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Bruno Mars Battles Two Lawsuits Alleging That He Stole Songs, While Hanson Want Him To Cover ‘MMMBop’

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 04:05 PST, May 5, 2016

Bruno Mars is being sued for $20 million for allegedly stealing the hit song “Grenade” from an inmate, according to Hollywood Life. Jonathon Puckett claims the 30-year-old singer and Atlantic Records stole his music for the 2010 hit song.

Puckett wants to be compensated with $20 million for allegedly having his song stolen. The inmate claims Bruno Mars stole his song titled “Cry,” which he recorded in 2010, for his hit song “Grenade,” which was released later the same year.

Puckett is currently locked up at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center in Illinois, and it seems that the inmate finds Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” almost identical to his own song, which he claims was stolen by the Grammy-winning singer and his label Atlantic Records. And for that, Puckett wants $20 million.

According to the inmate’s lawsuit filed in the Central District Court of California Western Division last month, Bruno Mars and Atlantic Records are being accused of copyright infringement. Puckett claims that his “Cry” song, which the “Uptown Funk” singer allegedly remastered into “Grenade,” was uploaded to YouTube 13 months before Bruno Mars released “Grenade.”

In addition to that, Puckett claims he even worked with Atlantic Records to release “Cry” under his own name. And he believes Atlantic Records decided to steal the idea of the song and present it to the world as Bruno Mars’ song.

Explaining why it took him over six years to notice the alleged similarity in his “Cry” and Bruno Mars’ “Grenade,” Puckett said he heard “Grenade” for the first time in 2013, because after he got locked up, he embarked on a “spiritual Buddhist journey in which he shunned all electronic media,” according to his lawsuit.

In addition to the music, Puckett also alleges that the lyrics of the two songs are very similar, according to Hollywood Life.

Here are some of the lyrics of Bruno Mars’ “Grenade.”

“I’d catch a grenade for ya
Throw my head on a blade for ya
I’d jump in front of a train for ya
You know I’d do anything for ya”

Here are some of the lyrics of Jonathon Puckett’s “Cry.”

“I cried for you baby but you didn’t hear me
I gave you my all but you didn’t understand
I would have died for you baby but you didn’t feel me
I gave you my heart but you didn’t do the same”

This is the second copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Bruno Mars in the last several months. Just two months ago, a female rap group called The Sequence filed a lawsuit claiming the Grammy winner stole their song titled “Funk You Up” for his 2015 hit “Uptown Funk,” which the singer recorded with Mark Ronson.

Bruno Mars and Ronson won Record of the Year at the 2016 Grammys for that song, which rocked Billboard charts for months after its release.

If Bruno Mars is so good at stealing music from other lesser-known artists, he may be also good at covering songs of other artists. According to Sky News, Hanson, the U.S. pop/rock band comprised of the three Hanson brothers, wants the “Uptown Funk” singer to cover their hit song “MMMBop.”

Speaking to Vulture, one of the brothers, Isaac, said the band wasn’t impressed by the covers made by One Direction and The Vamps, so they think Bruno Mars would be a perfect artist to cover their song.

The problem with the One Direction and The Vamps’ covers was that they didn’t get the chorus part right. But Isaac thinks Bruno Mars would probably “find a way to kill it” if he is interested.

“People can’t sing the chorus right. Most of the time they syncopate it wrong.”

Another Hanson brother, Taylor, said Bruno Mars could bring his own unique way to re-imagine their song “MMMBop.” The band also talked about a deeper meaning behind the lyrics of the song, saying that not many people understood the song’s underlying tone.

But the band’s members remain hopeful that people will eventually realize that the song has much more than it offers on its surface. Maybe it will be Bruno Mars who could truly interpret the song’s meaning through his unique cover.

“That hook is what gets you in, but what’s below that is what keeps you there.”

[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS]

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