate family member … confirmed receipt … to the plaintiff via e-mail, and expressed that the musical works of the plaintiff and its style was a sound The Rolling Stones would be interested in using,” Fernandez’s lawyers wrote in Friday’s complaint.

A copy of the alleged email from Jagger’s relative was not included in public filings.

Released at the peak of the COVID-19 shutdowns in April 2020, “Living in a Ghost Town” was the first original material released by the Stones since 2012. The song, a blues-rock tune with reggae influences accompanied by a COVID-themed video, reached No. 3 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in May 2020.