Grammy Winner's Estate at Center of Legal Battle After His 2014 Death
Legendary blues artist Johnny Winter's estate is being contested in court nearly nine years after his death, with disputes surrounding accusations of greed and theft. The guitarist's former personal manager and bandmate, Paul Nelson, is in a legal battle with the family of his late wife, Susan, who died in 2019, reported The Associated Press. According to Winter's in-laws, Nelson and his wife improperly stole more than $1.5 million from the late musician's music business, including auctioning off some of his guitars. Nelson and his wife have countersued, claiming Susan Winter's siblings tricked her into giving them control of her music while she was medicated and dying of cancer, thereby denying him the benefit of Susan Winter's estate.
A Connecticut court was supposed to hear the case in April, but it was rescheduled for September. Winter's music catalog, record proceeds, and merchandise sales are at stake, as well as the permission to use his songs commercially, whose value is unknown.
"The case is about preserving Johnny Winter's legacy and vindicating and making sure the Nelsons haven't improperly taken the moneys rightfully owed to the plaintiffs," said attorney Timothy Diemand representing Bonnie and Christopher Warford, siblings of Susan Winter.
Nelson wishes to be reinstalled as the beneficiary of Susan Winter's estate, according to AP. "The Plaintiffs orchestrated the wrongful termination of Paul Nelson during a difficult time in Susan Winter's last year of life," Matt Mason, the Nelsons' lawyer, said in a statement. They said it was apparent that both Johnny and Susan Winter wanted Nelson to be responsible for the music and legacy that Johnny Winter left behind. John Dawson Winter III is a native of Beaumont, Texas, where he was born and raised. The late 1960s were a golden era for him as he blazed onto the world blues scene, thrilling crowds with his blistering guitar licks and white hair cascading from under his cowboy hat.
Both he and his brother Edgar were renowned musicians born with albinism. The recording artist released over two dozen albums and was nominated for six Grammy awards, winning his first one posthumously for his album Step Back. Nelson produced the album and won a Grammy for it as well. In the 2014 documentary Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty, Winter credited Nelson with helping him get off methadone after battling heroin addiction for years. Nelson also credits himself with rejuvenating Winter's music career.
Due to their friendship, the Winters and Nelsons became close. Besides playing guitar for Johnny Winter's band, Nelson began running his music company in 2005. Marion Nelson, Nelson's Wife, handled bookkeeping for the Winters, as well as the music business, according to legal filings in the lawsuit, per the AP. Winter died on July 16, 2014, while on tour in a hotel outside Zurich, Switzerland. Susan Winter and Paul Nelson have said his cause of death was likely emphysema. Upon her husband's death, Susan Winter put the estate in a trust in which she named herself trustee and Nelson as successor trustee, meaning Nelson would inherit Johnny Winter's music rights after she died. In June 2019, Susan Winter replaced Nelson with her sister and brother as successors four months before she passed away from lung cancer. A lawsuit filed by the Nelsons alleges that Bonnie and Christopher Warford manipulated their sister by lying to her, telling her they were mismanaging the music business and her affairs in an effort to gain control.
According to the Warfords' lawsuit, the Nelsons improperly stole more than $1.5 million from Winter's business "under the guise of royalty income, commissions, reimbursements, fees, social media expenses and other mechanisms, while obfuscating and misrepresenting these dealings to Susan Winter," AP
reported. In addition, they allege that the Nelsons sold three guitars worth $300,000 at auction without Winter's permission. The Nelsons deny the charge. "In short, this is the classic case of a manager taking advantage of an artist-client, and worse here, an artist's surviving family," Diemand wrote in a legal filing. It is worth noting that the Warfords' lawsuit is akin to the one the Winters filed against Teddy Slatus, Johnny Winter's former manager, for alleged financial wrongdoing around 2005. Slatus died in late 2005, and it is unclear what happened with the lawsuit.