Bob Payne
photo by Mark A. Herndon
A recent court case involving Sly Stone (Of Sly & The Family Stone fame) found in his favor, to the tune of $5 million dollars. The case was related to royalties of which Sly said were diverted to the benefit of management and lawyers. The jury in Los Angeles agreed with Sly. He had most recently been living in a van in the Los Angeles area.
Unfortunately, this case is not terribly unique. Black musicians and composers were cheated out of monies due them in many more cases.
Often times, these artists were not particularly schooled in the business dealings of the record companies and management firms. They were just talented men and women that wanted to play music. And, they often came from a poor background with little or no formal education. Along the way, they learned a skill – entertaining through music.
To best put this dilemma into perspective, let’s go back in time. I’m not talking about going back to the Civil War or the turn of the 20th century – I’m talking about only going back to the 60’s and 70’s. I have socks that old. Remember, in those times things were somewhat different than they are in 2015. Black entertainers had to stay at hotels or boarding houses that would accept persons of color. Not many hotels did at that time. They couldn’t even eat at many establishments. In fact, those black performers that traveled with white performers often could not stay or eat with their white counterparts. The white musicians in the band would go to one hotel and the black musicians would go to another.
It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that things slowly started to change. It was 1965 before the right to vote became more legally possible for many blacks with passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Drinking fountains, labeled separately for blacks and whites, existed into the 70’s in many areas.
Now that you are in the right frame of context in time, along comes a black performer, fantastically talented, but poorly educated in the segregated, poor schools of the 50’s or early 60’s. He or she just wants to play music for the masses. He is so good that white folks even come to his concerts and buy his records. Along comes a slick record company exec with a deal. “Sign this 151 page contract and we will make you a ton of money,” they would say. “We will advance you $5000 cash so you can buy something nice. You will get royalties on the songs you write and your record sales. Don’t worry about a thing when it comes to the money, either. We will set you up with a manager and take care of the money for you.”
This young artist is now in high cotton. With a fifty $100 bills burning a hole in his pocket, all he has to do is rely on his manager and record company to account for the money and forward him the balance after some expenses. If he starts to question things a few months down the road, the management folks will give him a few hundred dollars to shut him up, along with an explanation that there are expenses deducted for touring, recording sessions, and management fees. By the time he realizes that the millions he made are going to someone else, he gets another lawyer to look over the contract. Back on page 27 it details expenses the management contract is allowed to deduct. The possible “allowable deductible expenses” carry over to page 28, 29, 30, and 31. Everything from management vehicles, business cards, phone calls, and office space is deducted. A million seller record would be unusual if it made the artist five grand, about just enough to buy a nice car in the sixties or seventies. Quite often, a number one, million-seller record just broke even. Tour expenses were off the hook, too.
To make things even worse, management might even facilitate scoring drugs or alcohol for the artists. That would keep them happy and in a haze. After a ten year career entertaining millions on tour and selling millions of records, the artist would be lucky to have anything but what could fit in to an old van.
In the case of Sly Stone, a jury found that he was systematically defrauded of millions in back royalties. “It was a classic case of Hollywood accounting, but I guess it would have to be called record industry accounting,” said Nick Hornberger of Hornberger Law Corp., the lead attorney for the singer. Whether Sly will ever receive any of that $5 million is debatable. Appeals will take years and he is 71 years old and hasn’t exactly lived a perfectly healthy life. The case needs to be completed no matter how long it takes, as it may open the doors for other artists to get their due. Many black artists have long passed on, but their heirs should and could collect what is rightfully owed the artist.
With not much help from the record companies, one thing we can thank the musicians for accomplishing was helping to slow down discrimination. Along the way, some of those bands with both white and black members refused to stay at hotels or eat at restaurants if the entire band couldn’t do it together. Many of the white entertainers thought of their black band members as just that – fellow band mates. At that point, the hotels and restaurants were looking at losing a lot of business if they didn’t cave into these entertainers’ wishes. Gradually, they began to accept the entire band, although not due to a higher moral compass setting, but rather for the pocketbook.
Way to go, Sly. Maybe you will finally get what is owed to you and hundreds of other black entertainers will also reap the benefits.
Bob Payne grew up in Chattanooga and graduated from Baylor School. He is the Entertainment Editor for the Chattanoogan.com. He pretty much got to eat anywhere he wanted.
Email Bob Payne at davrik2000@yahoo.com or catch him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/davrik2000.