Ed Sheeran is currently on trial over claims that he plagiarized from Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud.” The process is surely frustrating for the pop star, and he seems especially peeved by Alexander Stewart, a musicologist who serves as an expert witness for the plaintiffs.
As The New York Times notes, Sheeran took the stand again today (May 1) and criticized Stewart’s previous testimony, “saying that the musicologist had inaccurately rendered his melodies, and demonstrated the difference to the jury.” Sheeran said, “I think what he is doing is criminal. I don’t know why he’s allowed to be an expert.”
Today, Sheeran also “demonstrated his ‘mash-up’ technique, showing how he can segue smoothly between parts of his own songs and others by Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Blackstreet and Van Morrison.”
As for his words about Stewart, Sheeran was referring to his previous testimony when he “argued that in the opening of ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ one of the four chords that Mr. Sheeran plays is similar to the minor one that appears in the same position of the progression throughout ‘Let’s Get It On.’” Sheeran offered a rebuttal to that testimony: “Strumming his guitar, Mr. Sheeran struck the major chord he said he has played at ‘every single gig,’ and then, with a slight grimace, the minor one that Mr. Stewart suggested.”
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.