Evel Knievel sues rapper Kanye West over music video

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | 2:59 PM ET

CBC Arts

Retired motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has filed a lawsuit against Kanye West over a music video featuring the hit rapper as a character named Evel Kanyevel who attempts to jump over a canyon while riding a rocket-powered motorcycle.

Knievel, 68, filed the lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court in Tampa, Fla., on Monday, alleging the more than five-minute music video for Touch the Sky infringes on his trademark name and likeness.

Evel Knievel, seen here in May 2006, is suing Kanye West, a.k.a. Evel Kanyevel, for trademark infringement.
(Chris O'Meara/Associated Press)

The daredevil icon, whose real name is Robert Craig Knievel Jr., called the video "vulgar and offensive," and said the rapper "uses my image to catapult himself on the public."

The lawsuit seeks damages and a halt to further distribution of the video, which had its debut in February.

In the video, which also stars Canadian actress Pamela Anderson, West is dressed in a star-studded jumpsuit — reminiscent of the one Knievel wore during his stunt motorcycle jumps — and attempts a jump across a canyon.

The lawsuit alleges that even the vehicle used in the video is "visually indistinguishable" from the one Knievel used in his Snake River Canyon jump in 1974.

Knievel, who has been in poor health in the last few years, rose to fame in the late 1960s as a touring motorcycle stunt rider. The former salesman and fervent self-promoter was as renowned for his daring jumps as for his spectacular crashes and broken bones.

Famous attempts included the New Year's Day 1968 jump across the fountains in front of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas — a stunt that left Knievel in a coma for a month — and a jump over 13 buses at London's Wembley Stadium in 1975, when he broke his pelvis.

During the Snake River Canyon jump, Knievel's parachute deployed before he cleared the launch ramp. Although the chute carried the daredevil into the canyon, he was left with only minor injuries.

West had no comment about the lawsuit, which also names Roc-A-Fella Records, AOL and the video's director, Chris Milk. Milk's previous work includes directing West's videos for Jesus Walks and All Falls Down.

No stranger to attention-getting outbursts himself, West made a scene last month at the MTV Europe Awards when Touch the Sky lost in the best video category.

"Best video should have been mine. I should have won," West said after storming the stage in protest.

"It cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons."