As fans have been coming to the defense of Olivia Rodrigo all week about her allegedly copying a 1994 Hole album cover for her Sour Prom Concert Film, another rocker who people are accusing her of plagiarizing is speaking up.
Rockstar Elvis Costello responded to a fan on Twitter yesterday who claimed Rodrigo bit off Elvis’ 1978 hit “Pump it Up” for her album cut “Brutal,” explaining that it’s just “how rock and roll works.”
“This is fine by me, Billy,” Costello responded. “It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did.”
To further make his point, Elvis used hashtags for the songs “Too Much Monkey Business” by Chuck Berry and “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Bob Dylan, which have some pretty clear similarities, yet Dylan doesn’t get accused as harshly for being influenced as new-school acts like Rodrigo do.
Fans are saying Costello handled the interaction well, just days after Hole’s frontwoman Courtney Love called Rodrigo “rude” for her alleged ode to Love’s 1994 album cover and requested a note and flowers from the pop star.
It’s hard to imagine any of this is getting in the way of Rodrigo’s continued success, though, as the singer’s debut album Sour just found itself back on top of the Billboard 200 this week.
