Last week, it was reported that Yes had been sued for copyright infringement over "Dare to Know," a song from their 2021 album The Quest. The lawsuit was filed by fellow prog rock musician Riz Story (born Rudolph Zahler), who claimed he was a longtime friend of Jon Davison — the vocalist for Yes since 2012 — after being introduced by late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, with the three of them having briefly played in a band together in their early 20s.
A spokesperson for Yes immediately refuted the copyright claim as "vindictive, defamatory, delusional garbage," but Davison has now opened up about feeling "deeply hurt" by the "frivolous" suit in a lengthy statement posted to the band's website.
"It's hard to put in words how it feels to wake up one day to hear that a person who I thought was a friend has brought not only an utterly fictitious, but also, a defamatory case against me," the singer wrote. "While my initial reaction is to say nothing in the face of these blatant lies and this frivolous lawsuit, I feel I must address the personal slander that has been included within it as I have been so deeply hurt."
Zahler had alleged that Davison and guitarist Steve Howe conspired to lift portions of his song, "Reunion," which was featured in the 2014 indie film A Winter Rose. Davison has now claimed to have never seen Zahler's movie, or heard the song prior to the lawsuit being filed.
"Riz sent me a 2min trailer for A Winter Rose, and out of politeness I congratulated him, but had no interest in seeing the film," the vocalist explained. "Frankly I was turned off by Riz's 'filmmaking' after his first release was borderline pornographic in nature." He also pointed out that "Reunion" isn't even on the film's soundtrack, so he "couldn't have even stumbled across it by accident."
Zahler's filing also purported that he had hired a musicologist, Dr. Lustig, to compare "Dare to Know" and "Reunion," and reported that they had a "pitch similarity of 96 percent, which is extremely high." Davison wrote that the Yes camp had run their own comparison between the two pieces using the "copyright checker tool" on Dr. Lustig's website, "which gave us a significantly lower percentage rating, absolutely nowhere near his own 'expert report'!"
"Riz has always followed my career with Yes closely, and in Sept 2021 he contacted me about our new album, and in Oct 2021, he wrote telling me how much he loved The Quest," the singer wrote. "I'll be honest, it has been really hard reading through the emails, revisiting how I tried to help his career over and over, but at the same time I can hear what I believe to be his frustration that his personal success does not match his own expectations," he continued, explaining that he had fielded requests to put his one-time friend in contact with the band's management and label over the years in Zahler's many attempts to work with Yes.
According to Davison, the group and their lawyer believe that Zahler's claim "has arisen due to the last 12 years of rejection by, as Riz calls them, 'his favourite band ever.'" The vocalist added, "Rather than me 'stealing' this generic piece of music, a piece of music that I have never heard before this lawsuit, it appears that they are trying to 'steal' a credit on our album."
Responding to the singer's statement, Zahler's lawyer, Larry J. Caldwell, said his client "looks forward" to his day in court. "It is unfortunate that Yes continues to respond to Riz Story's compelling copyright infringement lawsuit with ad hominem attacks," Caldwell said [via Rolling Stone]. "The latest is a long diatribe by Jon Davison that is equal parts easily disprovable fiction and self-incriminating admissions."