Country singer Nathan Carter has stepped in on a legal row over his hit song Wagon Wheel which saw a Coleraine man up in court after he smashed the windows of a neighbour who played the song repeatedly.
Stephen John Leighton (53) from Coleraine appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court on Tuesday following his less then neighbourly reaction after he had heard the song one too many times.
Leighton told the court that he "snapped" one Sunday night last January when the neighbour played Wagon Wheel over and over. It was reported that Leighton stormed up a communal stairwell in his apartment building shouting: "If I hear Wagon Wheel one more time I'm going to break that stereo" before banging on his neighbour's door and breaking two windows.
Carter has since stepped in and offered the super fan tickets to one of his shows. Speaking on the Anton Savage Show on Today FM earlier today, the country superstar defended his music and said, "It's obviously a pretty serious story but I couldn't help but laugh that someone had been outraged by this song so much that they'd take the law into their own hands.
"But the poor man had his property broken and obviously he's a big fan so I said I must hunt him out and give him a few tickets so we've sorted him out and he's going to come along to the show.
"To be fair, there are probably a lot of people who don't like that song but I know there are a lot of people who do, I'm very lucky about that, but I'd say if you play any song on repeat 24 hours a day it would be annoying."
Nathan himself earlier had make a cheeky reference to the 'front page news' on his Twitter page.
Front page news 🙈😂 pic.twitter.com/1SXX20b0BF
— nathan carter (@iamNATHANCARTER) 17 May 2016
Stephen Leighton's barrister Francis Lafferty said that his client had been subjected to repeated playing of the song "on the night in question and for some time beforehand", and considered it "some sort of psychological torture."
Lafferty claimed that after Leighton had threatened to break his neighbour's stereo, the song was "played more loudly and more repetitively".
Leighton received a suspended prison sentence of four months and was ordered to pay £200 to repair damage caused to his neighbour's windows.
Bob Dylan originally wrote Wagon Wheel but abandoned it half way through. It was later recorded by Old Crow Medicine Show.
Here's a quick reminder of the song. Please play responsibly.
