Latest news with #JohnnyWinter
The Independent
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Judge orders managers for late Johnny Winter to pay $226,000 in damages in lawsuit alleging theft
A Connecticut judge has settled a bitter feud over the estate of the late legendary blues guitarist Johnny Winter, ordering his managers to pay $226,000 in damages for improper payments they received after his 2014 death and rejecting their claim to the rights to his music. Relatives of Winter's late wife, Susan, sued Winter's manager, Paul Nelson, and his wife, Marion, in 2020, claiming the Nelsons swindled more than $1 million from Winter's music business. The Nelsons denied the allegations and countersued. They accused the relatives of improperly having Paul Nelson ousted as the beneficiary of Winter's estate, and they claimed ownership of his music rights. After a seven-day trial before a judge in January 2024, Judge Trial Referee Charles Lee ruled Friday that the Nelsons received improper payments and made improper withdrawals from Winter's accounts, but rejected claims they committed fraud, mismanagement and breach of contract. 'The court finds that the conduct for which it has awarded the damages set forth above was negligent or at least arguably legitimate,' Lee wrote in a 54-page decision that also rejected the claims in the Nelsons' countersuit. The judge said the Nelsons' most serious impropriety was withdrawing $112,000 from Winter's business account and depositing it into one of their own accounts in 2019, without listing Susan Winter as a signatory on their account. Susan Winter owned all of her husband's assets — valued at about $3 million at the time of his death. The judge said punitive damages may be imposed on the Nelsons because of that transfer. Paul Nelson, who managed Johnny Winter's business from 2005 to 2019 and played guitar in his band, died in March 2024 from a heart attack during a music tour. Marion Nelson, who did bookkeeping for the Winters and the music business, did not immediately return an email message Monday. The Nelsons' lawyers did not immediately return phone and email messages. It wasn't clear if they planned to appeal. Susan Winter died from lung cancer in October 2019. Months before her death, she removed Paul Nelson as her successor trustee to her family trust, which included all of her late husband's assets. She named her sister and brother, Bonnie and Christopher Warford, from Charlotte, North Carolina, as her new successor trustees, and they sued the Nelsons. The Warfords' lawyers did not immediately return phone and email messages Monday. Phone numbers for the Warfords listed in public records were no longer in service. The Nelsons claimed the Warfords took advantage of Susan Winter and had her sign legal documents while she was medicated near the end of her life. They also alleged the Warfords soured their relationship with Susan Winter with false embezzlement claims. The Warfords denied those allegations. The judge ruled that the Warfords were entitled to damages because of improper payments the Nelsons received, including $68,000 in royalty payments from a 2016 auction of Winter's assets, $69,000 in cash withdrawals, $18,000 in expense reimbursements and $15,000 in other royalty payments. The Warfords also were awarded $56,000 that remains in one of the Nelsons' accounts, the same account used in the $112,000 transfer criticized by the judge. In 2020, the Nelsons transferred about $151,000 out of that account to the Warfords' lawyers. Lee also rejected claims by the Warfords that Paul Nelson should not have received $300,000 in auction proceeds from the sale of three of Johnny Winter's guitars, because Winter promised those guitars to Paul Nelson. John Dawson Winter III was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. He burst onto the world blues scene in the 1960s, dazzling crowds with his fast licks while his trademark long, white hair flew about from under his cowboy hat. He and his brother Edgar — both born with albinism — were both renowned musicians. Johnny Winter, who played at Woodstock in 1969, was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988. Rolling Stone magazine listed him as the No. 63 best guitar player of all time in 2015. He released more than two dozen albums and was nominated for several Grammy Awards, winning his first one posthumously in 2015 for Best Blues Album for 'Step Back.' Nelson produced the album and also took home a Grammy for it. Johnny Winter, who spent two decades living in Easton, Connecticut, before his death, battled heroin addiction for years and credited Nelson, whom he met in 1999, with helping him get off the opioid methadone and revive his career, according to the 2014 documentary, 'Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty.'
Associated Press
09-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Judge orders managers for late Johnny Winter to pay $226,000 in damages in lawsuit alleging theft
A Connecticut judge has settled a bitter feud over the estate of the late legendary blues guitarist Johnny Winter, ordering his managers to pay $226,000 in damages for improper payments they received after his 2014 death and rejecting their claim to the rights to his music. Relatives of Winter's late wife, Susan, sued Winter's manager, Paul Nelson, and his wife, Marion, in 2020, claiming the Nelsons swindled more than $1 million from Winter's music business. The Nelsons denied the allegations and countersued. They accused the relatives of improperly having Paul Nelson ousted as the beneficiary of Winter's estate, and they claimed ownership of his music rights. After a seven-day trial before a judge in January 2024, Judge Trial Referee Charles Lee ruled Friday that the Nelsons received improper payments and made improper withdrawals from Winter's accounts, but rejected claims they committed fraud, mismanagement and breach of contract. 'The court finds that the conduct for which it has awarded the damages set forth above was negligent or at least arguably legitimate,' Lee wrote in a 54-page decision that also rejected the claims in the Nelsons' countersuit. The judge said the Nelsons' most serious impropriety was withdrawing $112,000 from Winter's business account and depositing it into one of their own accounts in 2019, without listing Susan Winter as a signatory on their account. Susan Winter owned all of her husband's assets — valued at about $3 million at the time of his death. The judge said punitive damages may be imposed on the Nelsons because of that transfer. Paul Nelson, who managed Johnny Winter's business from 2005 to 2019 and played guitar in his band, died in March 2024 from a heart attack during a music tour. Marion Nelson, who did bookkeeping for the Winters and the music business, did not immediately return an email message Monday. The Nelsons' lawyers did not immediately return phone and email messages. It wasn't clear if they planned to appeal. Susan Winter died from lung cancer in October 2019. Months before her death, she removed Paul Nelson as her successor trustee to her family trust, which included all of her late husband's assets. She named her sister and brother, Bonnie and Christopher Warford, from Charlotte, North Carolina, as her new successor trustees, and they sued the Nelsons. The Warfords' lawyers did not immediately return phone and email messages Monday. Phone numbers for the Warfords listed in public records were no longer in service. The Nelsons claimed the Warfords took advantage of Susan Winter and had her sign legal documents while she was medicated near the end of her life. They also alleged the Warfords soured their relationship with Susan Winter with false embezzlement claims. The Warfords denied those allegations. The judge ruled that the Warfords were entitled to damages because of improper payments the Nelsons received, including $68,000 in royalty payments from a 2016 auction of Winter's assets, $69,000 in cash withdrawals, $18,000 in expense reimbursements and $15,000 in other royalty payments. The Warfords also were awarded $56,000 that remains in one of the Nelsons' accounts, the same account used in the $112,000 transfer criticized by the judge. In 2020, the Nelsons transferred about $151,000 out of that account to the Warfords' lawyers. Lee also rejected claims by the Warfords that Paul Nelson should not have received $300,000 in auction proceeds from the sale of three of Johnny Winter's guitars, because Winter promised those guitars to Paul Nelson. John Dawson Winter III was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. He burst onto the world blues scene in the 1960s, dazzling crowds with his fast licks while his trademark long, white hair flew about from under his cowboy hat. He and his brother Edgar — both born with albinism — were both renowned musicians. Johnny Winter, who played at Woodstock in 1969, was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988. Rolling Stone magazine listed him as the No. 63 best guitar player of all time in 2015. He released more than two dozen albums and was nominated for several Grammy Awards, winning his first one posthumously in 2015 for Best Blues Album for 'Step Back.' Nelson produced the album and also took home a Grammy for it. Johnny Winter, who spent two decades living in Easton, Connecticut, before his death, battled heroin addiction for years and credited Nelson, whom he met in 1999, with helping him get off the opioid methadone and revive his career, according to the 2014 documentary, 'Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty.'
The Guardian
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rick Derringer obituary
As a member of the American band the McCoys, the guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer Rick Derringer, who has died aged 77, scored a US No 1 hit with the 1965 single Hang on Sloopy, which also made it to No 5 in the UK. Later he went on to record and perform with some of the most famous names in the music industry over a career spanning six decades. Hang on Sloopy, with Derringer on vocals, was not the McCoys' own song; written by Wes Farrell and Bert Berns, it had first been recorded the year before by the Los Angeles soul vocal group Vibrations, and had largely gone unnoticed, although it quickly became a favourite of US garage rock bands of the era. The McCoys' version made the song popular across the world, and they went on to have a another Top 10 hit in the US with a cover of Fever, written by Eddie Cooley and John Davenport, and a Top 40 interpretation of Come on, Let's Go, written by Ritchie Valens. However, two subsequent psychedelic albums failed to build on the popularity of those singles, and when the group disbanded in 1969, Derringer joined the blues guitarist Johnny Winter to play on Johnny Winter And (1970) and Live Winter And (1971). He also recorded with Johnny's younger brother, Edgar Winter, producing the hit singles Frankenstein (1973) and Free Ride (1973), among others. That work gained him a strong reputation as a guitarist and producer, and he subsequently worked with Alice Cooper and Todd Rundgren, played slide guitar on the Steely Dan single Show Biz Kids (1973), and a guitar solo on the song Chain Lightning, on their Katy Lied album (1975). He also worked with Bonnie Tyler, Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf, and in 1986 Cyndi Lauper called on him to provide guitar work for two tracks on her album True Colors. Another powerhouse vocalist, Barbra Streisand, featured him as lead guitar player on her single Left in the Dark (1984), and he played on Air Supply's Making Love Out of Nothing at All (1983) as well as Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart (1983). In addition he toured three times with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr band, and played in a performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York with Paul McCartney to celebrate Starr's 70th birthday in 2010. Derringer was born Richard Zehringer in Celina in Ohio, the son of John, a railway worker, and his wife, Janice (nee Thornburg), and grew up in Fort Recovery, Ohio. His family moved to Union City, Indiana, when he was in his early teens, and it was there that he began his music career in 1962, forming Rick and the Raiders with his brother Randy on drums and Dennis Kelly on bass. With expansion and personnel changes, they eventually became the McCoys, and following the success of Hang On Sloopy, Derringer also changed his name – in order, he said, to make it easier to pronounce and remember. Derringer's first solo album, All American Boy (1973), featured his composition Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo, which has become a classic of rock radio. The track was released as a single that peaked at No 23 on the US charts, and is featured on the soundtracks of Richard Linklater's movie Dazed and Confused (1993) and in season four of the Netflix series Stranger Things (2022). Subsequent solo albums were not commercially successful, but the list of artists that Derringer worked with in the 80s read like a Who's Who of popular recording acts of the era. Two of his more left-field collaborations came as producer of the first six albums for the comedy musician Weird Al Yankovic and of two albums of music in conjunction with the World Wrestling Federation, The Wrestling Album (1985) and Piledriver: The Wrestling Album II (1987), both featuring the theme music of various wrestlers. His song Real American was the theme for the tag team US Express and subsequently for Hulk Hogan, and in 2011 President Barack Obama used that tune as walk-on music at the White House correspondents' dinner while his birth certificate was displayed on a video screen; an irony given that Derringer was a Donald Trump supporter. With his third wife, Jenda Hall, Derringer later recorded four Christian-themed albums. Two earlier marriages, to the journalist Liz Agriss and then to the singer and percussionist Dyan Buckelew, ended in divorce. He is survived by Jenda and a daughter, Mallory, from his second marriage. Richard Dean Derringer (Zehringer), musician, born 5 August 1947; died 26 May 2025
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rick Derringer, ubiquitous guitarist in US pop and rock, dies aged 77
Rick Derringer, the singer and guitarist who topped the US charts with his band the McCoys and was a sideman for a host of stars including Barbara Streisand, Cyndi Lauper and Steely Dan, has died aged 77. The news was announced in a Facebook post by his close friend Tony Wilson, who did not give a cause of death. While he didn't achieve household name status, Derringer was one of the great Zelig figures of American pop and rock, in a career stretching back to his mid-teens. Born Richard Zehringer in Ohio, he and his family moved to Union City, Indiana, where he formed garage rockers the McCoys. They got the chance to record their own version of the rhythm and blues song My Girl Sloopy, with a 17-year-old Derringer as frontman – renamed Hang on Sloopy, it reached No 1 in the US in 1965. After Ohio State University's marching band started playing it at college football games, it got another boost in popularity and eventually, in 1985, Ohio designated it the state's official rock song. The McCoys had another US Top 10 hit with the follow-up, a cover of Little Willie John's Fever. Come On, Let's Go reached No 22 the following year and the group recorded five albums together. The McCoys then partnered with blues rocker Johnny Winter for the group Johnny Winter And, who made the first recording of another Derringer rock classic: Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo. The definitive version came in 1973, performed by Derringer for his debut solo album All American Boy. This raunchy and swaggering hard-rock track reached No 23 in the US, and later earned high-profile syncs on the soundtracks to Richard Linklater film Dazed and Confused and the fourth season of Stranger Things. Also in 1973, Derringer returned to the top of the US charts thanks to his production and guitar playing for the Edgar Winter Group (fronted by the brother of Johnny Winter), on the hard-rocking instrumental Frankenstein. He also contributed to their No 14 hit Free Ride the same year. Derringer continued to release studio albums, eventually numbering 14 in all, but his most high-profile work came as a guitarist and producer for others. By 1973 he'd already played on a couple of songs on Alice Cooper's 1971 album Killer, and begun a fruitful partnership with Todd Rundgren, appearing on a number of his albums over the years. He later played on the Steely Dan albums Countdown to Ecstasy, Katy Died and Gaucho, and, in collaboration with Jim Steinman, two of the biggest power ballads of the 1980s: Air Supply's Making Love Out of Nothing at All and Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. Derringer went on to work with another Steinman acolyte, Meat Loaf, on the album Blind Before I Stop and the TV show Way Off Broadway, and played lead guitar on the Steinman-penned Left in the Dark, the lead single from Barbra Streisand's 1984 album Emotion. Another repeat collaborator was Weird 'Al' Yankovic, including on his Grammy-winning Michael Jackson spoof Eat It. More cheerfully silly work was in the world of American wrestling, with Derringer writing Hulk Hogan's theme song Real American and producing tie-in albums for the World Wrestling Federation. The 1980s and 90s brought a partnership with Cyndi Lauper – Derringer played on her album True Colours and A Night to Remember, and joined her touring band. He later went on three world tours with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, and recorded albums with his wife Jenda, including one with their children Lory and Marn. Derringer continued to tour throughout his life, and his most recent album Rock the Yacht, another collaboration with Jenda, was released in 2023.
The Sun
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Rick Derringer dead at 77: Grammy-winning classic rock guitarist who worked with Cyndi Lauper & had number 1 hit dies
RICK Derringer, guitarist behind the garage rock number-one hit Hang On Sloopy, has died at 77. The musician passed away surrounded by his loved ones on Monday, according to a Facebook post by longtime friend and carer Tony Wilson. 3 3 Rick had suffered from several health issues in recent months, according to the post, though no specific cause of death was given. He shot to fame when he was just 17 after his band, The McCoys, recorded 'Hang On Sloopy" in 1965. The record hit number one and is revered as a classic from the garage rock era. After four years of touring, three members of The McCoys including Rick joined forces with the long-white-haired blues rocker Johnny Winter, in 1969. As a four-piece the group put out an album called Johnny Winter And. Rick later joined Johnny's brother, Edgar Winter, full-time in his band White Trash, releasing the EP Roadwork. In 1973, he worked a solo album, All American Boy, which featured the hit single Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo. Over the ensuing years Rick played alongside a string of rock'n'roll greats including Alice Cooper, Steely Dan, Richie Havens, Cyndi Lauper, Barbra Streisand, and Kiss - amongst others. He is also credited with discovering Weird Al Yankovic, producing music for his albums and videos, such as the Michael Jackson parodies 'Eat It' and 'Who's Fat.' Rick's sole Grammy Award came from his work producing Yankovic's albums.
