Derulo is battling accusations he owes credit to guitarist-producer Matthew Spatola for work on the chart-topping song

Jason Derulo took the witness stand in a federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles Thursday and denied claims he stiffed guitarist-producer Matthew Spatola out of writing credit and royalties on his chart-topping hit “Savage Love.”

“Mr. Spatola created nothing on ‘Savage Love,’” Derulo said, asserting that he hired Spatola only as a session musician for two three-hour sessions in April 2020. At the time, Derulo said, he was developing the track from the viral “Laxed” melody and beat by New Zealand artist Jawsh 685, which had surged across social media and fueled an international dance craze early in the pandemic.

Though Spatola testified earlier in the trial that Derulo called him prior to the recording session and specifically invited him to come “create” a new version of the song together, Derulo testified that never happened. The singer told jurors he had never met Spatola before they worked together in April 2020, and if he’d wanted to co-write something with another artist during those sessions, he would have tapped someone he already knew.

“If I don’t know the producer and have never heard their beats, why would I ask them to come and produce a song with me? It makes zero sense. I wouldn’t ask somebody to come and create with me when I have no prior knowledge of what they’ve created,” he said on the stand.

Derulo said it was true that Spatola “played a beautiful guitar, and bass,” but he testified Spatola’s only job on “Savage Love” was to do exactly what Derulo told him. He said the song already had “captivated the world,” and he didn’t want to change it.

“I wanted it to feel like a real piece of music without knocking what Josh did,” Derulo said. “I couldn’t sing right on top of Jawsh’s work because there was a saxophone playing the melody I planned to sing. I needed to create a new bed that felt a little more elevated, a little more expensive.”

During opening statements last week, Spatola’s lawyer scoffed at Derulo’s claim that he dictated the guitar and bass lines he wanted to Spatola during the two sessions.  

“He claimed to sing the guitar parts to Mr. Spatola. He claimed to sing the bassline he wanted him to play. But a big part of the problem for Mr. Derulo is that you cannot sing a guitar chord. The guitar has six strings, and a voice can only sing one note at a time,” Spatola’s lawyer, Thomas Werge, told the panel of four women and five men.

Werge said Spatola wrote a key pre-hook section and helped create the instrumental foundation layered onto the viral “Laxed” beat, taking it to a different level. Spatola was paid $2,000 but never signed away his rights to songwriting credit or royalties, the lawyer said.

In a dueling opening statement, Derulo’s lawyer countered that the singer developed the track over roughly 60 hours of sessions, compared to Spatola’s six hours of work. He said Jawsh 685 was the song’s primary creative force, receiving half of the publishing share, with the rest divided among Derulo and his other collaborators.

Spatola, who testified as the first witness, described his background as a longtime guitarist who shifted into production work. He is seeking a declaration that he is a co-author of the song and entitled to a share of its credit and royalties. If the jury rules in his favor, a second phase of the case would determine any financial damages.

Derulo is set to return to the witness stand on Friday. His cross-examination by Spatola’s legal team is expected early next week, though Derulo is due to attend the Met Gala in New York on Monday.