Publication: CDNow / Allstar
Date: November, 2000
Transcribed by
someone (?@?)
someone (?@?)
page: title: Tool Gets Sued By Manager For $5 Million author: Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna Nov 25, 2000, 10:50 am PT Tool Larrikin Management's Ted Gardner, co-founder of Lollapalooza and Tool's manager of eight years, filed a $5 million-plus lawsuit against Tool on Wednesday (Nov. 22) in Los Angeles Superior Court. The suit is for rescission of the management contract between the band (Maynard James Keenan, Adam Thomas Jones, Danny Carey, and Justin Chancellor) and Gardner, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, and quantum meruit. Gardner claims that he was not paid his 20 percent commission on, among other things, the lucrative multi-million dollar joint venture deal the band made with Volcano, formerly Zoo, in 1998 that was a result of the messy Tool/Zoo legal battle (allstar, Dec. 7, 1998). Gardner claims that the band said they would not pay him his commissions unless he signed a new "extremely onerous" management contract, which "substantially reduced the commission rate of, and limited the time for, the continuing commissions," according to the suit. Gardner, who "was in financial dire straits by the end of 1999 as a result of defendants' actions," signed the new deal this March and the band fired him shortly thereafter, around May 23. According to the suit, "[Tool] would conceal from Gardner their intention to fire him and to deprive him of his continuing commissions. [Tool] would falsely represent that they wanted Gardner to be their manager. "[Tool] would withhold the commissions they owed Gardner," continues the suit, "thereby putting him in a precarious financial condition, until he signed a new, substantially less favorable management contract, which would specifically provide that [Tool] had no obligation to pay continuing commissions if they terminated his employment for 'cause.' And, once Gardner signed the new agreement, [Tool] would immediately fire him, without any basis, and then assert that it was for 'cause.'" Gardner is asking in excess of $5 million to be determined at trial. Under Gardner's management, Tool has sold more than 800,000 copies of Opiate, approximately 2 million copies of its breakthrough album Undertow, and approximately 2.4 million copies of Aenima. The band is currently in the studio working on a new album for an April 2001 release. Meanwhile, to hold Tool fans over, a limited-edition box set containing a CD with previously unreleased live material, studio tracks, and the band's covers of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" and Peach's "You Lied," (Chancellor's other band) as well as a DVD or VHS with all four videos will be released on Dec. 12. The track listing for the box set is: 1. "Third Eye" (live) 2. "Part of Me" (live) 3. "Push It" (live) 4. "Harry Manback II" (unreleased studio track) 5. "You Lied" (live) 6. "Merkaba" (live) 7. "No Quarter" (unreleased studio track) 8. "L.A Municipal Court (unreleased studio track) The DVD or VHS includes the videos for "Sober," "Prison Sex," "Stinkfist," and "Aenema."
Posted to t.d.n: 11/28/00 01:32:21