Music

Bill Murray vs. Doobie Brothers: Band demands actor pay to use their music in ads

"We'd almost be OK with it if the shirts weren't so damn ugly."

By

Published on September 24, 2020 10:59PM EDT

doobie bros., Bill Murray — Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images. Inset: Getty Images

Sparking the most unexpected feud of the year, the Doobie Brothers are demanding payment from Bill Murray over the use of their music in the actor's commercial.

The band's lawyer Peter T. Paterno sent a letter to the actor, and it's not your standard legal jargon.

"It seems like the only person who uses our clients' music without permission more than you do is Donald Trump," Paterno write, referencing the numerous musicians who've taken issue with the president's camp's unauthorized use of their music at his rallies.

The letter continued, "This is the part where I'm supposed to cite the United States Copyright Act, excoriate you for not complying with some subparagraph that I'm too lazy to look up and threaten you with eternal damnation for doing so. But you already earned that with those Garfield movies. And you already know you can't use music in ads without paying for it. ... We'd almost be OK with it if the shirts weren't so damn ugly."

Paterno confirmed to EW that he wrote the legal demand, which The Hollywood Reporter's Eriq Gardner tweeted on Thursday. Murray's team sent "an amusing autoresponse," the lawyer told EW.

The Doobie Brothers objected to Murray using their song "Listen to the Music" in a commercial for his William Murray line of golf clothing.

"It's a fine song. I know you agree because you keep using it in ads for your Zero Hucks Given golf shirts. However, given that you haven't paid to use it, maybe you should change the company name to 'Zero Bucks Given,'" Paterno quipped in the letter.

Formed in the '70s, the Doobie Brothers are also known for songs like "Black Water," "What a Fool Believes," "Real Love," and "China Grove."

EW has also reached out to representatives for Murray.

This is apparently one of the "ugly" shirts in question: