Red Hot Chili Peppers rip off Tom Petty on first single

NY POST...PAGE 6

June 1, 2006 -- ARE the Red Hot Chili Peppers really stone-cold
copycats? The Peppers have just come out with a huge new album,
"Stadium Arcadium," but its success is marred by insiders' charges that
the CD's hit single is uncomfortably similar to a Tom Petty hit from
the '90s.

"The single 'Dani California' [currently No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100
chart] is a huge hit - but there is a major problem," one source
claimed. "The song has the same chord progression, melody and tempo of
Petty's 'Mary Jane's Last Dance.' The song even has a similar lyrical
theme."

"Dani California" starts off: "Gettin' born in the state of Mississippi
/ Poppa was a copper and her momma was a hippie / In Alabama she was
swinging hammer," while "Mary Jane's Last Dance" goes: "She grew up in
a Indiana town / Had a good-lookin' mama who never was around / But she
grew up tall and she grew up right / With them Indiana boys on an
Indiana night."

Our source said, "Tom Petty was made aware of this and is looking into
legal ramifications. The Chili Peppers could be facing a huge
plagiarism lawsuit - which is a major problem for Warners. Both bands
are on the Warner Bros. label. If Tom sues, the album, which is
Warner's biggest hit of the year, would have to be pulled from shelves
pending litigation."

Petty's rep, Heidi Robinson, said: "I am well aware of this situation.
[The two songs] certainly do sound similar, don't they? I guess
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Tom doesn't have a comment
on this at all. I have no idea if he is going to sue the Chili Peppers,
and am not prepared to make a comment on that."

Chili Peppers' rep Liz Rosenberg referred calls to Warner Bros.
spokesman Link Burland, who said, "This is the first I have heard of
it."

Meanwhile, Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis talked about the album
to Rolling Stone and noted: "Love and women, pregnancies and marriages,
relationship struggles - those are real and profound influences on this
record." Nowhere did he mention Tom Petty.