a very elucidating Newsweek article:
Jimi, Rest In Peace
by Jeff GilesJanuary 16, 1995
Al Hendrix is crying over little Jimi. It's a drizzling day in a Seattle suburb. The late guitarist's father, 74, is sitting at home on a ratty sofa, cradling a Persian cat. He says lawyers and corporations conned him out of his son's estate. He says he spent his working life as a gardener, making $4,000 a year. He says he's had a stroke and three rounds of open-heart surgery. "I want Jimi's music back," he murmurs. "It belongs to me." Many would argue that point. But Hendrix cuts a poignant figure -- somebody ought to put this guy on a witness stand.
Somebody will. In June, Hendrix will go to court to try to win back the rights to his son's legacy -- a legacy said to be worth about $100 million. It will be an uphill battle. And, even if Hendrix prevails, the war will not be over. James Sundquist, 25, recognized by the Swedish Supreme Court as the guitarist's son, has filed suits to be recognized here as Jimi's rightful heir and to claim damages. What a mess -- and there's one more intriguing character. Paul Allen, a cofounder of MicroSoft and a Hendrix fanatic who's planning a museum for his idol in Seattle, has been bankrolling Al Hendrix's suit, spending some $5 million thus far. "He felt that Al was being screwed," says Hendrix's lawyer, O. Yale Lewis. "He wanted to help." Allen declined to be interviewed for this article, but he has said he first heard Hendrix in high school and thought, "Wow, this is pretty amazing." And it was. Hendrix did things with -- and to -- a guitar that hadn't been done before. His playing was flamboyant and exploratory. He played with his teeth. He lit his guitar on fire. And, of course, he showed up at Woodstock and did what he did to "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Allen has impeccable credentials as a fan, but his motives may not be entirely selfless. Although he previously denied he had a financial interest in the Jimi Hendrix estate, his attorney has acknowledged to Newsweek that the businessman is now negotiating a deal with Al Hendrix. If Hendrix signs the deal -- and if he wins his suit -- Allen's nonprofit museum will be off to an extraordinary start. The museum has sought exclusive rights to exhibit Jimi Hendrix's name and likeness, create and sell merchandise, mount interactive displays, and open a theme restaurant. It has sought these rights for 100 years for free. Hendrix could refuse to sign such a deal, but it remains to be seen if Allen will continue to foot his bills.
Jimi Hendrix died in London in September 1970, overdosing on sleeping pills and choking on vomit. He did not leave a will. Presumed to be the rightful heir, Al Hendrix began selling off various pieces of his son's estate. Hendrix sold rights to Jimi's record catalog to a Panamanian tax shelter called PMSA in 1974, and the rights to his son's likeness wound up at a company called ARM in 1983. (The rights have since changed hands many times.) Hendrix now disowns those deals. He's named his former lawyer Leo Branton Jr. in the lawsuit and accused him of a conflict of interest. "Al does not remember signing those documents," Lewis insists. "Leo would just tell him what to sign. He didn't have any comprehension of what they meant."
Branton, who once represented Angela Davis, is outraged by these accusations. At his office in Los Angeles, the 73-year-old attorney launches into a high-decibel tirade, pausing only long enough to take a call from his old friend Rosa Parks. Branton produces many signed documents containing passages the lawyer believes are quite clear: "Hendrix hereby sells and conveys to PMSA all his right, title, and interest," etc. Hendrix may live in a modest house, but Branton says he has received $4 million from PMSA and ARM. Lewis says Hendrix has taken home only $2 million or so.
Some believe Al Hendrix is simply kicking himself for having sold off his son's legacy too early. At the time of the first deals, the '60s were definitively over and there was little reason to believe thatHendrix's music would rise again. The marketplace was already awash in his albums -- live recordings, basement tapes, reissues -- and none were selling. But then, after Al Hendrix signed the papers he doesn't remember signing, Warner Brothers hired record producer Alan Douglas to oversee the Jimi Hendrix catalog. Douglas pulled some of the posthumous junk off the market. He hired musicians to add backing tracks to unreleased master tapes, creating controversial "new" music. And he released everything carefully. A new generation heard Hendrix songs like "Purple Haze," "Foxy Lady" and "The Wind Cries Mary." Have you ever been Experienced?
Twelve years after his death, Jimi Hendrix won a Grammy for lifetime achievement -- better late than never -- and old and new fans bought 3 million of his albums. More than a million Hendrix records were sold last year; Elvis did only slightly better. MCA bought the rights to the Jimi Hendrix catalog for a staggering $75 million in 1993. Al Hendrix's lawsuit was born in April of that year. Douglas, an aging hippie who stills wears Nehru jackets, is also named in the suit, and he's flabbergasted that his accusers have surfaced so late. "Where have they been all these f---ing years?" he says. "If Al believed he owned this stuff, where the f--- was he?"
Yet no one really blames this lawsuit on Al Hendrix, who looks kindly and feeble in his stained track suit and seems caught up in something larger than himself. Lewis and Allen get less sympathy from the defendants.. "Yale sees this as the case of a lifetime," says Branton. "He's never been bankrolled by a billionaire! Al isn't behind this lawsuit. [Yale] and Paul Allen are the real culprits." Kirk Hallam is an attorney for the companies that sold the music rights to MCA -- companies also named in the suit. "Allen needs the rights for his museum," he says, "and he's financing the lawsuit to get them." Allen's lawyers insist that this is a charitable venture, and that the legal fees will exceed the value of any rights to come the museum's way.
Meanwhile, there's the question of James Sundquist, or "Jimi Jr.," as he calls himself. Al Hendrix has reportedly met Jimi Jr. and sent him postcards and a little money, but Lewis won't let him discuss it. We do know Jimi Jr.'s mother spent the night with the star after a concert in Stockholm in 1969, and raised her son on welfare. Still, in a phone interview from Sweden, the soft-spoken Jimi Jr. insists his motivation isn't financial. "Of course no one turns down money," he says. "But the important thing is that I want to be my father's son. I don't want to be denied."
Jimi Jr. sounds convincing. So does Al Hendrix when he says, "Jimi always said, "Dad, I'm going to be famous.' I said, "Well, hurry up. I'm tired of working'." It may take the courts years to sort out this ugly business -- to figure who's who and who deserves what. Last year, Jimi Jr.'s U.S. attorney threatened to exhume the guitarist's remains to obtain a DNA sample that would establish paternity. It was a grim proposition, but at least we'd have known if Jimi Hendrix was spinning in his grave.
http://www.newsweek.com/1995/01/15/j...-in-peace.html
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