John Legend on Robin Thicke 'Blurred Lines' Verdict: 'Slippery Slope'

John Legend recently expressed concern during the SXSW festival over the precedent the "Blurred Lines" verdict may cause for musicians in the future. He fears the verdict will lead to a "slippery slope."

According to the Associated Press, Legend understands why people hear the similarity between Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give it Up" and Pharrell Williams' and Robin Thicke's 2013 hit "Blurred Lines," but he doesn't entirely agree with the jury's decision.

"You have to be careful when it comes to copyrights, whether just sounding like or feeling like something is enough to say you violated their copyrights," Legend told the Associated Press prior to performing at the SXSW festival. "Because there's a lot of music out there, and there's a lot of things that feel like other things that are influenced by other things. And you don't want to get into that thing where all of us are suing each other all the time because this and that song feels like another song."

He also added, "I think we have to be careful about that, and I'm a little concerned that this verdict might be a slippery slope."

Legend is no stranger to the SXSW festival. At another point in his interview with the Associated Press, he relayed, "I've performed here many times, just different types of events," he said. "There's always something going on. The first time I played here was actually for Starbucks, outside of Starbucks in 2005 for my first album. I've come back for different purposes different years. I've done a show with Kanye here."

The "Lay Me Down" singer, a song he collaborated with Sam Smith on for charity, has been in the game for quite some time. In a recent MTV News interview at SXSW, he shared how he remained persistent in pursuing a music career,

"Music was my life ... it was everything to me, even though I was in school majoring in English," Legend told MTV News. "I was still very focused on music and always finding ways to perform, so that was what set me up to want to become a recording artist. "

Tags

John Legend, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, Blurred Lines, Marvin Gaye