Toby Keith has beaten a copyright-infringement rap over his drunkard anthem “I Love This Bar,” which songwriter Michael McCloud claimed was a rip of his “Tourist Town Bar,” because Toby Keith can not be killed by conventional weapons like lawsuits or neutron bombs. Toby was also suprisingly non-assholish in his press statements about the whole affair, like they ripped the evil lizard face off and a sensitive artiste was inside.
“It is an awful thing to be accused wrongfully of copyright infringement,” Keith said in a statement. “It goes to the core of what you are as a man, a singer/songwriter and an artist … I was put in the terrible position of not being able to defend myself until the trial and I just could not wait for that day to come. I knew it would take no time at all for the case to be dismissed and it was, of course, with prejudice which means: He had no case whatsoever.”
Keith’s disputed song has “also spawned I Love This Bar & Grill restaurants in Oklahoma City and Las Vegas,” which is now definitely on my itinerary of “musician-themed restaurants where I can do harm to my body and soul” after eating at a Jimmy Buffet’s Cheeseburger In Paradise a few weekends back. No, I’m not particularly proud.
Toby Keith Infringement Suit Dismissed [Billboard]
Does this mean we can look forward to Amy Winehouse’s Rehab: A Cross-Cultural Dining Experience, Dental Clinic, and Vomitorium?
i gotta say, as much as i might disagree with his politics and such, whenever i hear something by Toby Keith i appreciate that he’s writing (or stealing) country songs that actually sound like country songs instead of the MOR rock songs with a southern accent that seems to pass for country most of the time these days.
Well - poor Midie - you gave it a good shot. “Old gray headed drunk”? I don’t think so. It really is too bad that you can’t patent an idea. From now on,when you’re trying out a new tune, please be sure ol’ Toby ain’t in the audience, ok?
Mer.