'Pants on the Ground' Breakout Star Hires Lawyer
The man whose offbeat “Pants on the Ground” audition during American Idol’s recruiting session in Atlanta became an overnight sensation has hired a lawyer to claim royalty rights from those eager to profit from his performance.
“General” Larry Platt’s performance quickly went viral, showing up on YouTube and spurring a host of remixes and cover performances, also shared on the Internet.
Platt, a self-proclaimed Atlanta civil rights soldier who was 62 when he appeared before the show’s panel of judges, maintains that royalties from his one-hit-wonder belong to him, MyFox Atlanta reports.
The broadcaster reports that within a week of Platt’s American Idol appearance, two registrations for “Pants on the Ground” were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Neither was filed by Platt.
The audition has been viewed more than 5 million times on YouTube. See the video below:
Related coverage:
MyFox Houston: “Is ‘Pants on the Ground’ Lawsuit Likely?”
Daily Beast: “Ripping Off Larry Platt’s ‘Pants’”
MTV: “Is ‘Pants On The Ground’ Not As Original As We Thought?”
