Why did Bob Dylan threaten to sue Hootie and the Blowfish?
It was one of the most inescapable songs of the mid-1990s. ‘Only Wanna Be With You’, with its jangle-pop sound and Darius Rucker’s distinctive low-pitched growl, was the perfect calling card for Hootie and the Blowfish. Rucker’s voice recalled some of the most famous grunge singers of the early part of the decade, but the band’s rootsy feel and acoustic instrumentation were more approachable for music fans who found the Seattle sound too dark. Whether you love it or loathe it, ‘Only Wanna Be With You’ could only have been made by one band.
So why does Bob Dylan still get a cheque every time ‘Only Wanna Be With You’ gets a spin or a movie trailer feature? Anyone who’s taken a look at the lyrics can see that Dylan gets a direct mention when Rucker decides to “put on a little Dylan”, and combing through the lyrics even reveals a direct reference to Dylan’s classic Blood on the Tracks song ‘Tangled Up in Blue’. Was that enough to threaten a lawsuit against Hootie and the Blowfish?
Not quite, but borrowing a good chunk of lyrics from ‘Idiot Wind’, another Blood on the Tracks cut certainly was. The lines “I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy / She inherited a million bucks, and when she died it came to me / I can’t help it if I’m lucky” are directly lifted from ‘Idiot Wind’. According to an interview Rucker did with sports radio host Dan Patrick, Dylan’s management was initially fine with the lift when the band originally recorded the song for their 1993 EP Kootchypop. However, after a re-recorded version hit the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995, Dylan’s lawyers came back with an ultimatum.
“It never got to the point where we were sued,” Rucker told Rolling Stone in 2003. “When we first did that song, we sent it to the publishing company, and everything was fine. We played it for years and had a really big hit with it. Then they wanted some money, and they got it.”
Evidently, the Blowfish only had to make a one-time payment to Dylan. VH1 had previously reported the number as being around $350,000, which he received in 1995. It’s not like the band were bleeding money: Cracked Rear View, the song’s parent album, sold seven million copies in 1995 alone and eventually went 21-times platinum. Dylan’s name still doesn’t appear in the writing credits, so after the one-time payment, Hootie and the Blowfish got to keep the rest for themselves.
Check out both ‘I Only Wanna Be With You’ and ‘Idiot Wind’ down below.
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