As the lead singer and guitarist of the Guess Who returned to the stage for the first time in decades, the other half of the band has launched a new lawsuit.
In a new complaint against performing rights management firm BMI, The Guess Who founding drummer, Garry Peterson, and founding bassist, James Kale, claim they suffered millions of dollars in losses when lead singer and songwriter Burton Cummings terminated his entire performing rights agreement with BMI.
Cummings owns the publishing rights to the band’s biggest hits, including American Woman, These Eyes, and No Time.
He reportedly took the step of yanking The Guess Who’s songs from the BMI licensing catalogue covering concert venues because he wanted to stop Peterson and Kale staging what he called “fake bullshit shows” using a different singer and guitarist.
In the lawsuit, Peterson and Kale claim they had spent months planning a US tour when they were told by BMI that Cummings had terminated his affiliation agreement “effective immediately”. Peterson and Kale cancelled their shows as a result.
Peterson and Kale now contend that BMI misinterpreted the termination’s effective date. They argue the agreement almost certainly remained in effect during a notice period that had not yet expired, meaning their concerts did not need to be cancelled.
“It’s not just Garry Peterson and Jim Kale who suffered,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer, in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“In some cases, the venues had no time to find substitute acts and went dark. Some promoters lost a lot of money promoting the shows. What happened doesn’t make sense. With most contracts, particularly commercial contracts, you have to give notice.”
Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman launched their Takin’ It Back reunion tour with a show in Ontario on Saturday.
