Posted on 12/05/125 by Colin Vassallo
A lawsuit was filed in New York this week accusing WWE, TKO,
John Cena, and others of using an unlicensed sample to
create parts of John Cena’s iconic theme song The Time Is
Now according to Brandon Thurston of POSTWrestling.com.
The lawsuit claims that the horn arrangements which are part
of the intro and outro were stolen from the 1974 cover
recording by Pete Schofield, a Canadian artist who passed
away. The lawsuit was filed by his daughter, Kim, who now
has full copyright to her dad’s music, including the sample
in question.
The horn arrangement is part of Schofield’s instrumental
cover of The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, which she
claims were added to the original song by her father.
Schofield said that in 2017, she reached a settlement with
WWE over the song in the range of $50,000 but now wants more
after she is claiming that the company withheld key
information during negotiations.
John Cena retires from active in-ring competition in just a
week, with one final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event on
December 13 live from Washington, DC.