Zac Brown Sues Ryan Tedder Over Solo Song ‘Nowhere Left to Go’
Zac Brown and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder are in a legal battle over Brown's solo song "Nowhere Left to Go." The Zac Brown Band leader claims the songwriter and producer gave the song's beat away to another artist after Brown and Tedder had been working on the track for months, and is suing for ownership.
According to TMZ, which obtained Brown's legal filing, Brown and Tedder began working on "Nowhere Left to Go" in March of 2018. Brown's lawsuit claims that he and Tedder had an understanding that Brown would have final control of the track, and they'd kept in contact in the year-plus since then.
However, Brown alleges, when he sent Tedder a recording of "Nowhere Left to Go" in June, Tedder told Brown he hadn't realized that he was still working on the song, so he'd given the beat to DJ and producer Diplo for a different track.
Brown's suit notes that Tedder's manager asked him in July to delay the release of "Nowhere Left to Go" until Diplo's song was ready. Instead, Brown dropped the track, as part of his first solo album, The Controversy, at the end of September. In response, Brown says, Tedder submitted a takedown notice that says the song infringes on Tedder's copyrighted beat.
Brown is asking, TMZ reports, for a court to rule that he owns the song. He's also looking for damages.
Brown's The Controversy album arrived on Sept. 27 to less-than-positive reviews from both fans and critics. His band's newest album, The Owl, dropped one week prior, on Sept. 20.
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