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Home / Music and sport / Johnny Cash's trust sued Coca-Cola for using a tribute singer who sounds like him
Case file s1649 · Music and sport · 2003
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2003
Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash in a 1979 publicity photo for the CBS Television program The Johnny Cash Spring Special
Johnny Cash. CBS Television. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
12 September 2003
Place
Nashville, Tennessee · United States
Field
country · Music on the timeline
Legal tradition
Tennessee law (ELVIS Act, 2024); US federal court · Common law
Historical event
Tennessee's ELVIS Act, enacted March 2024, protects a performer's voice
Religion
Johnny Cash: Other Christian, Protestant and Anglican (recorded as Baptists on Wikidata; American Christians on Wikipedia)
Member of
The Highwaymen, independent politician (Wikidata)
Music and sportNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Johnny Cash's trust sued Coca-Cola for using a tribute singer who sounds like him

Johnny Cash's publicity rights belong to the John R. Cash Revocable Trust. In August 2025 Coca-Cola began airing "Go the Distance," an ad in its college football campaign. The vocal was sung by Shawn Barker, a professional Johnny Cash tribute performer. The trust says Coca-Cola never asked permission or paid for a license. On 25 November 2025 it sued in federal court in Nashville. The complaint says: "The singing voice in the Infringing Ad is readily identifiable and attributable to Johnny Cash." It relies on Tennessee's ELVIS Act, passed in March 2024 to protect a performer's voice, and does not allege the voice was made with artificial intelligence. It seeks damages, Coca-Cola's profits from the ad and an order stopping it. Trust lawyer Tim Warnock of Loeb & Loeb said: "Stealing the voice of an artist is theft." On 8 May 2026 Coca-Cola filed its answer, denied the claims and asked District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. to dismiss them with prejudice and award it legal fees. As of October 2026 no ruling has been reported†.

What the law took from it

A voice is property after death only where the law says so, and a trust that holds it must sue to keep it.

Sources
  1. fox10phoenix.comPress
  2. musicbusinessworldwide.comPress
  3. americansongwriter.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Johnny Cash's trust sued Coca-Cola for using a tribute singer who sounds like him,” story s1649, https://www.celebrity.estate/johnny-cash-2003, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States