Phil Collins In Royalties Battle With Earth, Wind & Fire Members
Yahoo! Music, Mar 29, 2000 6:00 pm PST(3/29/00, 6 p.m. ET) - For the next several days, Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Phil Collins will find himself not basking in the glow of his Academy Award win, but presenting an argument in a London court instead. Collins is seeking a court declaration that musicians Louis Satterfield and Rahmlee Michael Davis were overpaid royalties in the amount of $390,000 each. Collins hired the Earth, Wind & Fire hornplayers to perform as part of his backing band during his 1990 Serious tour. Satterfield and Davis have claimed that the contract they signed entitled them to 0.5% of the royalties from the live album recorded during that tour, according to reports.
Collins's lawyer Robert Howe claimed that, as a result of a misinterpretation of the contract entered into, the men were paid for royalties for recordings they did not perform on. Collins argued that the two men are featured on only five of the album's 15 tracks, and should only be paid for the tracks on which they appeared. After receiving royalty payments for six years, Satterfield and Davis were reportedly cut off by Collins's accountant.
Satterfield and Davis -- founding members of the Phoenix Horns, as well as successful members of Earth, Wind & Fire -- helped Collins to produce his early successful solo career albums, including Face Value and ….But Seriously. The Society of Black Lawyers, the legal representatives for Satterfield and Davis, issued a statement saying if Collins is successful in the suit, "these talented African-American artists will be reduced to destitution, with no prospect of seeing any benefit from their labor during Collins's 'formative years.'"
In turn, Howe stated that "the claimant is not seeking to make either of the defendants put their hands into their pockets and pay back a penny." Collins wants a declaration that the money that had been paid out was by mistake.
-- Sue Falco, New York
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