Metal Anarchy

A number of years ago, Snowblind Revival’s Kirk Johnston ended up filing a lawsuit against Nickelback, after claiming that their hit song “Rockstar” was a rip off of his song “Rock Star.” Now, according to Billboard, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman has officially dismissed the case.

Pitman said the following:

“Stated simply, they do not sound alike, Where both songs evoke similar themes, they are rendered dissimilar through the vivid detail of the original expression in Nickelback’s lyrics.

This includes, for example, any suggestion that the two baseball analogies in Nickelback’s work are evidence that the band copied Johnston’s lyric ‘might buy the Cowboys’ professional football team simply because both are ‘references to sports.’”

He also added that the only similarities were cliches and “outlandish stereotypes and images associated with being a huge, famous, rock star.”

Johnston previously claimed that master recordings of Snowblind Revival’s “Rock Star” and three other songs that were sent to various record labels, including Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, of which Roadrunner Records, Inc. and Warner Chappell Music, Inc., were wholly owned indirect subsidiaries. He also accused these labels of giving Nickelback access to his track before they allegedly plagiarized it.

For their part, Nickelback claimed that “the two songs sound nothing alike” and that Johnston “failed to identify any specific lyrical similarities between the works at issue.” The band also added that he didn’t offer any details regarding “the names of the record label representatives with whom he allegedly met, where the meetings took place, or even when the meetings took place.”