Frank Ocean insists he's "paying homage" to The Eagles with "American Wedding"

Don Henley of The Eagles stated earlier this week that he was “intimidated” by Frank Ocean’s “American Wedding,” a track which samples the iconic “Hotel California” and threatened Ocean with legal action if he performed the track live again. After Ocean responded that he thought it was “fucking awesome” that Henley threatened to sue, he took to his Tumblr once again last night to address the issue.

“I guess if I play it at Coachella it’ll cost me a couple hundred racks. If I don’t show up to court, it’ll be a judgement against me and will probably show up on my credit report. Oh well. I try to buy my shit cash anyway. They also asked that I release a statement expressing my admiration for Mr.Henley, along with my assistance pulling it off the web as much as possible. Shit’s weird. Ain’t this guy rich as fuck? Why sue the new guy? I didn’t make a dime off that song. I released it for free. If anything I’m paying homage.”

Word from the Henley camp is that The Eagles member didn’t in fact call for legal action but it was his label masters, Warner Music Group, but a spokesperson for Henley insisted the track was illegal and “Frank Ocean did not merely “sample” a portion of the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’; he took the whole master track, plus the song’s existing melody, and replaced the lyrics with his own. This is not creative, let alone “intimidating”.”

We shall wait and see whether the Odd Future member decides to face the music and include “American Wedding” on his next set list. The saga continues.