Prince
Earlier this week, a new EP of unreleased Prince tracks was announced, titled Deliverance. The title track was released digitally on Tuesday night. However, on Wednesday it was revealed that Prince’s estate and Paisley Park had filed a lawsuit against engineer George Ian Boxill for control of the six tracks on the EP. The songs were reportedly recorded and co-written with Boxill in 2006.
It was unclear what would happen with the EP, which was slated to arrive tomorrow (4/21), the anniversary of the music icon’s death. However, TMZ reports that Deliverance will not be released after a federal judge granted a restraining order and has been blocked by the lawsuit from Prince’s estate. Listings for the EP and the song “Deliverance” itself vanished from iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Google Play on Wednesday evening.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, the court said that Boxill has no right to distribute the Deliverance tracks thanks to a confidentiality agreement he’d signed with Prince back in 2006. The agreement stated that Boxill would not use any recordings in any way and would return them to Prince “immediately upon request.” The suit requires Boxill to return “any and all masters, copies and reproductions” of the songs.
