Um, Now Radiohead Have Denied That They’re Suing Lana Del Rey

Radiohead’s management have publicly denied that they’re involved in a lawsuit with Lana Del Rey, just days after the US singer announced the legal action via Twitter.

Over the weekend, Del Rey wrote on Twitter that she was being sued by the band over alleged similarities between her 2017 song ‘Get Free’ and Radiohead’s 1992 track ‘Creep’ — which, as we examined on Monday, do sound very similar.

“Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by ‘Creep’, Radiohead feel it was and want 100 percent of the publishing,” Del Rey wrote. “I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.”

But now in a statement issued to Pitchfork, Radiohead’s publishers at Warner/Chappell have flatly denied that any lawsuit is underway, and also refuted Del Rey’s claims that the band are asking for 100 percent of the publishing of ‘Get Free’.

“As Radiohead’s music publisher, it’s true that we’ve been in discussions since August of last year with Lana Del Rey’s representatives,” they said.

“It’s clear that the verses of ‘Get Free’ use musical elements found in the verses of ‘Creep’ and we’ve requested that this be acknowledged in favour of all writers of ‘Creep’. To set the record straight, no lawsuit has been issued and Radiohead have not said they “will only accept 100 percent” of the publishing of ‘Get Free’.”

Lana Del Rey or her management have yet to respond.

Funnily enough, Radiohead themselves were sued after the release of ‘Creep’ back in the early ’90s, over claims that the songwriting copied parts of The Hollies’ 1974 track ‘The Air That I Breathe‘. They settled the case out of court, with the band giving a percentage of publishing royalties to Hollies’ songwriters Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.

You can compare the similarities between the two tracks below.