The rhythm section of The Jimi Hendrix Experience “died in relative poverty” — or at least that’s what lawyers for their estates are arguing.
The estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell have been suing Sony Music Entertainment U.K. over the rights to the three Experience albums for close to two years.
The trial finally got under way last week in England’s High Court and Simon Malynicz, the lawyer for both estates, argued that the rhythm section was “excluded early on in their lifetimes” and “died in relative poverty” while Sony and other labels continue to profit from their work.
Sony’s lawyer Robert Howe countered, saying the original recording copyright belonged to the albums’ producers, not the musicians, adding that Mitchell and Redding made the same claims in the 1970s and Mitchell was paid $247,500 and Redding $100,000.
Redding died in 2003 at 57, and Mitchell passed away in 2008 at 62.
Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 at 27.
