Johnny Depp, Jeff Beck face accusations of stealing lyrics from incarcerated man’s poem

American actor-musician Johnny Depp along with Jeff Beck has been accused of stealing lyrics for their song Sad Motherf***in' Parade. According to Variety, the two stars had lifted the lyrics from the poem, titled “Hobo Ben”, a profane form of Black folk poetry from years past written by a man named Slim Wilson.

For the unknown, the writer of the poem was serving an armed-robbery sentence at Missouri State Penitentiary back in 1964 when he met the folklorist Bruce Jackson who recorded his poetry and toasts- “a comic form of narrative Black folk poetry, akin to hobo balladry”- to include in Jackson’s 1974 book, a collection on the latter artform.

Johnny Depp, Jeff Beck accused of stealing lyrics

The book two years later got transformed into an album Get you’re a**in the Water and Swim Like Me in which Slim performed his works. Several lines from the song appear in Depp and Beck’s Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade, including the title, “I’m raggedy, I know, but I have no stink”, “God bless the lady that’ll buy me a drink”, and “What that funky motherfucker really needs, child is a bath”.

Several lines from the song show striking similarities in Depp and Beck’s Sad Motherf***** Parade, including the title, “I’m raggedy, I know, but I have no stink”, and “God bless the lady that’ll buy me a drink”, and more. The song credits the two stars as the sole songwriters, however, the original authorship of “Hobo Ben”, a literature piece passed on through a competitive oral tradition, will likely be impossible to trace, as well as the copyright owner.

Jackson’s son, Michael Lee Jackson told Rolling Stone, as quoted by Variety that all possible legal options have been explored. “They do not reflect the actual authorship of those lyrics. It’s just not plausible, in my opinion, that Johnny Depp or anybody else could have sat down and crafted those lyrics without almost wholly taking them from some version of my father’s recording and/or book where they appeared,” he said.

Meanwhile, trouble seems to not leave sight of THE Pirates of the Caribbean star. Months after winning the infamous defamation trial against his ex-wife-actor Amber Heard, Johnny Depp's ex-girlfriend Ellen Barkin has made some serious accusations against him. In the unsealed documents, the 68-year-old actor has reportedly revealed that he gave her quaalude (sedative and hypnotic medication) the first time they had sex, adding that the Mortdecai actor was drunk a lot of time and was controlling and abusive.

IMAGE: Instagram/johnnydepp_mexico