Coca-Cola Faces Lawsuit For Allegedly Using Johnny Cash Soundalike In College Football Commercial

Country music icon Johnny Cash died back in 2003, but now, 22 years later, his estate is about to throw down in court with one of the biggest soft drink companies on the planet.

The reason? An ad for Coca-Cola sounds a little too much like the Man in Black.

According to Reuters, the Johnny Cash estate filed a lawsuit this week in a Nashville Federal court alleging that Coke's ad that runs during college football games, called "Fan Work Is Thirsty Work," uses a Johnny Cash tribute singer who sounds "remarkably" like the late country music legend.

If the name of that commercial doesn't ring a bell, the second you see it, you'll be like, "Oh, yeah; I've seen this several thousand times since August."

It's really strange because while I don't think that guy sounds that much like Johnny Cash, I remember thinking the first time I saw it, "Oh, they're going for a Johnny Cash kind of thing," which is probably in itself enough for the Cash estate to pull the pin on a lawsuit.

"Despite capitalizing on the intrinsic value of Johnny Cash's legendary Voice, Coca-Cola never even bothered to ask the trust for a license," the lawsuit reads.

Oops. Allegedly, not giving the Cash folks a call was probably an error in retrospect.

READ: COUNTRY STAR SETS INTERNET ON FIRE WITH INSANE PERFORMANCE OF LEGENDARY ROCK SONG: WATCH

Now, I think we're going to be seeing a zillion lawsuits like this in the years to come, but that mostly has to do with the growing prevalence of AI. In fact, Morgan Freeman recently made it clear that he isn't going to be having any of that nonsense.

But this is an old school version of this, where Coke is accused of getting some guy who kind of sounds like Johnny Cash to belt out a tune, which is kind of refreshing.

No AI, just a guy who honed his Johnny Cash impersonation by singing "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky" while he showers every day of his life.