James Blunt Caught in Royalty Battle

Tue, 15 May 2007 12:00:00 ET

James Blunt Caught in Royalty Battle
James Blunt is appealing to London's High Court after royalty payments from his debut album were suspended. A US music producer, Lukas Burton, claims to have worked with Blunt on six of the tracks on 'Back to Bedlam' and has described the songs as being "crude" and "laughable" in their original form.

Burton has now claimed he is entitled to a cut of the album's proceeds and the Performing Rights Society has suspended all royalty payments. The LP has sold over 11 million copies worldwide. The producer - who has also worked with Sir Paul McCartney and Dido - said: "In an unproduced state Blunt's music was crude, occasionally laughably direct and betrayed his relative lack of musicianship."

Blunt and his record label EMI have now issued a writ against Burton at London's High Court. The 33-year-old musician has issued the writ under his real name James Blount. It is pronounced the same way as Blunt, but the 'You're Beautiful' singer changed it as he didn't want fan's to be confused over the pronunciation.