Comparing music and song sampling to going “into a museum and paint(ing) a mustache on somebody else’s painting,” Don Henley has accused those who have been sampling his songs without clearance of stealing.

“Anyone who knows anything should know you cannot take a master track of a recording and write another song over the top of it,” he tells Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

“You just can’t do that. You can call it a tribute or whatever you want to call it, but it’s against the law.” Henley told The Telegraph.

He goes on to say that it’s a “problem with some of the younger generation” adding “they don’t understand the concept of intellectual property and copyright.”

Henley was referring to a couple of high-profile incidents where the original recordings of his songs were used without permission.

Two years ago, R&B singer Frank Ocean included a reworked version of the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” titled “American Wedding,” on a mixtape.

And this past February, indie band Okkervill River covered Henley’s ‘The End of the Innocence’ on a mixtape of their own.

“You can’t re-write the lyrics to somebody else’s songs and record it and put it on the Internet,” he offered. “I’m sorry, but it wasn’t an improvement. We were not impressed. So, we simply had our legal team tell them to take it down and they got all huffy about it.”

Before you think his gripes are about a paycheck – think again. For Henley, it’s less about the money and more about creative integrity.

“We work really really hard on our material,” he explained. “We spend months writing it and years recording it.

"You don’t go into a museum and paint a mustache on somebody else’s painting. Nobody would think of doing that.”

 

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