JOE SATRIANI Talks About Being 'Ripped Off' By COLDPLAY

December 8, 2008

Legendary rock guitarist Joe Satriani has spoken to MusicRadar.com about his decision to sue COLDPLAY, accusing the Grammy-nominated stars of plagiarizing one of his songs.

According to Reuters, Satriani's copyright infringement suit, filed on Thursday (December 4) in Los Angeles federal court, claims the COLDPLAY song "Viva La Vida" incorporates "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental "If I Could Fly".

The 52-year-old guitar virtuoso is seeking a jury trial, damages and "any and all profits" attributable to the alleged copyright infringement.

Speaking to MusicRadar.com on December 6, Joe Satriani recalled the exact emotion he felt when he first heard COLDPLAY's "Viva La Vida".

"The second I heard, I knew... I felt like a dagger went right through my heart. It hurt so much," Satriani said. "The second I heard it, I knew it was [my own] 'If I Could Fly'."

As it turned out, Satriani wasn't the only one who noticed the similarity between "If I Could Fly" and "Viva La Vida".

"Almost immediately, from the minute their song came out, my e-mail box flooded with people going, 'Have you heard this song by COLDPLAY? They ripped you off man,'" he said. "I mean, I couldn't tell you how many e-mails I received.

"Everybody noticed the similarities between the songs. It's pretty obvious. It's as simple as that — when you listen to a song and you say, 'Wow, that's a real rip-off.'"

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).