SAN DIEGO — As the lead singer and co-writer of such upbeat disco anthems as “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man” and “In The Navy,” Victor Willis had an enduring impact on pop culture, both straight and gay, young and old.

But Willis, who died Tuesday from what his wife Karen Huff-Willis described on social media as “a short but aggressive illness,” also made an impact beyond disco. The Rancho Santa Fe resident died one day before his 75th birthday.

Willis, a Dallas native who grew up in the Bay Area, appeared in a Las Vegas production of “Hair” in the early 1970s and sat in playing congas at San Francisco performances by such jazz greats as trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Ahmad Jamal. After moving to New York, Willis was cast in the Broadway productions of “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “The River Niger” and “The Wiz.”

In 1978, he co-produced and wrote and arranged much of the music on “Josephine Disco.” The concept album about the pioneering African American singer, dancer and actress Josephine Baker was recorded by his first wife, singer, actress (and future “The Cosby Show” co-star) Phylicia Rashad.

While Willis’ name will always be synonymous with the Village People, the disco group he co-founded in 1977, he also had a major impact offstage. In 2012, thanks to the tireless work of his attorney wife, he prevailed in a precedent-setting San Diego court case that enabled him to terminate his existing Village People contract, because of a 1978 congressional Copyright Act extension, and regain 50% ownership of the songs he co-wrote for the chart-topping group.

“It was a long haul. It took everything I had up until that point. It was almost half a million in legal fees,” Willis said in a 2015 San Diego Union-Tribune interview. He had left music for several decades in the early 1980s and battled drugs before regaining his sobriety, his music and, with them, his career.

“The lesson is: Never give up,” Willis said. “You can’t worry about how long it takes. You have to keep the faith, and — hopefully — it will work out for you. You just have to hang in there. The Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is one of my favorite songs; as long as you stay alive, anything’s possible. Then, you have the chance of working again.”

Two years later, in 2017, Willis reached an out-of-court settlement that enabled him to rejoin the Village People after a 34-year hiatus. Soon after rejoining, he gained control of the group, and — after a complete overhaul of its lineup — became the Village People’s official leader, on stage and off.

One of his most recent high-profile performances with the Village People was Dec. 5 at the FIFA World Cup 2026 Draw Ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025.

In January 2025, Willis announced that the Village People had accepted an invitation to perform at multiple Donald Trump inauguration events that month, including at least one that Trump attended. The group joined a lineup of performers that also included Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.

President Trump is a devoted fan of Village People’s enduring 1978 hit, “Y.M.C.A.,” which has long been synonymous with gay pride. Trump has frequently played and danced to the song at his campaign rallies and at parties at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Village People had previously sent cease-and-desist orders to Trump in a failed attempt to get him to stop playing the song without the group’s permission.

Back in 2020, Willis demanded that Trump stop playing “Y.M.C.A.” at rallies. “I don’t endorse Trump,” he told the BBC at the time. The same year saw “Y.M.C.A.” inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and added to the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress. In 2024, Willis and his wife threatened to sue “each and every” news organization that referred to “Y.M.C.A.” as a “gay anthem.”

“As I’ve said numerous times in the past,” Willis said at the time, “that is a false assumption based on the fact that my (song) writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life.”

The Village People’s 2025 Trump inauguration performances came just two years after Karen-Huff Willis sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump. In it, she threatened legal action over unauthorized performances at Mar-a-Lago by a Village People look-alike tribute act. She contended that such performances could potentially violate federal trademark laws by misleading consumers into thinking the real Village People was performing at Trump’s resort.

But by 2025, after having supported Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential election, Victor Willis had turned the page.

“We know this won’t make some of you happy to hear, but we believe that music is to be performed without regard to politics,” he wrote in a January 2025 social media post announcing his group’s inauguration performances. Our song ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost. Therefore, we believe it’s now time to bring the country together with music.”

Response on social media was swift, with some praising Willis and others taking him to task.

“You can’t put politics aside when it’s those same politics that will strip the LGBTQ, women and others of their rights. You’re not singing at a celebration but a funeral of American values,” wrote Aundaray Guess, the executive director of GIOT Circle, a New York nonprofit dedicated to eliminating all forms of oppression.

In a late 2024 social media post, Willis articulated the advantages of no longer opposing Trump’s unauthorized use of the Village People’s most popular song,” writing “Y.M.C.A. has benefited greatly from use by the President Elect.”

In a social media post, Trump hailed Willis as “a great and happy guy who loved that I used his groups songs at my Rallies… “We will think of Victor everytime YMCA is played and all throughout this July Fourth Holiday Week…”

Willis did not consent to many in-depth interviews. He spoke at length with the Union-Tribune on several occasions. Here are those interview in full.

Victor Willis on life & music, post-Village People

Buoyed by the release of his debut solo album, 36 years after he recorded it, the “Y.M.C.A” singer and co-writer is ready to start a new chapter.

George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune

Aug. 2, 2015

As the key musical force in the Village People in the late 1970s, Victor Willis co-wrote and sang lead vocals on such enduring disco classics as “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man” and “In the Navy.”

As a solo recording artist, however, he is running nearly four decades behind schedule. “Solo Man,” his debut album under his own name, will be released next week — 36 years after he recorded it.

“It’s been a full circle, from doing the Village People to doing my solo album in 1979, to releasing it now,” said Willis, 64, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe with his wife, Karen. “I think this is the perfect time for it to come out.”

Equal parts funk and R&B, with periodic gospel vocal flourishes and disco flavorings, the most inspired moments on “Solo Man” make it a possible contender for “lost classic” status. He is promoting it on his Facebook page, on which he actively adds posts about his career and current events.

Willis shines on “Solo Man” whether belting out the album-opening “Come Go With Me,” showcasing his deep church roots on “Could It Be,” or declaring his artistic independence on “Yes I Can” (which finds him prophetically vowing: “I’m gonna keep on singing, I’m gonna keep on dancing”).

Moreover, in this “old-is-new-again” music era — in which the biggest hit so far this year is Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ retro-fueled “Uptown Funk” — Willis’ belated 1979 album sounds fresh and vital more often than not. This holds true despite (or, perhaps, because of) some sweeping string orchestrations, a Peter Frampton-styled talk box guitar part on “Body Wants To Be Loved” and synth-drum accents on “Krazy ’Bout Your Love.”

Still, the question remains: Why did it take more than 35 years for “Solo Man” to be released?

The reasons include: record industry infighting; lost master tapes; career disenchantment; soul-sapping drug problems; and the time required to litigate (and win) two precedent-setting music copyright court cases, about which more later in this article.

Clean, sober, happy

Released on Willis’ new record label, Harlem West Music Group, “Solo Man” is due in stores Aug. 10. (It is already available on iTunes.) The album’s decades-long gestation is both a cautionary story and a welcome tale of redemption for Willis, the original lead singer and principal lyricist in the Village People (in which he most famously dressed as a policeman).

Born in Texas, Willis grew up singing gospel in his Baptist minister father’s San Francisco church. He soon turned to soul and jazz (“I played congas and sat in with Dizzy Gillespie and Ahmad Jamal,” he proudly recalled) and enrolled at Antioch College, before landing a role in a Las Vegas production of “Hair.” It was a good fit.

“I grew up in Haight-Ashbury,” Willis recalled. “I’d come out of my house to go to the store in the morning, and there were tour buses driving by, with tourists snapping pictures (of hippies). I performed at the Fillmore Auditorium with my high school band, The Ballads, opening for The Temptations. I was 15 and it was exciting. It was a glimpse of what was to be.”

After Hair, Willis moved to New York, where he was cast in Broadway productions of “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “The River Niger” and “The Wiz.” While in “The Wiz,” he met his first wife, future “The Cosby Show” co-star Phylicia Rashad. In 1978, she released her first album, “Josephine Disco,” a concept album about the pioneering African-American singer, dancer and actress Josephine Baker. Willis co-produced the album and wrote and arranged much of it.

Rashad and Willis divorced in 1984. With his days in the Village People behind him, and the master tapes to his solo album nowhere to be found, he began a downward spiral that — off and on — consumed much of the next two decades.

Now clean, sober and happily remarried, he is eager to reclaim a spotlight he once commanded. Willis is doing so by starting almost exactly where he left off, musically speaking, albeit in a music world dramatically changed since disco’s heyday in the 1970s.

“I just got frustrated with the business,” said the press-shy singer and songwriter, who recently sat down for two in-depth Union-Tribune interviews. Cautious at first, Willis gradually opened up about the highs and lows of his career.

“When you first get in (the music business), you’re young and excited about getting in and signing (a contract), and doing anything (asked of you),” he said. “And you later on find out you made all kinds of mistakes, and that people who should have been very honest with you, weren’t, I got very depressed over the years and decided to just drop off the map. So I got into drugs…

“I spent the 1980s and ‘90s, well, I got kind of drugged out. Because I was disappointed with the way things were and got frustrated, and gave up for a bit, and decided I didn’t want to be a part of it. So much had been taken away from me that I just turned to drugs.”

Second marriage a lifesaver

Things finally began to turn around in 2006, after he received court-ordered substance abuse treatment and completed three years of probation.

Willis strongly credits his second wife, Karen, a longtime San Diego resident, with helping turn his life around. They wed in 2006, 10 years after their paths crossed in the Bay Area.

“The first time I met Victor, I asked him: ‘What do you do?’ ” recalled Karen, a non-practicing attorney who heads a nonprofit organization here.

“He said: ‘I’m the original lead singer in the Village People.’ And I said: ‘Yeah, right!’ ”

She laughed, then beamed.

“Victor is a lot more relaxed than when I first met him,” Karen said. “He’s back now, and he’s more like the iconic Victor Willis people know from the Village People. He’s a recording artist again and is no longer rejecting it. He rejected it — for years.”

Willis is eager to reconnect, starting with “Solo Man,” which he made in 1979 as a “farewell” to the Village People. Stifled creatively by the general confines of disco and the group he led specifically, he wanted to strike out on his own to demonstrate his artistic versatility.

“I just felt the ship sinking and I didn’t want to be on it when it went down, because I felt I had a little more life in me,” recalled Willis, who briefly rejoined the Village People in 1982. He will promote “Solo Man” this fall and hopes to mount a tour next year.

“People were taking advantage of what disco was,” he continued, “like with (he sings:) ‘Disco! Disco duck!’ They made a disco song out of anything. At that point, I felt I better get out of there, because it was just a fad. And I didn’t want to be involved with ‘Can’t Stop the Music’ (the Village People-starring 1980 movie, which marked Bruce Jenner’s film debut, flopped at the box office and has the dubious distinction of winning the first Worst Picture Golden Raspberry Award).

“Plus, back then,” Willis continued, “everything in disco was up-tempo — bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp — all quarter-notes. With ‘Solo Man’ I was finally going to let people know I could sing something with a melody, not just staccato, and that I could sing ballads, and R&B, and soul.”

Landmark court cases

As so often happens in the music industry, things quickly went off course.

According to Willis, Village People co-producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo were so angered he was quitting that they refused to let “Solo Man” be released. By the time the two relented, the album’s master tapes had been lost. The tapes did not turn up until 2007, following several years of sleuthing by Willis’ intrepid wife.

Karen Willis also played an essential, behind-the-scenes role in helping her husband mount two San Diego federal court cases. The first was in 2012, the second this March. He prevailed in both landmark cases, which were carefully watched by the music industry for setting precedents regarding artists’ right to terminate their existing contracts after 35 years.

The 2012 case saw Willis regain control over some of the Village People’s most popular songs, which he co-wrote, over the two companies that administered the songs’ publishing rights. He was able to do so after a judge ruled he could terminate his existing Village People contract, because of a 1978 congressional Copyright Act extension.

That extension lengthened the copyright term. It also decreed that artists who had created works early in their career, before they had achieved much success or negotiating power, should benefit from the latter portions of the newly extended term of their contract.

In the latter case, a judge ruled Willis was entitled to 50 percent of the copyrights to “Y.M.C.A.” and more than a dozen other Village People songs he had co-written. Prior to that, he had only been entitled to one-third of the copyrights to those songs, an amount he maintains had been diminished significantly by questionable business practices.

“ ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is still grossing millions, per year — just that one song — globally,” Willis said, with a smile of satisfaction. “It was a long haul. It took everything I had up until that point. It was almost half a million in legal fees.

“The lesson is: Never give up. You can’t worry about how long it takes. You have to keep the faith, and — hopefully — it will work out for you. You just have to hang in there. The Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is one of my favorite songs; as long as you stay alive, anything’s possible. Then, you have the chance of working again.”

Career-making song

Before speaking with Willis, this reporter quizzed a dozen, music-savvy high school students in the Union-Tribune’s 2015 Community Journalism Scholars Program. None of them had heard of the Village People, which still tours in its latest incarnation, with a Willis lookalike on lead vocals. But all of the students were immediately familiar with “Y.M.C.A.”

Willis nodded when these informal survey results were relayed to him.

“Everybody knows ‘Y.M.C.A.’,” he said. “Everywhere I go, people tell me their little children know ‘Y.M.C.A.’ They don’t know Village People, but they know ‘Y.M.C.A.’.”

Willis performs “Y.M.C.A.” and some other Village People hits in his live shows, as befits the original lead singer and co-writer of those songs. Thanks to its signature dance moves, which have been emulated at weddings, arena and stadium sporting events, an educational dance move designed to help young students to follow their directions and help them with their motor coordination by spelling out the letters in the song’s title with their hands.

In 1993, “Y.M.C.A.” was featured in a memorable scene in the movie “Wayne’s World 2.” On 2008, the largest documented mass “Y.M.C.A.” performance took place in El Paso, during halftime of the annual Sun Bowl college football game, with 40,148 fans joining in.

“I learned ‘Y.M.C.A.’ in fifth grade, when I was at a Y.M.C.A. summer camp, but I never asked who it was by. I thought it was catchy and fun,” said Cheyenne Cobb, 16, who will be a senior this fall at Kearny High School of International Business.

“I learned it at sixth grade camp, and they never told us who it was by,” said Maitreyi Koppolu, 17, an incoming senior at Canyon Crest Academy. “I use it now when I babysit. I call it up on YouTube, and the kids think it’s cool that they can do the dance moves.”

A chuckling Willis readily acknowledges he had no idea “Y.M.C.A.” would have such a long shelf life. He is proud of the double entendres he wrote for the lyrics to this and other songs by the Village People. The group was initially marketed to gay listeners, before crossing over to a broad mainstream audience and selling tens of millions of records.

“I enjoyed ‘Y.M.C.A.’ when I (first) listened to it and I thought the recording was perfect,” Willis said. “But as far as how the public would be responding to ‘Y.M.C.A.’ 37 years later, I never had any idea.”

As for the song’s oft-copied dance moves, Willis credits Dick Clark and the audience at Clark’s TV show, “American Bandstand,” for coming up with them.

“We performed ‘Y.M.C.A.’ on ‘Bandstand’,” Willis recalled. “After we finished the song, Dick called me into his office, and said: ‘Hey, Victor, did you notice what the people in the audience were doing (during the song)? I said: ‘No, what?’ So he played it back for me.

“Dick said: ‘What do you think about that? Should you put that in your act? I said: ‘Yeah, I think we’ll have to!’ “

So, thank you Dick Clark?

Willis chuckled.

“Yeah,” he said. “And thank you, ‘American Bandstand’ audience.”

Before the interview concluded, Willis turned his attention back to his album “Solo Man,” which he has already submitted for Grammy Awards consideration. He hopes it will add new luster to his musical legacy and give him an opportunity to connect anew with longtime Village People fans and a new generation of listeners.

“I hope,” Willis said, “to be remembered as that guy who got out of the music business, but never gave up, and came back — came back successfully — and did something for people to smile about.”

Fresh from out-of-court settlement, Victor Willis set to rejoin Village People

George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune

May 30, 2017

An out-of-court settlement reached in New York last week has ended a 10-year-legal battle between original Village People lead singer Victor Willis and Paris-based Scorpio Music and its U.S. affiliate, Can’t Stop Productions.

The out-of-court settlement, which was announced Tuesday, comes on the heels of oral arguments that took place May 11 before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena. A ruling on the appeal could still be made, if the appeal is not withdrawn. But it would have no effect on the binding settlement, which follows a precedent-setting 2012 music copyright case in a San Diego court.

As a result of last week’s settlement, Willis is set to rejoin the Village People. He co-founded the pioneering disco music group — best known for such enduring hits as “Y.M.C.A,” “In the Navy” and “Macho Man” — in 1977. He hopes to begin performing with the group by August, with a new album to follow.

“I’ve come full circle, back to something I started and created 40 years ago with the help of my partners,” Willis said in a Tuesday interview with the Union-Tribune.

Details of last week’s settlement are strictly confidential and he cannot discuss any financial aspects. However, Willis did allow that his decade-long legal battle “cost millions of dollars.” He described the prolonged litigation as “a brutal ordeal” he is elated to finally put behind him.

“If anyone had told me five or 10 years ago that I’d be back in the Village People, I wouldn’t have believed it. But I always had my fingers crossed it would happen,” Willis said Tuesday afternoon from San Diego, where he lives with his wife, Karen, for part of the year.

“I was surprised by the outcome, but it was what I was shooting for — to get my group back and get back on stage.”

Last week’s out-of-court settlement appears to be the final chapter in the legal battle that followed the landmark 2012 ruling in Willis’ favor.

That ruling saw San Diego Judge Barry T. Moskowitz of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California rule for Willis and against the two Scorpio and Can’t Stop, which argued that the lyrics Willis wrote for the Village People’s song were simply “works for hire.”

Moskowitz’s ruling gave Willis between 33 percent and 50 percent ownership of 33 songs he co-wrote for the Village People, including “Y.M.C.A.” and the group’s biggest hits. It came a year before a 1978 amendment to the U.S. Copyright Act, which enables songwriters to reacquire the rights to songs they wrote or co-wrote at least 35 years ago.

The 2012 ruling in Willis’ favor was a landmark victory that established a precedent for other artists — such as Bob Dylan and former San Diegan Tom Waits — who at the time were already taking steps to regain control of their early work.

“This (ruling) is a great thing for songwriters like myself, and all the writers, that are finally going to get some of our works back, especially those of us who gave (the rights) away when we were younger and didn’t know what we were doing,” he told the Union-Tribune at the time.

Willis, 65, was a young man when he teamed up with producers and songwriters Henri Belolo and Jaques Morali in 1977 to create the Village People. Morali died in 1991.

In a written statement issued Tuesday, Belolo said: “Many years ago, Victor, Jacques Morali and I shared a common dream as we sat down to create music celebrating freedom, joy and the silly exuberance of our times.

“On the eve of our 40th anniversary, I’m glad to announce we put our differences aside and I welcome Victor back in the Village People family. I look forward to writing the next page of our story together.”

Willis credits his wife, Karen, for helping him prevail.

“She was very determined to make sure I got back in the Village People,” he said. “She said that this was what she was put on earth to do!”

She agreed, saying: “From the very start I wanted him back where he belonged, as the lead singer of the Village People. It was his group and that is where he belongs. And now that we’ve secured the deal to do so, it will be for the life of his career.

“The Village People is the place where he belongs. When he was taken out of the group, years ago. things went kind of bad for him. But he cleaned himself up and now hes back where it all started. For me, I’m just happy for him.”

Willis, meanwhile, isn’t wasting anytime preparing to once again command center staged with the group that propelled him to international stardom. Unwilling to perfor mto pre-recorded backing tracks, he is putting together a live backing band that will include original Village People drummer Russell Dabney

While it is unclear if the new edition of the group will include any other veteran members, Willis wants to be ready.

“I’m working out extensively, every day, and working on my vocals to make sure I’m in shape,” he said. “I’m losing a lot of weight so I’ll be slim and trim on stage. I look forward to getting back at the helm of doing things with the Village People.

“What you learn in a situation like this is perseverance. You have to not give up. You have to believe and keep going forward with your belief. And, regardless of how strongly it seems things are going in the opposite direction, you just never give up. Things do turn around.”

Village People singer wins precedent-setting copyright case

George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune

May 9, 2012

In the late 1970s, Victor Willis made history as the colorfully attired lead singer and principal lyric writer in the Village People, one of the world’s most successful disco-music groups.

Now, Willis has made history in a more quiet but dramatic way: a San Diego judge has issued a widely watched ruling against two music publishing companies and in favor of Willis’ right to regain control over his work.

The landmark verdict, which could have significant implications for the already struggling music industry, was issued Monday by Judge Barry T. Moskowitz of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Moskowitz rejected arguments by Paris-based Scorpio Music and its U.S. affiliate, Can’t Stop Productions, that the lyrics Willis wrote for “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man” and other hits were simply “works for hire” that Willis wrote as an employee of the company that managed the Village People.

The judge also ruled in favor of Willis invoking a provision of a 1978 amendment to the U.S. Copyright Act. That provision, called “termination rights,” will allow Willis to next year end the 1977 contract he had signed, which essentially gave away most of his rights to the Village People’s songs.

“In terms of importance to songwriters and the amount of money involved, this ranks at the top of the scale,” said Songwriters Guild of America president Rick Carnes, whose 3,500-member association had filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of Willis’ case. “If you think about the effect this might have on the recording industry as a whole, if artists and songwriters begin recapturing (control of) their songs, there will be a tectonic shift.”

As a result of the court ruling, Willis — a San Diego resident from 2005 until last November — can now receive at least one-third ownership of 33 songs he co-wrote for the Village People. Yet, while he is the immediate beneficiary of the ruling, it is expected to have a major impact on the long-struggling music industry.

Indeed, even before Judge Moskowitz’s decision was handed down, such legendary artists as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and former San Diegan Tom Waits had all taken similar steps to claim their termination rights. Other veteran artists, from Bruce Springsteen to The Eagles (whose lead guitarist, Joe Walsh, is a former Encinitas resident) are among those who could also eventually benefit from Monday’s ruling.

“It’s a great day,” Willis said by phone from New York. “This (ruling) is a great thing for songwriters like myself, and all the writers, that are finally going to get some of our works back, especially those of us who gave (the rights) away when we were younger and didn’t know what we were doing.”

Willis filed suit in early 2011, while he was still a San Diego resident, seeking to regain control in 2013 of his share of the songs he co-wrote.

The case was the first to be ruled on under a copyright law that took effect at the start of 1978. That law gives recording artists, songwriters and other music copyright holders the ability — after 35 years has elapsed — to reacquire and administer their works and the licensing rights themselves.

Judge Moskowitz rejected the argument that Willis, as a co-writer of the Village People’s songs, could only seek to reclaim his song copyrights if he acted in unison with the songs’ other co-writers.

According to Brian Caplan, Willis’ New York-based attorney, the ruling could apply to creative artists outside of music.

“The statute applies to any industry, as long as you’re not a ‘worker for hire’,” Kaplan said. “If you’re a writer for a newspaper, you may very well be deemed a ‘worker for hire.’”

Before Monday’s ruling, Willis received between 12 to 20 percent of the royalties for each song he co-wrote. As a result of Monday’s ruling, he could soon begin to receive a royalty rate of 33 percent.

And if Willis can prevail with his ongoing court claim that the Village People songs in question were written by only two people, not three, he could be eligible for half the royalties for each song he co-wrote.

“I knew I wasn’t getting my fair share,” Willis said Tuesday in an exclusive interview. “I decided, after speaking with my wife, that — no matter what — we would just fight it.

“This (ruling) means I’ll finally get some control of the works that I did. Whereas, before, I didn’t have any control of my work whatsoever, and the things I’d done were being controlled by the publishing company. Now that I’ve been given part ownership of my work, the control is partially in my corner.”

Willis, who still performs periodically, is preparing to belatedly release his first solo album. It was recorded more than 30 years ago, following his 1980 departure from the Village People, which he had fronted first in the uniform of a traffic cop and later as a Navy officer.

Stewart L. Levy, an attorney for Can’t Stop Productions and Scorpio Music, downplayed the San Diego court ruling, telling The New York Times the case “is far from over.”

Willis, not surprisingly, is happy to be seen as an artistic crusader.

“We started this fight four or five years ago, and the average artist can’t afford it,” he said “I’ve had to pay legal fees just to get to this point. I’ve had to go through some hard times waiting to get back what is mine… As far as I’m concerned, this is the beginning of me getting back what I deserve.”

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