Cummings sacrificing royalties to force Guess Who offstage ‘I’m willing to do anything to stop the fake band’ By: Alan Small Posted: 5:43 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 12, 2024

Burton Cummings’ latest ploy to thwart the Guess Who appears to be working.

The former singer for the band, which began in Winnipeg in the 1960s, has terminated licensing agreements for the Guess Who songs he owns publishing rights for, including American Woman, These Eyes and Share the Land — tracks he’s either written or co-written.

The tactic led to the cancellation of four Guess Who concerts in Florida earlier this week, one coming just minutes before the group — which includes one founding member, drummer Garry Peterson, but sometimes without any musicians from the group’s 1967-76 heyday — was to take the stage April 6 in Fort Myers, Fla.

Cummings and Randy Bachman, who is also an original member, are in the midst of a lawsuit against the Guess Who, Peterson and founding bassist Jim Kale, which was filed in a Los Angeles court last October.

Cummings, 75, and Bachman, 80 allege today’s Guess Who are deceiving the public by implying the two are performing with the band in 2024.

They also seek a court order against Kale and Peterson “to take corrective measures notifying the public and all venues where the cover band is playing with truthful advertising.”

Members of the band have been embroiled in legal disputes over the Guess Who brand for decades.

“I’m willing to do anything to stop the fake band; they’re taking (Bachman and my) life story and pretending it’s theirs,” Cummings said in a story in music magazine Rolling Stone. “This doesn’t stop this cover band from playing their shows; it just stops them from playing the songs I wrote.

“If the songs are performed by the fake Guess Who, they will be sued for every occurrence.”

Kale, who owns the Guess Who trademark, has retired from performing. Drummer Peterson has played with the Guess Who recently, although Cummings and Bachman’s suit claims the band performs with none of the members from the group’s glory days.

Cummings’ move, which has gone through performance rights organizations such as the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), removes the copyright protections that allow acts to play the songs live in concert. Concert venues would be liable for damages if an act performed one of Cummings’ compositions in their facilities.

That’s forced the Guess Who off the road for the time being, says Randy Erwin, the Guess Who’s Missouri-based manager.

“It’s a real shitshow down here right now,” Erwin said in a telephone interview.

“(The band) found out about this the day of the show, and it was a Saturday, so there was no way to even get with BMI to find out if those songs were covered by their licensing agreement with BMI,” Erwin says.

“We decided it wasn’t worth the risk because of the letter from the attorney threatening a lawsuit.

“The venues can’t allow us to perform until we get this settled.”

The Guess Who is scheduled to perform about 90 concerts in 2024, but several future dates have been set aside, Erwin said.

There is a cost to Cummings’ decision. He would no longer receive royalties from his songs that are played in public, whether it’s the original versions or covers, such as U.S. rocker Lenny Kravitz’s take on American Woman, or Stick to Your Vision by Canadian rapper Maestro Fresh Wes, which samples parts of These Eyes.

“I’m going to lose some money, but … the name is worthless without those songs,” Cummings said in the Rolling Stone story.

“How much is my life’s work worth? You can’t put it in dollars and cents. It’s wrong what they’ve done and for years, nobody did anything about it. But we’re doing something now and this may set some precedents, because there are other acts out there that aren’t real either.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall