Black Keys Pizza Hut: Band Settles Lawsuit Over Song Misuse

Rock band The Black Keys have reached settlements with two companies the band claimed misused its music for promotional purposes.

The Black Keys, made up of vocalist and guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, sued both The Home Depot and Pizza Hut for copying the band's songs and using them in commercial television advertisements without permission.

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The Black Keys claimed that The Home Depot illegally used the song "Lonely Boy," while Pizza Hut pilfered the track "Gold on the Ceiling." Both The Home Depot and Pizza Hut denied copying the songs, which appear on The Black Keys' seventh studio album, "El Camino," which was released in 2011.

And now the band has made an official out of court settlement with Pizza Hut, The Associated Press reported. Attorneys for The Black Keys appeared before a Los Angeles judge on Monday to formally announce that a settlement had been reached.

That marks the end of the song misuse battle, as The Black Keys had previously made an out of court settlement with The Home Depot earlier in November.

Because the settlements were made outside the court system, no details on the agreements have been made public. Neither a representative for The Black Keys nor Stephen Holmes, a spokesman for The Home Depot, offered a comment to The Associated Press about the situation. Representatives for Pizza Hut did not return messages asking for remarks.

Since the release of "El Camino" late last year, The Black Keys have gotten started on their next record. The band ramped up work on the album over the summer, and they're hoping to release it sometime in 2013, though nothing is set in stone, according to Rolling Stone.

"We never know what's going to happen," Auerbach told the magazine. "We don't talk about it. We don't plan it. We start recording, and then all of a sudden, it starts to take shape and we have an idea."