druucifer Wrote:
i've heard a scattering of mp3s directly by him, and a ton of his production work. the man is responsible for some awfully great music. i haven't heard anything about him being a jerk, how did he rip off the meters??
He basically took advantage of their naivete signing them to incredibly one-sided contracts and then paid them none of the royalties that he did owe them. I read one of them remark that they knew they discovered that their rights had been sold when they received a royalty check in the mail because they knew Toussaint would never cut them a check.
Modeliste has been fighting in the court for most of his life against Toussaint and was so bitter about the experience that he quit music altogehter.
Here's a snippet I found on the web but I've read a much more detailed and desparaging interview elsewhere.
Quote:
Toussaint heard them one night and brought them in to record. In 1969, one of the Meters' first songs, "Cissy Strut," became a top five R&B hit. They quickly signed with Toussaint and Sehorn, who gained control of all of their sources of income in one fell swoop. That's when the joy and the turmoil both began....But by the mid-'70s, frustrated by their lack of commercial success, the band began to implode. The end came in 1977. "The story was never finished," says Porter. "I thought there was a lot of music still left undone."
Neville achieved success with the Neville Brothers. Nocentelli and Porter became in-demand session players and formed new bands. Modeliste toured with Keith Richards and Ron Wood.
He then began scrutinizing the group's contracts. "When I found out how we was pillaged, how we was misused and abused, I couldn't get over it," Modeliste says. "I just completely put the drums in the closet."
In 1984, he persuaded his former bandmates to join him in a lawsuit against Sehorn and Toussaint to void the contracts and regain control of their music. Nocentelli says, "We started looking at contracts about 15 years too late."
But in 1989, Nocentelli, Neville and Porter settled out of court, winning back some of their publishing rights and masters, and received a small cash amount. Sehorn sold the Meters' publishing and master rights to third-party companies.
But Modeliste vowed to carry on the suit by himself. More than two decades later, he continues his litigation. Royalties and publishing moneys are stacking up under Modeliste's name, but he says he will not accept them until the lawsuit is resolved.
"He's been pretty beat up," Porter says of Modeliste. "My heart goes out to him because I absolutely see the wear and tear that this event has taken. I've seen it make him so bitter that he just didn't want to play no more. And Zigaboo should never, ever not play. If there is a 13th wonder, then he is it."
