Professor Brian Cox has employed a technique mastered by Taylor Swift to help an emerging music star avoid a huge financial fine.
The particle physics expert, who himself was a member of chart-topping band D:Ream in the 1990s, came to the aid of 24-year-old Sophie May when she tried to sample his voice as featured on a LADbible podcast on one of her songs.
However, when Sophie approached LADbible to request to use clips from the podcast she was told she would need to stump up a fortune for the rights.
When Brian heard of this, he found a way to work around the situation that American chart superstar Taylor would approve of.
Recalling the debacle on Magic FM, Brian told listeners, "(Sophie) had asked them 'Can I use the little clips?' of me saying some things that had inspired her. And they tried to charge her loads of money.
"They said 'It's ours. You'd have to pay.' And it was loads. Thousands of pounds. So I got to hear of this and said 'I'll just re-record it. It's my words.' So I sat in my garage and re-recorded the words exactly as I'd said them on the podcast. And she used them."
Brian added, "They actually apologised later. They said 'Sorry. It was our accounts department. It wasn't us.' They were quite embarrassed about it. But it's a lovely story and I think it's such a beautiful song."
While Brian actively avoided naming the podcast owners during his Magic FM interview, Sophie herself didn't hold back when she praised the physicist for his help by re-posting his radio chat via Instagram alongside a caption stating, "Happy ending to the #ladbible scandal lol. Also biggest thank you to Brian for his very kind words, dream come true."
Taylor has famously been re-recording her first six studio albums after the rights to the original masters of the songs were bought by rival music manager Scooter Braun - with the singer enjoying a huge boost to her earnings as fans have subsequently flocked to buy the updated versions of her old records.
Sophie May's single, titled Brian Cox, is out now.
