Morgan Wallen (Photo by David Lehr)
Four Country Artists That Went To War With Their Label
Morgan Wallen was in the news recently because he’s fighting with his ex-label, who released old songs without permission.
That got us thinking, what other country stars had to go through this drama?
Luckily the folks at Taste of Country have us covered.
Here are four country artists who fought their label…
1. Kenny Rogers vs. Capitol Records. Kenny filed suit against Capitol in 2012, seeking $400K due to accounting errors, and unpaid digital royalties the label had intentionally under-reported. Capitol and “The Gambler” kept it close to the vest though, and no one knows how it turned out.
2. Brad Paisley vs. Sony Nashville. Brad filed suit in 2010, claiming he was owed at least 10 million bucks for unpaid royalties. It’s unclear whether the case was ever settled, but last year Brad announced a new deal with EMI Nashville.
3. Garth Brooks vs. Liberty Records. This one is a little different because no suit was filed. Instead, Garth sat in on the negotiations with his attorneys. They publicly butted heads for a while, but eventually came to terms on a deal that won Garth a massive 50% royalty on each unit sold.
4. Taylor Swift vs. Big Machine Records. This fight was out in the open, with Taylor and Scooter Braun going after it for years. But, the Swifties triumphed as she’s been releasing re-recordings of her earlier works ever since.
