David Bowie is being sued over a song he recorded 36 years ago. A royalty investigator working for the estate of the late record producer Gus Dudgeon, who died in a car accident three years ago, says Bowie owes the Dudgeon estate a 2% royalty on the song ‘"Space Oddity’ because of his role in creating it. The lawsuit alleges that at the time of the recording Dudgeon was paid a £250 advance against a promise of a 2 per cent cut of the sales – but that that payment has never been made.
Royalty investigator David Morgan says he has been working on the claim since before the producer’s death. Both Dudgeon and his wife were killed in the accident and, with no children, their estate passed to a charity.
Morgan says that the people coordinating the Dudgeon estate have now asked him to continue with the royalties claim: “I was running the claim for him [Dudgeon] and we had opened a dialogue with Bowie and his representatives in New York. We had rather a lot of evidence of the money that we claim was owed to him. Apart from the huge sales of Bowie albums, the single has been on almost every compilation of top hits. I was with Gus the day before he died, and he seemed disappointed. He wanted Bowie to sort it out, and instead we got a letter of rejection from his representatives. I gave him my word that I would not give up..."
Bowie’s people reportedly still dispute the royalties claim, which is worth a reported £5 million.