“I’ve since apologized to him,” the rapper said. Years later, Coolio apologized to Weird Al about the misunderstanding surrounding the spoof. Since parody falls under fair use, “Amish Paradise” was recorded and became a smash hit in 1996. My label told me … they would iron things out-so I proceeded with the recording and finished the album.” But they did it anyway.”Īccording to Yankovic, it was all a misunderstanding: “Two separate people from my label told me that they had personally talked to Coolio … and that he told them that he was OK with the whole parody idea … Halfway into production, my record label told me that Coolio’s management had a problem with the parody, even though Coolio personally was okay with it. CoolioĪlthough Weird Al received permission from Interscope Records to parody “Gangsta’s Paradise,” rapper Coolio didn’t give Yankovic consent to write the parody “Amish Paradise.” After the Grammy Awards in 1995, Coolio spoke out against the parody, saying, “ ain’t with that … I think that my song was too serious … I really … don’t appreciate him desecrating the song like that … his record company asked for my permission, and I said no. Yankovic told the Toronto Sun, “It’s actually quite a coup that I was able to get Led Zeppelin to let me and my band do that little bit of ‘Black Dog’ in ‘Trapped In The Drive-Thru.’ They’re famous for not letting people do anything with their music.” 5. However, Page did allow Weird Al to do an interpolation of “Black Dog” in Yankovic’s “ Trapped in the Drive-Thru,” which is a parody of R. While he’s a big fan of Weird Al’s music, guitarist Jimmy Page declined Yankovic permission to turn Led Zeppelin songs into a polka medley. I haven’t approached him in 20 years,” Yankovic told Access Hollywood in 2014. “The only person who’s consistently said no has been Prince. It wasn’t for lacking of trying: Yankovic tried to do spoofs of “Kiss” and “1999” starting in the 1980s without success. Over the many decades of Weird Al’s career, Prince was the one recording artist who never let him parody one of his songs. He wanted to make sure the image would remain intact.” 3. He doesn’t mind him doing the song, but he didn’t want to change kids’ visual perception on what that image was. In response, Interscope Records spokesman Dennis Dennehy said on Eminem’s behalf, “It’s an important personal piece of music for him, a piece of art. “Eminem was fine with me having the parody on my album but said he was afraid that a Weird Al video might detract from his legacy, that it would somehow make people take him less seriously as an important hip-hop artist,” Yankovic said in an interview. While Eminem gave Weird Al permission to parody the song, the rapper denied him permission to use it as a single or make a music video. The song was a parody of Eminem’s Academy Award-winning song “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile. In 2003, Weird Al intended " Couch Potato" to be the first single off his then-new album, Poodle Hat. Weird Al still plays bits and pieces of the parody song during his live performances, but he has yet to get permission from McCartney to record it. I don’t want to condone the eating of animal flesh.’” But “It wouldn’t work with ‘Tofu Pot Pie.’" “He said, ‘I would love for you to do this, but could you not make it about chicken because I’m a vegetarian. “I wanted to do ‘Chicken Pot Pie,’ and Paul was a good sport,” Yankovic explained. Weird Al wanted to parody the Wings song “Live and Let Die,” but Paul McCartney turned him down. Which means that he has gotten the occasional “no,” as these examples prove. For more than 40 years, "Weird Al" Yankovic has been making hit songs by putting his own, spoofy twist on chart-toppers like “Eat It,” “Like a Surgeon,” “White & Nerdy,” and “Amish Paradise.” While the First Amendment and fair use copyright laws mean that Yankovic doesn’t have to get permission from the original recording artists to record a parody song, out of courtesy and respect he always does.