The estate of Johnny Cash has brought a lawsuit accusing Coca-Cola of illegally hiring a tribute singer to mimic the country legend’s voice in a college football advertisement.
The federal court complaint, filed on Tuesday (Nov. 25) in Nashville, is the first high-profile case to be brought under Tennessee’s recently enacted ELVIS Act. Effective last summer, the novel statute expanded the state’s right of publicity to explicitly protect a person’s voice from nonconsensual exploitation.
The John R. Cash Revocable Trust, which manages the estate of the singer who died in 2003, takes issue with a new song in a Coca-Cola commercial that’s been airing during college football games since August. The lawsuit claims the voice behind the jingle sounds “remarkably” similar to Cash’s signature bass-baritone — and that, in fact, it’s the voice of a professional Cash tribute performer named Shawn Barker.
“Stealing the voice of an artist is theft. It is theft of his integrity, identity and humanity,” wrote a lawyer for the Cash estate, Tim Warnock of Loeb & Loeb. “The trust brings this lawsuit to protect the voice of Johnny Cash — and to send a message that protects the voice of all of the artists whose music enriches our lives.”
According to the lawsuit, the Cash estate regularly licenses out the legendary performer’s intellectual property. For example, his songs “Ragged Old Flag” and “Personal Jesus” have both been featured in Super Bowl telecasts. But the estate says Coca-Cola “never even bothered to ask the trust for a license” before using a voice soundalike in its commercial.
“This case arises from Coca-Cola’s pirating Johnny Cash’s voice in a nationwide advertising campaign to enrich itself — without asking for permission or providing any compensation to the humble man and artist who created the goodwill from which Coca-Cola now profits,” reads the complaint.
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The estate is asking for a court injunction that would take the ad off screens, plus financial damages for Coca-Cola’s alleged violation of Cash’s rights of publicity under the ELVIS Act. Damages are also sought for supposed violations of a Tennessee consumer protection statute and a federal law against false endorsements.
Coca-Cola did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday (Nov. 26). A rep for Barker, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, told Billboard the tribute singer’s team was “thrilled when we were approached to have Shawn sing vocals for this commercial.”
“Shawn Barker has been performing with his Cash tribute ‘The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash’ for over two decades, touring the world sharing his love of Johnny Cash’s music and stories with fans both old and new,” added Barker’s manager, Joey Waterman.
This is the first major lawsuit to take advantage of Tennessee’s new voice protections under the ELVIS Act, short for the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act of 2024. It’s worth noting, though, that there is no allegation of artificial intelligence-powered voice mimicking in the Coca-Cola commercial, which Tennessee lawmakers were vocal about curbing when they expanded the state’s right of publicity law last year.
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Rather, the Cash estate’s lawsuit follows in the footsteps of historic litigation brought by artists over sound-alike singers mimicking their voices. Bette Midler famously sued Ford over a series of commercials featuring impersonator vocals in the 1980s, winning a precedent-setting victory that established voices as protectable rights of publicity in California.
Midler’s case limited these enforcement rights to the commercial advertising context — that is, advertisements that use a celebrity’s likeness to make it appear they’re endorsing a product. This same limitation applies to most laws in the patchwork of state-level publicity rights throughout the United States. However, the newly minted ELVIS Act is different: It expands liability so that one can sue any individual for trampling their publicity rights in Tennessee.
The Cash estate’s Coca-Cola lawsuit stays in the traditional commercial lane. But now that the ELVIS Act is in effect, it’s possible we’ll see more novel right of publicity lawsuits brought over soundalikes in recorded songs.
Rick Astley waded into this area in 2023, before the ELVIS Act was passed, by suing Yung Gravy for mimicking his voice in the rapper’s breakout hit “Betty (Get Money).” That case, which sparked debate about the commercial limits of publicity rights, settled before a judge could rule on its merits.
