The Beastie Boys are suing Chili’s parent company for allegedly misusing the song “Sabotage” in an advertisement

NEW YORK – The Beastie Boys are suing the parent company of Chili’s, accusing the restaurant chain of running an advertisement without permission that used the hip-hop trio’s smash hit “Sabotage.”

In a federal court lawsuit filed in New York on Wednesday, the rap group claimed that Brinker International created a Chili’s commercial that used large portions of “Sabotage” and copied the song’s music video.

Brinker International did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. No attorney for Brinker was listed in court records.

“Sabotage” was released in 1994 and became a huge hit for the Beastie Boys. The accompanying music video, in which the three band members appear in a parody of 1970s crime series with wigs, fake moustaches and sunglasses, is one of the most famous in the genre.

The lawsuit accuses Brinker of creating a social media commercial for Chili’s in 2022 that used parts of the song along with a video of three people in 1970s-style costumes stealing ingredients from a Chili’s restaurant.

The lawsuit was filed by surviving Beastie Boys members Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond, as well as the executor of Adam Yauch, a band member who died of cancer in 2012. Yauch had explicitly prohibited the use of his music in advertisements in his will.

In 2014, the Beastie Boys won $1.7 million in a copyright infringement lawsuit against the manufacturer of the Monster Energy drink because the company had used one of the group’s songs without permission.