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Original Village Person Sues His People For Royalties
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 1, 2011
Modified May 1, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 1, 2011
Modified May 1, 2011
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It's been a confusing year for The Village People: last summer, the YMCA dropped the MCA part, which left the band "deeply dismayed". And now they're being sued, for a second time, by their original "police officer"—Victor Willis is suing his former group for $1.5 million in royalties for writing hits such as "YMCA", "In The Navy" and "Macho Man." Might as well just give in and change the name to The Litigious People.
Willis previously sued the band in 2009, seeking at least $1 million and a court order preventing them from using his image or voice. Willis, who left the group permanently in the '80s, said he was the first one chosen for the Village People by impresario Jacques Morali, a prolific French music producer who started the group: "He said he had this project and he had a dream that I did the lead vocals." Willis was the only member of the touring band, which co-opted downtown gay culture for their imagery, on the first album. He said he was inspired to write "YMCA" after a clueless Morali asked him about why people went to the Y. The lyrics described "what it was like going into a new town and not having a lot of money and needing a place to stay," he said.
Even though Willis says he wrote most of the bands lyrics for those huge hits, it continued on after he left; the manufactured "band" continues to this day with a mostly different lineup, which he claims is illegally replicating his likeness and voice. At the same time, Willis is still shocked by the group's popularity to this day: "I had no idea it was going to be like it is. I still don't really know what it is that people get so carried away with." Obviously he's never heard the Village People hoedown:
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the village people
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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