Lawyers in Black Crowes Trial Slice at Pie Chart 'Contract'
BY Trisha Renaud
Court TV
Feb. 7, 1996


There will be no intricately worded legalese submitted to the
jury in the contract dispute now before Fulton Superior Court
Judge Stephanie B. Manis.

Instead, the panel will see a simple diagram resembling a pie
chart that is scrawled on notebook paper and is intriguingly
labeled "Heavy Symbolism."

But plaintiff Kevin Jennings claims that pie chart made him an
equal partner in the highly successful Atlanta-based rock group
The Black Crowes.

Jennings, who claims he booked performances and toted equipment
for the Crowes in 1989 before they made it big the next year, is
now suing the band, and its members individually, seeking a
one-sixth share of the profits from the group's lucrative first
album, Shake Your Money Maker. The album went triple platinum,
selling more than 5 million copies, according to opening
statements Tuesday. Jennings v. Robinson, No. E-4458 (Fult.
Super. filed Sept. 1, 1992).

Jennings' attorney, Irwin W. Stolz Jr., told the jury that his
client's partnership was memorialized in the diagram and sealed
with a handshake with the five band members on Jan. 2, 1990.

The deal, said Stolz, was "one for all and all for one."
Jennings was to be the road manager for the group, he added.

But the attorney for the Crowes had a different version of
events. Jennings, said Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy
partner Jerry B. Blackstock, was a friend and fan of the
struggling band, and like a number of friends, helped line up
gigs for the group. "It was like the manager of the day," said
Blackstock.

When the Crowes hired a well- known manager and looked like they
might make it big with the release of their first album,
Jennings began to get anxious about his friendship with band
members, Blackstock told the jury.

Crowes member Steve Gorman scrawled the diagram at issue after
rehearsal one day, Blackstock said, after Jennings was "whining"
that the Crowes would soon forget all about him. The band
members signed it as a souvenir and token of friendship to
satisfy Jennings' concerns, he said.

As for the heading, Blackstock said it refers to an old joke
between brothers and band members Rich and Chris Robinson. After
watching a scene near the end of the movie Cool Hand Luke, one
of the brothers remarked that the scene was "heavy symbolism."
Now, added Blackstock, "whenever Rich and Chris want to say,
'This is getting ridiculous,' they say, 'Heavy symbolism.' "

The pie chart, said Blackstock, has "now become a partnership
agreement, but it was a souvenir then."

Stolz, a principal with Gambrell & Stolz, told the jury that
Jennings met The Black Crowes when they were known as Mr.
Crowe's Garden, and used his basement to rehearse.

Jennings, Stolz said, "was a recognized success in the music
business." He had secured a record contract for the Georgia
Satellites, another Atlanta- based group that enjoyed success in
the late 1980s with the hit Keep Your Hands To Yourself.

In recognition for getting that contract with a British
recording company, the Satellites made Jennings an equal partner
in their group on a handshake, Stolz continued. In the meantime,
he said, Jennings began to assist the Crowes, at Gorman's
request.

Jennings secured engagements for the band locally and in
Nashville, Tenn., and Huntsville, Ala., Stolz said. He drove
them to performances, loaded equipment, arranged for photo and
video sessions, and paid band expenses without reimbursement,
added Stolz.

He also helped set up the Crowes' business organization, which
Stolz said was named the "Crowe Mafia Organization," or CMO.
"The band thought of themselves as the family and Mr. Jennings
was the godfather," said Stolz.

The Crowes signed a record deal in 1989 with the Def American
label.

While Jennings and the Crowes all agreed the band would search
for a "heavyweight" manager to handle their affairs once their
first album was released, they also decided Jennings would be
their tour manager, Stolz said.

Just weeks before the Crowes' first album was released, the band
offered Jennings "the same deal" he had had with the Georgia
Satellites, Stolz said. That equal partnership was memorialized
in the pie chart, he said, adding that Jennings later notified
the Georgia Satellites he would be working for the Crowes in the
future.

But a few weeks later, the day after the Crowes held their album
release party, Jennings' girlfriend delivered a baby, Stolz told
the jury. The new father was "dumbfounded," since he had not
known she was pregnant, the plaintiff's lawyer continued.

Jennings skipped a Los Angeles trip with the band to stay home
with his new family, said Stolz, and later finished tour
commitments with the Georgia Satellites. In the meantime, The
Black Crowes began what was to be a year-and-a-half-long tour
and hired another tour manager, said Stolz.

They gave Jennings "the cold shoulder," he told the jury,
although Jennings eventually did get reimbursed for funds he had
advanced the band.

Jennings went on to become the tour manager for country singer
Kris Kristofferson.

Stolz said the issue before the jury is simple: "Was there or
was there not a partnership agreement entered into Jan. 2,
1990?"



Friend, Not Partner

Blackstock, however, told the jury that, contrary to the
plaintiff's claims, Jennings had little role in making The Black
Crowes a success. Instead, he said, the group succeeded because
"they had good music, good management and they worked hard."

Jennings volunteered to help the fledgling band, Blackstock
said, because he liked their music and liked to be around them.
He often refused to be reimbursed gas expenses for driving the
group around, the band's attorney said, adding that in those
days band members had little money.

CMO, the defense lawyer said, was a fan club invented by the
band. Jennings had CMO business cards made for himself, added
Blackstock, but that didn't make him a partner.

The defense contends that should the jury decide the pie chart
does constitute a partnership agreement, Jennings breached that
agreement by resigning to stay with his family.

The trial has been bifurcated, with damages, if any, to be set
in subsequent proceedings.

Blackstock is being assisted by Powell, Goldstein partner
William M. Ragland Jr. and associate Matthew J. Troy.

Jennings is also represented by entertainment attorney Scott
D. Sanders.