According to The Hollywood Reporter, Poison have found themselves in a bit of legal heat in Illinois. The 80’s hair metal band is being sued by members of disbanded hair metal band Kid Rocker for plagiarizing songs such as “Talk Dirty To Me,” “I Won’t Forget You,” “Fallen Angel” and “Ride the Wind.”
In a lawsuit filed this past Wednesday (October 19) in Illinois federal court, plaintiffs Billy McCarthy and James Stonich are claiming that guitarist CC DeVille was given studio tapes and shown completed songs during his audition for Kid Rocker in 1984. While Kid Rocker disbanded shortly after, and McCarthy supposedly presented DeVille with songs for another band called Screamin’ Mimis, the lawsuit claims the guitarist stole material from the band that was used in Poison. Now, over 25 years later, the two Kid Rocker members are suing Poison, Capital Records and EMI Music over copyright infringement. And not only are they seeking damages, but they’re also requesting an injunction that prevents Poison from performing the allegedly stolen material.
Unfortunately we can’t seem to find any audio of Kid Rocker’s “Hit and Run” and “Wham Bam Slammin’ Romance,” two songs the suit claims Poison stole from, though we wouldn’t doubt that there’s some similarities between the two band’s sounds. However, he’s the million dollar question: if Poison really did blatantly rip off material from Kid Rocker, then why did the plaintiffs wait 25 years following the release of Look What the Cat Dragged In (Poison’s mega successful debut album, of which two of the songs in question appear on)? Isn’t their attempt at trying to collect on due royalties a little too late?
We’ll have to wait and see if McCarthy and Stonich will be able to get around statutes of limitations, which has been interpreted to limit claims to three years from when infringement is discovered. Who knows, maybe the disbanded Kid Rocker will try and sue Kid Rock over his name if their case against Poison goes well.
