There’s an online campaign launched today calling for Eddie Johns, a 70-year-old homeless musician, to be paid for his contribution to Daft Punk’s iconic hit “One More Time.”
Now it’s very easy to jump to conclusions here and think WHAT? Daft Punk hasn’t been paying him royalties? But …it’s not that simple.
You see, according to an LA Times investigation, Eddie signed a contract decades ago which meant his song “More Spell On You” could be repackaged for future use by others. And well, it was.
Little did he know that it would go on to be a Grammy-winning hit for electronic funk duo Daft Punk. And as far as Daft Punk are concerned, they have been paying royalties, to the company who owns the song.
Advertisement
In a statement to the LA Times, reps for the now retired duo say “‘One More Time’ contains extracts of the recording ‘More Spell On You’. Daft Life LTD. is paying royalties twice a year to the producer and owner of ‘More Spell On You’…Per the agreement, it is the duty of the producer of ‘More Spell On You’ to pay (part of such) semiannual payments to Eddie Johns.”
Which leaves lots of questions about where the money has been going and why Eddie hasn’t seen a cent of it.
View this post on Instagram
But the Times article gets to that part too: it turns out French label, GM Musipro, owns the song now and has in fact been receiving royalties. Their founder Georges Mary hadn’t been able to track down Eddie since 1995 but confirms they’re going to “study his file and do the accounts to his credit.”
So there could be some good news on the way for Eddie soon. But until then, Reverend Troy Vaughn, CEO of the Los Angeles Mission is urging all of us to use our platforms to share Eddie’s story and encourage all those involved – the record companies, the musicians, the producers – to make sure Eddie is rightly compensated.
Advertisement
“Eddie currently lives in the shelter system in LA where homelessness is rampant and we are desperate for solutions,” Reverend Vaughn says in a statement.
“Nobody deserves the condition of homelessness, including Eddie. At age 70, he has little money for himself or his family despite recording one of the most popular contemporary songs.”
He adds, “Internet, you know what to do. Let’s make a beautiful 2021 redemption story. Encourage everyone involved to do the right thing and let’s see this happen.”
Let’s go internet!
(Feature Image Credit: DFree/Shutterstock.com)