Nickelback is being sued by Snowblind Revival songwriter Kirk Johnston, who claims Nickelback stole their 2005 hit "Rockstar" from his 2001 song "Rock Star". Johnston alleges Nickelback had access to his demo, which was submitted to Roadrunner Records' parent companies Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, and stole "a substantial amount of the music in 'Rockstar'." Nickelback has now fired back, saying Johnston is dead wrong.
In their answer to Johnston, Nickelback said the two songs sound nothing alike, and that "Johnston failed to identify any specific lyrical similarities between the works at issue; he could only conceivably point to the titles of the two works and 'lyrical themes'. Titles are not protectable by copyright, and their similarity cannot give rise to an infringement claim. Nor does copyright protect the commonplace lyrical theme of imagining being a rock star." The band further states that the two songs aren't even written in the same style and that none of the melodies match up.
Nickelback also called Johnston out on providing no details about his meetings with record labels and the Snowblind Revival demo, adding Johnston failed to give "the names of the record label representatives with whom he allegedly met, where the meetings took place, or even when the meetings took place."
Check the two songs out side by side below.
[via Blabbermouth]
