[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-37vf5lHmg[/youtube]
Last month, Billy McCarthy and James Stonich of now-defunct 80’s glam rock band Kid Rocker filed a lawsuit against Poison over plagiarizing hit songs like “Talk Dirty To Me,” “I Won’t Forget You,” “Fallen Angel” and “Ride the Wind.” To most people, the plaintiffs’ accusations seem a little outlandish, especially considering that it’s 25 years after the fact. But while Poison have let it be known that they are fighting back, the plaintiffs aren’t running away scared. And now their attorney Daniel J. Voelker claims to have some major evidence in favor of the Kid Rocker band members.
Voelker has released a transcript of a radio interview guitarist CC DeVille did in 1994 with LA’s KIEV, 870 AM. According to the transcript, DeVille admits to McCarthy on the air that he “should have made some money” from Poison. Here’s part of the transcript Voelker released (according to Blabbermouth):
McCarthy [to C.C. DeVille]: “How many albums has POISON sold in their career?”
DeVille: “20 million records.”
McCarthy (jokingly): “I haven’t made 20 thousand dollars in my career yet.”
DeVille: “Let me tell you something, Billy. For that first album, you should have made some money. . . Billy and I used to play in the same band.”
McCarthy: “Yes we did, we played in Screamin’ Mimi’s.”
DeVille: “And it was an excellent band. In fact, we have video tapes of us doing ‘Talk Dirty To Me’.”
Though Voelker claims to have the actual recording of the radio interview and is prepared to submit it to the court as evidence, we could not find any audio of said interview online.
However, we did do a little searching on YouTube, and did find a clip of DeVille and McCarthy’s old band Screamin’ Mimi’s. In the video clip above, the Screamin’ Mimi’s are playing a song that sounds an awful lot like Poison’s big hit “Talk Dirty To Me.” While it’s unclear as to when exactly this video was filmed, it’s safe to assume that it was before DeVille joined Poison. And though the clip doesn’t exactly prove that Poison ripped off the song from McCarthy and Stonich, it does somewhat hint that DeVille had assistance from McCarthy in writing “Talk Dirty To Me.”
Whatever might be the case, this lawsuit is certainly going to drag on in the court room for a while now. Watch the clip of the Screamin’ Mimi’s above and judge for yourself
