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Barry White’s estate is suing over allegations that a prominent sample at the heart of Future and Metro Boomin’s chart-topping “Like That” infringes the copyright to a 1973 song by the legendary singer — but they aren’t accusing the stars of any wrongdoing.
In a complaint filed last week in Manhattan federal court, White’s estate claimed that a 1986 hip-hop song called “Everlasting Bass” by the duo Rodney-O (Rodney Oliver) & Joe Cooley stole key elements from White’s 1973 song “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby.”
Attorneys for the White estate say they waited nearly four decades to sue over the song because it was “released prior to the internet and was not widely distributed,” leaving the estate “unaware of the song when it was first released.”
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White’s heirs are certainly aware of “Everlasting” now, and it’s not hard to guess why: The song was heavily sampled in “Like That,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 earlier this year — so prominently that Future and Metro Boomin credited Rodney-O & Joe Cooley as co-writers.
By using an infringing sample, the lawsuit claims that “Like That” also infringes White’s copyrights: “‘Like That’ copies substantial elements of ‘I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Babe’ … including but not limited to the iconic, immediately recognizable bass line,” the estate wrote in its Thursday (Oct. 3) complaint.But crucially, the White estate isn’t accusing Future, Metro Boomin or co-creator Kendrick Lamar of any legal wrongdoing. The lawsuit pins the blame solely on Rodney-O & Joe Cooley, saying they agreed to defend the stars against such accusations when they cleared the sample.
The duo did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.
Released in March as the third single off Future and Metro’s collaborative album We Don’t Trust You, “Like That” reigned at No. 1 for three weeks and spent another 28 weeks on the chart. At the time of its debut, most of the focus was on the lyrics — since the track was one of the early salvos in the diss war between Kendrick and Drake.
But the underlying music featured a sample from “Everlasting Bass,” a classic early hip-hop track that’s also been sampled by Three 6 Mafia, Lil Wayne and E-40. In an April interview with Vibe, Rodney-O said he loved what Future and Metro did with his song.
“It is crazy because the song was big when it came out and for it to be even bigger now all these years later, it’s crazy,” he said. “I heard the song, I knew it was good, but when it comes out and the world hears it how you hear it and react to it the way you reacted to it, that’s confirmation.”
As for White’s song, “Gonna Love You” is one of the legendary singer’s top commercial hits, peaking at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in June 1973 and ultimately spending 18 weeks on the chart.
When Jaclyn Kinnon was seven, she lived more like a roadie than a second grader. Because her mother, Shelley Kinnon, headed the backstage catering for Southern California’s Irvine Meadows (now FivePoint Amphitheatre) from 1988 to 2010, she spent many evenings and weekends helping her mom pamper rock stars. One particular chore later became a rock ‘n’ roll fable.
“I remember my mom tossing me bags of M&Ms and having me pick out all the brown ones for Van Halen,” says Jaclyn. “But I didn’t throw them out — I kept them for myself.”
When it comes to hospitality riders — a list of requests in an artist’s contract fulfilled by promoters or venues — the most famous is Van Halen’s demand for no brown M&Ms in their dressing room. But whether technical, practical or outrageous, the rider is an industry staple. It is also an endless source of fascination, finding its way into pop culture, such as the This Is Spinal Tap character Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest, who complains that the bread provided backstage is a catastrophe because it’s too small for the deli meat. For those of us who live far from the galaxy of stardom, this is an inconceivable world of entitlement and excess. But for those who work in the live music industry, this is their reality.
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Touring may seem like an endless bacchanalia, but it is nonetheless challenging. There are long hours spent on the road and on airplanes, late nights, early mornings, meet-and-greets, energy-zapping performances, sleeping (or not sleeping) in foreign beds, pre-parties, after parties, and unbridled access to all manner of intoxicants. Since ticket sales make up a large portion of an artist’s revenue, ranging from Taylor Swift‘s billion-dollar Eras Tour to throw-everything-in-the-van-and-go indie bands, the industry has developed a set of best practices for how musicians are treated while on the road, and creature comforts, especially for A-list artists, make a big impact on tour. Swift’s humble 2008 tour rider included simple indulgences such as one quart of 2% chocolate milk, one stick of butter, one small jar of dill pickles, and three boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Her Eras Tour version would presumably go further.
Particular types of food and meal preparations are rider staples that offer a respite from drive-thrus, greasy spoons and gas station nachos. While some artists travel with a personal chef, others may expect the venue to provide a fine dining experience.
“For Van Halen and Sammy Hagar back in the ’90s,” says Shelley Kinnon, “they had to have a big, lavish, sit-down dinner in their dressing room. We supplied the dinner, and it was one of the most expensive riders I can remember. In fact, I even hired a chef from the Ritz Carlton to come in.”
Kinnon has seen it all. Her eponymous catering business has decades of experience at venues such as the aforementioned FivePoint Amphitheatre, L.A. Sports Arena and Orange County’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts. She roasted a whole pig for an Ozzfest end-of-tour party. She whipped up a juicy roasted pork loin from a special recipe provided by members of Rush. She supplied many bottles of Cristal. While some of her food requests were easy to fulfill, like Jimmy Buffett‘s three grapefruits, others were more daunting, like finding chicken feet for the Jamaica-based Reggae Sunsplash tour of the early ’90s. Now, most rare food items are more readily available, but 30 years ago when, for example, various British bands would require HP Sauce — a tomato and tamarind condiment as popular as ketchup in the U.K. — she was at a loss.
And then there were drugs — something that was oft requested but always unwritten. Since it was the ’80s, an era that was covered in white dust, it came as no surprise. (And no, Kinnon never provided it.) She also witnessed other high-maintenance requests of which rider lore is made.
“For Michael Jackson at his ’89 L.A. Sports Arena show, they were measuring the table cloths because they had to be a certain length,” she says.”Somebody had to taste all his food before he ate it. We even had to set up a separate dressing room for Bubbles, his [chimpanzee], who was wearing a frickin’ suit.”
As the music industry evolved, so have riders. While artists are still making headlines with their demands — lest we forget Beyoncé‘s alleged 2013 request for over $900 worth of titanium straws, which she needed, according to E! News, for drinking alkaline water — at least some lean toward a more cause-driven purpose.
“Florence and the Machine was a solidly expensive rider — a few thousand dollars,” says Tadia Taylor, who has worked in artist relations, tour and artist management, and event production. “Florence is focused on sustainability so it was important to her that there’s no paper plates, no paper cups, no plastic cutlery. I had to buy stuff like china, glassware and real silverware, but it didn’t bother me because it was coming from a good place. Even though it was expensive, it wasn’t frivolous.
“I actually kept all that stuff and reused it for other events,” she adds.
The rider comes from humble beginnings. In the early ’60s, they were utilitarian, consisting of performance essentials like payment preferences, sound equipment and lighting, which these days is categorized as a technical rider to differentiate it from the hospitality version. Chuck Berry, who traveled with his guitar in hand, asked to be paid in cash upfront or he would not play. (This was used against him when the IRS charged him with tax evasion in 1979.)
Alex Hodges, 82, CEO of Nederlander Concerts, who has represented artists such as The Allman Brothers and Stevie Ray Vaughan, says his first experience with the rider was in Macon, Ga. in the early ’60s when he worked with the now-defunct Walden Artists & Promotions. While still in college, he started managing local bands around 1961 and eventually landed his first big star: Otis Redding.
“Regional bands would tell us stories of the bare dressing room or the lack of equipment or water on the floor,” says Hodges. “The first rider I ever did was probably no more than a page or two. For Otis, it became more essential and technical, just the minimum requirements. And around 1970, when The Allman Brothers came out with their first album, it became a little bit more interesting.”
That is due in large part to John Hartmann, 84, a Canadian-American author, educator and music industry legend who has worked with artists such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the Eagles, and who helped reshape the rider into what it is today — which can now be upwards of 15 pages. And it all began with Perrier.
“We invented the rider,” Hartmann claimed in Michael Walker’s book Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood. “I remember the big thing I wanted was Perrier. I drank Perrier. So I got everybody around me into it, and we ended up putting Perrier on the riders and no one knew what it was and people were sending to France to get it. Those kinds of things crept in as the managers and the artists gained power.”
With Perrier, Hartmann was one of the first to request an indulgence on tour that was something other than technical equipment or a per diem, making venues and promoters scramble to either hunt down or import the bubbly beverage. His request was honored, and later, when the British duo Chad & Jeremy called him with a venue issue, these combined occurrences revealed an opportunity.
“I sent Chad & Jeremy to San Diego to play a concert,” says Hartmann. “When they got down there, they called and said, ‘There’s no PA.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about? It’s a venue, they’ve got a PA,’ and they said, ‘This is the kind of PA a teacher uses to talk to a class. It won’t hold rock and roll.’ That’s when we started, as agents, analyzing this whole need for proper sound and really got into the technical aspects of it all for the first time.”
Eventually, riders began to help artists and managers gain more power. If a rider was fulfilled, it meant the contracts were read. If they weren’t, it meant the artist had the ability to cancel their show. Since promoters and venues needed performers in order to run their businesses, the dynamic shifted from offering the bare minimum to ingratiating artists and management. The demands to elevate the standards of sound and lighting quality quickly became the norm for most venues, allowing artists to fill their riders with other, more personalized, requests. Thus, the hospitality rider (versus the technical rider) was born — and it didn’t take long for artists and managers to catch on.
In essence, riders evolved into binding contractual terms. Hodges once demanded in Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rider — whose last name was frequently misspelled as “Vaughn” on marquees, tickets and posters — that if his last name was misspelled on any marketing materials, the promoter would have to pay the hotel bill for the entire band and crew. As a fond reminder of this, Hodges keeps a framed poster featuring Vaughan’s misprinted name in his office.
“That’s in essence what the rider’s about: To be sure the promoters are given the information they need,” Hodges says. “Some of the funny stuff you put in isn’t necessarily intended to be funny or difficult, it’s to be sure that they read the rider and take it seriously. We’d check everything to see if they spelled the artist’s name right, whether it’s a marquee, dressing room, or on a cake — anything that might let us know they weren’t paying attention.”
“The rider evolved based on the specific interests, needs or whims of the acts, especially as they got bigger,” Hartmann adds. “Those requests became rigid, and eventually no artist performed without a rider. When I went to Europe with the Eagles, America and Crosby and Nash — before Stills — we had unwritten needs. It wasn’t on the rider, but you gotta give us pot or hashish when we crossed the border into your country.”
If there’s anyone who knows about riders based on specific interests and needs, it’s Darrius Washington, who is Steve Aoki‘s tour and production manager. Dubbed the “$30 million DJ” by Forbes in 2019, Aoki is not just known for rattling arenas with his high-energy big room house but also for lobbing cakes at eager audience members.
Known as “Cake Face,” these are not regular store-bought cakes picked up by a production assistant, but rather a particular recipe made by a local baker in each city of the tour. They are so specific that the cakes have their own rider, shared with Billboard, which offers a diagram, dimensions (12×16 inches), ingredients (plain white sponge cake, no chocolate or sprinkles), and the ratio of cake to frosting (25% white sponge cake and 75% whipped cream frosting). The rider also says, “A great test is to see how easily you can stick your finger in the top of the cake. If you have to use force, then the cake is not prepared correctly.” Even the foundation of the cake is explicit and must be made of expanded polystyrene foam board because it is soft and breaks upon impact, avoiding injuries that could be incurred by cardboard or plastic careening at one’s face.
“What most people don’t know about the cake,” Washington explains, “is that it’s all contractual. So if you fuck up our cake rider or your cakes in any way, it’s a $5,000 fee.
“We’re actually refining the rider even further because Steve has mentioned that they are on the lighter side,” Washington adds. “He’s been featured on Barstool Sports for how accurate he is with the cakes, but if you want to continue that accuracy, the cakes have to be a certain weight, a certain size, or else they don’t go as far. So all of these things have to come together to make this perfect cake for throwing.”
According to Washington, they go through about 800 cakes per summer.
Now, some venues go above and beyond the riders, not only fulfilling them in their entirety but organizing customized activations for artists and their entourage. Christy Castillo Butcher, senior vp of programming and booking for SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, believes in the broader definition of hospitality, which is welcoming people into your home.
“You wanna create a comfortable space for them, an inner sanctum to decompress before the show,” Butcher says. “Hospitality riders are key in creating some consistency from venue to venue so the performers know what to expect. From a venue side, it’s really trying to tap into some of the nuances around that. What are some of their favorite things? Is there a specialty coffee or food particular to the artist or crew? Are they fond of a certain tequila?”
From Butcher fabricating a personalized SoFi football helmet for Kenny Chesney to organizing a carne asada cookout during a press conference — complete with a local youth mariachi band — for the Mexican Norteño-banda act Grupo Firme, the rider continues to evolve via the venues and the artists themselves.
“With the rider, the power went from the criminal conspiracy known as the record business to the artist and managers,” says Hartmann with a laugh. “The rider is now an institution. The ridiculousness is unlimited and it’s up to the artist — what are they not ashamed to ask for? Well, most of the time it doesn’t matter and they’ll just ask for it anyway.”
Concord is raising $850 million through an existing asset-backed security (ABS), according to a new report by Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA). These new notes are the third series of notes of a $2.6 billion ABS. The proceeds will be used to acquire approximately $217 million of assets that will be contributed to the ABS’s collateral […]
Renowned U.K.-born singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae has signed with Independent Artist Group (IAG) for exclusive representation across North America. Managed by Anthony Patterson and Taylor Cottrell at Roc Nation, the six-time Grammy Award-nominated artist now joins the ranks of IAG’s R&B roster, which includes legends like Mary J. Blige, Ne-Yo and Keyshia Cole. Since her […]
Attorneys for Garth Brooks publicly disclosed the name of a woman who sued the country star for sexual assault last week in new court filings, drawing a sharp rebuke from the woman’s lawyers.
The reveal came via an updated version of a lawsuit Brooks himself filed last month, seeking to block an unnamed “Jane Roe” from publicizing her accusations. After she made good on those threats last week, Brooks refiled the case on Tuesday with her real name listed.
“Defendant’s allegations are not true,” the country star wrote in the amended lawsuit, leveling the same claims about “attempted extortion” and defamation.
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The move quickly sparked outrage from the accuser’s attorney, who later on Tuesday vowed to immediately move to reseal her name and seek legal penalties against Brooks. They also asked the media not to disclose the name
“Garth Brooks just revealed his true self,” Douglas H. Wigdor wrote. “Out of spite and to punish, he publicly named a rape victim. With no legal justification, Brooks outed her because he thinks the laws don’t apply to him. On behalf of our client, we will be moving for maximum sanctions against him immediately.”
Using the name Jane Roe, the accuser filed her case against Brooks last week in Los Angeles, accusing him of sexually assaulting her while she worked for him as a hairstylist and makeup artist. The case, which included an alleged incident of rape, claimed the singer took advantage of her financial troubles to subject her to “a side of Brooks that he conceals from the public.”
“This side of Brooks believes he is entitled to sexual gratification when he wants it, and using a female employee to get it is fair game,” Roe’s attorneys wrote in their complaint.
Brooks vehemently denied the allegations, saying in a statement that he had been threatened that the woman’s “lies” would be released to the public unless he wrote “a check for many millions of dollars.
“It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face,” Brooks wrote. “Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”
Brooks also confirmed he had been behind a mysterious lawsuit filed last month, obtained by Billboard, in which an anonymous “celebrity” plaintiff sued in Mississippi federal court over an unnamed accuser’s sexual abuse allegations. Calling the accusations false and an “ongoing attempted extortion,” the earlier case asked a judge to stop her from further publicizing them.
It was in the Mississippi case that Brooks revealed the accuser’s name on Tuesday. Billboard has chosen not to report the woman’s name.
A rep for Brooks declined to comment for this story.
Insomniac Music Group is expanding with the launch of a new publishing vertical, Insomniac Publishing. The current Insomniac Publishing roster includes 2Night Management (which represents the artists Matroda, San Pacho and Bruno Furlan), Aryay, Avi Snow, Benni Ola, Jasper, Joris Mur, Mattilo, Nuala, Omer Horovitz and Rami Jrade. Members of this group have writing credits […]
Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs filed their opening salvo in an appeal of a judge’s ruling denying him bail, arguing the “sensationalism” of the case led a judge to rule based on “purely speculative” concerns about witness intimation.
In an opening brief filed late Tuesday, the rapper’s lawyers urge the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit to grant him bail – their third attempt to secure his release from a Brooklyn jail while he awaits trial on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Combs’ attorneys argue that a lower judge had relied on “exaggerated rhetoric” and “speculation” when it ruled that Combs posed a flight risk and might threaten witnesses.
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“The sensationalism surrounding his arrest has distorted the bail analysis,” writes Alexandra A.E. Shapiro and Jason A. Driscoll. “Mr. Combs is presumed innocent … and presented a bail package that would plainly stop him from posing a danger to anyone or contacting any witnesses.”
Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, was once one of the most powerful men in the music industry. But last month, he was indicted by federal prosecutors over accusations of sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery. If convicted on all the charges, he potentially faces a sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors allege that Combs ran a sprawling criminal operation aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” The charges detailed “freak offs” in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having sex with male sex workers, as well as alleged acts of violence and intimidation to keep victims silent.
“For decades, Sean Combs … abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. “To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources and the influence of his multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled.”
A day after the indictment was unsealed, Judge Andrew L. Carter denied the rapper bail. Combs’ legal team offered to pay a $50 million bond and submit to strict monitoring to allow him to reside under house arrest at his Miami mansion.
But Carter (who has since been replaced by another judge) ruled instead that until trial Combs must remain at the Metropolitan Detention Center — a federal correctional facility long criticized for dysfunction and dangerous conditions. He was swayed by arguments from prosecutors that, if released, Combs would likely use his considerable wealth and power to obstruct the government’s case by pressuring witnesses.
In Tuesday’s brief, Combs’ attorneys argue that there was little hard evidence to support that conclusion. They say the government’s warnings had been based on “untested allegations” of contact with witnesses involved in the civil lawsuits against him, as well as his public denial of some of those claims.
“If denying accusations by civil plaintiffs could justify pre-trial detention, the liberty protections of the Bail Reform Act and the Constitution—not to mention the First Amendment—would be meaningless,” his lawyers write.
Read the entire brief here:
Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) has launched a synch licensing division dubbed Big SYNQ and tapped Maria Alonte to lead it as senior vp of synchronization, the company tells Billboard. The new division will oversee all aspects of synch licensing and placement for Big Machine Label Group and its publishing division Big Machine Music, as […]
On Aug. 28, just over six months after the death of country music star Toby Keith at age 62, NBC celebrated his work and his influence on some of country music’s biggest stars in a two-hour special, Toby Keith: American Icon. Eric Church, Tyler Hubbard, Parker McCollum, Jelly Roll, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood, Clay Walker and Lainey Wilson were among those who feted Keith, an oilfield worker-turned-musician known for his steely determination; burly, commanding voice; and top-flight, often witty songwriting that fueled many of his 20 No. 1s on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
The special drew 4.7 million viewers, was the No. 1 show in its time slot and was NBC’s most-watched primetime entertainment special of 2024, according to the network. And Luminate data shows a bump in the Oklahoma native’s streams in the weeks following its airing. On the Sept. 14-dated Digital Song Sales chart, streams of “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” totaled 3.4 million; a 344% jump.
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Spearheading the special behind the scenes were UTA’s Curt Motley — Keith’s personal agent for approximately three decades — and his colleague Nick Barnes. The duo packaged the concert and worked with Keith’s longtime manager, TK Kimbrell; the late artist’s family members; Universal Music Group Nashville; the label’s newly launched Sing Me Back Home Productions film/TV division; and Thinkfactory and its CEO, Adam Reed.
“We wanted artists who had connective tissue to Toby, whether they were his friends or had toured with him,” Motley says of the special’s lineup. “A lot of artists came forward and said, ‘We love Toby, and we sing his songs every night.’ There were also a handful of people on the show who had never actually met Toby but were huge fans. We wanted to honor that legacy through multiple generations of country music.”
Motley, who joined UTA in 2016, also reps a roster that includes Jamey Johnson and Sawyer Brown.
“This [wine] bottle celebrates the life of the King of Wyoming, Chris LeDoux,” Motley says. “Music legend, [1976] world champion bareback rider and one of the finest humans to ever walk the earth.”
Diana King
Barnes, who joined the company in 2017, specializes in connecting music artists to projects in TV, film and branding while overseeing UTA’s Heartland division, which focuses on family- and faith-based storytelling. Those clients include film/TV creators the Erwin Brothers and Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen).
UTA’s Nashville team has simultaneously fostered the success of a crop of country newcomers that includes Megan Moroney (“Tennessee Orange”), Dylan Gossett (“Coal”), Brittney Spencer (“Bigger Than the Song”), Chayce Beckham (“23”), HunterGirl (“Ain’t About You”), Ian Munsick (“Long Live Cowgirls”) and Oliver Anthony (the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Rich Men North of Richmond”).
What can new artists learn from the career Toby Keith built?
CURT MOTLEY: Toby was fearlessly unapologetic. He had a vision for what he wanted to do, and he didn’t waver on that line. When you’re good at something like he was, you don’t need other people to validate you. It’s a much harder road, but the fruits at the end of it are so much greater.
How does UTA Nashville differ from other agencies’ country music divisions?
NICK BARNES: An artist’s career should be multihyphenate to have longevity. They should be touching film, television and branding. We are starting earlier than ever in artists’ careers to find opportunities outside of touring to broaden their reach. Historically, these opportunities have existed for artists that were well into their careers. For instance, a feature film based on a hit song or a theatrical tour documentary — [intellectual property] that reflects country music’s way of life. For a long time, it was an antagonistic view. Now this community is embraced more for what it is. The Heartland division serves as the crossover arm for music artists here and is having success in feature film, television, unscripted productions, book publishing and more.
The Toby Keith “Super Bowl” ring was created by Live Nation’s Brian O’Connell to commemorate his 11 USO tours and over 240 shows in support of America’s armed forces, Motley says. Only four exist.
Diana King
TikTok and other social media outlets have changed the game for new artists. How do you sift through viral moments to find acts that won’t be one-hit wonders?
BARNES: It’s a balance between a gut feeling based off our experience and the data that is brought and analyzed by our team at UTA IQ — a world-class group of data analysts with proprietary tools we have built and continue to improve.
When you consider signing an artist, do you determine if they’re a strong live act? It’s key to an act’s longevity.
MOTLEY: You also have to look at consumption numbers, including streaming and social growth velocity, as an indicator for live viability.
UTA recently launched a Christian music division that has Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, Lecrae and Forrest Frank among its clients. What do you feel is driving the growth in that genre?
BARNES: When we told one of the artists on our roster about the announcement, they said, “That’s like the Avengers of Christian music.” There’s a broader trend afoot in the faith community. In the aughts, a lot of Christian bands wanted to cross over. They were like, “We are Christian bands but we want to be rock bands. We don’t want to be labeled as [contemporary Christian music].” We are seeing Christian bands and artists now that are leaning into who they are, and that’s resonating with the fans. When Forrest Frank is printing merch that says, “I am a child of God,” and he’s selling them as fast as they can put them on the merch table, and his shows are filled with kids and teens that are on fire for his music — I think that’s the correlation.
“I’m proud of the moment that Heartland comics are having right now,” Barnes says. “Both posters are from sold-out Nashville shows by two clients: John Crist and Leanne Morgan.”
Diana King
What kind of market share do you see Christian music attaining in the next five years, and what are the demographics of the fan base?
BARNES: We think consumption will double. Similar to other genres, streaming artists that aren’t dependent on radio are bringing a younger demographic into the market. Streaming has created a multigenerational fan base for the genre.
Country music streaming is surging globally. How does that affect your work?
BARNES: When we’re watching the algorithm trends on the [digital service providers], they’re the same in Dublin as they are in Nashville. They’re the same in Australia as they are in Brazil, which are all burgeoning markets for country music. And we are starting to take artists to the U.K. first to build fans.
MOTLEY: Oliver [Anthony]’s Out of the Woods tour started in the U.K., and we started Dylan Gossett’s [No Better Time] tour in the same areas. They were incredibly well received.
What else are you doing to build fan bases overseas?
MOTLEY: Agents across the globe — especially in our London office — are leaning into country music and integrating it into the fabric of our business here. This allows us to get in early with partners abroad and leads to opportunities that allow aggressive first-look tours. Recent examples are Megan Moroney, Oliver Anthony and Dylan Gossett.
For a newer artist, what are other advantages of launching a tour abroad?
BARNES: One advantage is being able to start a business over there that you can return to when you need to take a break [from touring stateside]. In the American markets, oftentimes our clients have played a lot of hard- and soft-ticket tours and they need to let the U.S. cool off a bit. [If they have played overseas], we’ve already built relationships with promoters and have a base of fans.
“I’ve always been a Marty Stuart apostle,” Barnes says. “Marty once opened for The Steve Miller Band at the Ryman, and Steve signed this poster to Marty — including a few special doodles. It ended up forgotten in a closet, but when we moved offices, it was passed on to me as a gift.”
Diana King
MOTLEY: It is expensive to travel and perform abroad, but when you’re just starting out, your costs are going to be a lot less [because you’re doing smaller-scale shows]. If you wait too long, that opportunity cost is hard. But when you build that fan base from the get-go — we’re going back with Dylan this year and playing big rooms, and we just started in February.
Touring costs in general have increased significantly. How are artists navigating that?
MOTLEY: Post-COVID, we had that big wave where everyone had to get out and go see a show. There wasn’t a bus you could rent; there wasn’t a venue that was available anywhere. I think we are at the tail end of that now, but everything has remained more expensive. Just to lease a bus right now is more than twice as expensive as it was in 2019. It’s almost impossible for acts that tour in a window that’s only four to five months a year to be able to afford that, so we’ve got to charge more for tickets. The big, white-hot shows are largely unaffected right now, but for other things, people are making choices again. It’s probably a bit cyclical as well. I think we will see it even out. There has been a lot of debate about the climbing prices of concert tickets.
Do you think they’ve hit a ceiling?
MOTLEY: Although the pandemic curve has flattened, as it pertains to white-hot stadium-level artists, it does not appear that we have hit a ceiling — especially given the number of tickets and pricing on the secondary market. But underneath that, artists have to be conscious of the market to have the best chance at success.
Weeks after Nelly’s former St. Lunatics groupmates sued him for allegedly cutting them out of royalties for his chart-topping breakout album Country Grammar, three of the ex-bandmates now say they never wanted to be part of the lawsuit and must be removed immediately.
In a letter sent last month, Nelly’s attorney warned the lawyer who filed the case last month that Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan) and City Spud (Lavell Webb) had recently retained his services and had “informed me that they did not authorize you to include them as plaintiffs.”
“They are hereby demanding you remove their names forthwith,” N. Scott Rosenblum wrote in the Sept. 24 letter, which was obtained by Billboard. “Failure to do so will cause them to explore any and all legal remedies available to them.”
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The move is a major twist just weeks after Harper, Kyjuan and Webb joined fellow St. Lunatics member Ali (Ali Jones) in filing the lawsuit against Nelly (Cornell Haynes). But it also makes sense after Nelly’s performance on Sunday (Oct. 6) at the American Music Awards, where all three men joined him on stage and appeared to be on good terms.
The withdrawal of Harper, Kyjuan and Webb means that the case is now essentially a dispute between Nelly and Ali alone. Ali’s attorney who filed the case, Gail M. Walton, did not immediately return a request for comment.
A group of high school friends from St. Louis, the St. Lunatics rose to prominence in the late 1990s with “Gimme What U Got”, and their debut album Free City — released a year after Country Grammar — was a hit of its own, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
In their Sept. 18 complaint, the bandmates claimed that Nelly had repeatedly “manipulated” them into falsely thinking they’d be paid for their work on the 2000 album, which spent five weeks atop the Billboard 200. But they said he never made good on the promises.
“Every time plaintiffs confronted defendant Haynes [he] would assure them as ‘friends’ he would never prevent them from receiving the financial success they were entitled to,” the lawsuit reads. “Unfortunately, plaintiffs, reasonably believing that their friend and former band member would never steal credit for writing the original compositions, did not initially pursue any legal remedies.”
During and after the Country Grammar recording session, the lawsuit claimed, Nelly “privately and publicly acknowledged that plaintiffs were the lyric writers” and “promised to ensure that plaintiffs received writing and publishing credit.” But decades later, in 2020, the lawsuit claimed that the St. Lunatics “discovered that defendant Haynes had been lying to them the entire time.”
“Despite repeatedly promising plaintiffs that they would receive full recognition and credit… it eventually became clear that defendant Haynes had no intention of providing the plaintiffs with any such credit or recognition,” the lawsuit read.