On “Vietnam War Music,” one of the Spotify playlists where the band’s songs appear, the entire Velvet Sundown discography sits alongside no less than 19 songs by beloved swamp rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival. Stu Cook, CCR’s bassist, doesn’t think the Velvet Sundown does justice to his band’s era of music.

Frelon said he created The Velvet Sundown tracks using the generative-AI tool Suno before posting them on Spotify, where the band now has more than a million monthly listeners. Case settled, then. But apparently not.

A Velvet Sundown X account that’s linked to from the band’s Spotify page messaged Rolling Stone early Thursday morning asking for a correction and reiterating their disavowal of Frelon. “We understand the intrigue our project inspires — and we’re not here to dispel mystery,