Members of LA rock group The Knack are suing Run DMC and everyone associated with them over the hip hop group's use of an unlicensed guitar sample from the rockers' 1979 platinum selling hit 'My Sharona'.
Their guitar riff allegedly appeared in Run DMC track 'It's Tricky', and The Knack's Doug Fieger reckons that the sample "is not only the essence of 'My Sharona', it is one of the most recognizable sounds in rock 'n' roll". That doesn't help explain why it has taken until now for the rockers to notice - given that 'It's Tricky' first appeared on Run DMC's 1986 album 'Raising Hell' - but apparently they've only just heard the track for themselves.
Of course, if the court are willing to hear a dispute over the use of a sample twenty years after the fact, then the case could be costly for Run DMC and their record labels, given how many albums 'It's Tricky' has now appeared on. The Knack's lawsuit, filed in California last week, seeks unspecified damages.
Run DMC are yet to comment.