Paul Simon has been called out as the "biggest jerk in the world" by Los Lobos member Steve Berlin. Simon allegedly stole a song from the band while they briefly worked together in the studio years ago, Berlin tells Rock Cellar magazine.
Berlin explains that, as a favor to a label exec, they went into the studio to help Simon, who was going through a rough patch during the mid-1980s. Berlin recalls: "Rather than engage us, Paul would just stare at us like we were animals in a zoo or something."
After getting no work done for a few days, the Lobos began working on their own stuff. At that point, Berlin explains: "We'd been waiting around for two days for Paul to come up with something, but he had nothing. So to have something to do, we just started playing what we thought was our song, when Paul suddenly says, 'Hey that's cool. What is that?' and we said, 'Oh, it's a song we've been working on.'"
To the band's surprise, the song then appeared on Simon's next album Graceland titled "All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints" with all credits for words and music being given to Simon.
When the band demanded an explanation from Simon about the song, Berlin says that Simon called them and unapologetically dared them to do something about the rip off. According to Berlin, Simon said "Sue me. See what happens."
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