Court TV article [article available at Court TV's WWW page at http://web.archive.org/web/20000613110213/http://www.courttv.com/ ] Lawyers in Black Crowes Trial Slice at Pie Chart 'Contract' BY TRISHA RENAUD Senior Reporter 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.