Back in April we learned that a songwriter named Guy Hobbs was suing Elton John and Bernie Taupin in an Illinois court for allegedly stealing the words to Hobbs’ song ‘Natasha’ for their 1985 hit ‘Nikita.’ TMZ is now reporting that John has filed his legal documents which deny the allegations and request immediate dismissal of the suit.

“The suggestion that the Grammy-Award winning composer/lyricist team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin (w)ould need to copy these commonplace elements from [Hobbs'] lyrics is not only baseless and absurd, but it also misses the essential legal point,” the document contends.

Both tunes are Cold War-era love songs where a Western man falls for a woman living behind the Iron Curtain. Hobbs claimed he wrote ‘Natasha’ in 1982 and sent it to many publishing companies, including John’s Big Pig. The lyrics were inspired by an affair he had with a waitress on a Russian cruise ship. ‘Nikita’ is about an East German border guard. However, ideas cannot be copyrighted.

Hobbes says he waited all these years to file suit because he moved to Africa in 1984 and had not heard the song until returning to America recently.

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