Elvis Costello won’t be suing Olivia Rodrigo over ‘Brutal’ as “it would be ludicrous”

nme.com:

Elvis Costello has once again spoken out about his decision not to sue Olivia Rodrigo after fans suggested there were similarities between their songs.The ‘Oliver’s Army’ singer first came to Rodrigo’s defence in 2021, after people noticed a similarity between the guitar riff on ‘Brutal’ and that of Costello’s ‘Pump It Up’.

Responding to claims the track was “a direct lift from Elvis Costello”, the artist said, “this is fine by me”.“It’s how rock and roll works.

You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did.”He then made references to ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ by Bob Dylan, which inspired Costello’s ‘Pump It Up’, and Chuck Berry’s ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, which influenced Dylan’s song.Now, he’s once again spoken out about why he didn’t get lawyers involved to try to claim royalties from the track upon its release three years ago.“Now, I did not find any reason to go after them legally for that, because I think it would be ludicrous,” Costello said in a new interview with Vanity Fair. “It’s a shared language of music.

Other people clearly felt differently about other songs on that record.”Costello was referring to Rodrigo’s 2021 debut album ‘Sour‘.