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As the frontman and lead guitarist of The Guess Who stepped back onto the stage together for the first time in decades, a fresh legal fight involving the rest of the group has erupted behind the scenes.
In a newly filed lawsuit against performing rights organisation BMI, founding drummer Garry Peterson and founding bassist James Kale allege they lost millions of dollars after lead singer and songwriter Burton Cummings ended his entire performing rights deal with the company.
Cummings controls the publishing for many of the band’s most famous songs, including American Woman, These Eyes and No Time.
He is said to have removed The Guess Who catalogue from BMI licences covering live venues in an effort to prevent Peterson and Kale from putting on shows which he described as “fake bullshit shows” fronted by an alternative singer and guitarist.
According to the legal filing, Peterson and Kale had spent months organising a US tour before being informed by BMI that Cummings had cancelled his affiliation agreement with immediate effect. As a result, the pair were forced to call off the planned dates.
Peterson and Kale now argue that BMI misunderstood when the termination actually took effect. They claim the agreement should have remained valid during a notice period that had not yet ended, meaning there was no requirement to cancel the concerts.
“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.”
Meanwhile, Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman officially kicked off their Takin’ It Back reunion tour with a performance in Ontario on Saturday.
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