Megadeth and lead singer Dave Mustaine have agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve claims they were still owed commissions to a longtime manager after he was unceremoniously fired and replaced by Mustaine's son.
The settlement will resolve claims in a lawsuit filed last year by Corey Brennan and Five B Artist Management, which claimed Mustaine was refusing to hand over more than $1 million in unpaid commissions following Brennan's abrupt termination in early 2023.
In a filing released Wednesday (November 13), Brennan's lawyers notified a Los Angeles judge that Mustaine and Megadeth had agreed to pay the manager and Five B a total of $1,400,006 to end the lawsuit controversy over these charges.
The settlement will not completely end the dispute. Mustaine hit back at Brennan last year, claiming his tenure as manager had been “plagued with mistakes” that caused serious harm, including damaging Mustaine's hearing. These claims were not resolved by the settlement and will continue to be litigated.
In a statement to Bulletin board on Wednesday, Brennan's attorney, Howard Kingsaid that while his client was “displeased to have to sue an artist,” he was “satisfied” with the settlement payment.
“Dave Mustaine, who has a well-known history of firing advisors, has terminated Five B Artist Management after 9 years of resurrecting his failing career,” King said. “Ignoring the success that Five B had helped Dave achieve, including a campaign to help him win his first Grammy, the release of two hit albums, and the rise of his tour from small clubs back to arenas and auditoriums, the Dave just refused to pay commissions. owes and forced 5B to file a lawsuit.”
Mustaine's lawyer, Richard Bushdid not immediately return a request for comment on the settlement.
In a June 2023 lawsuit, Brennan claimed Mustaine had sought him out in 2014 to “manage his career and get it back on track,” following an extended slump in commercial and critical success in which the thrash metal favorite band “seemed to have lost their way”. Over the next nine years, Brennan said he had “worked tirelessly” for Mustaine, including “helping him with his personal struggles” and successfully re-established Megadeth as “one of the greatest metal bands of all time”.
But the lawsuit claimed that Mustaine suddenly fired Brennan in early 2023, leaving him owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid tour fees and hundreds of thousands more in merchandise fees.
“Despite this success and their long-standing relationship, on April 28, 2023, Mustaine, through his attorney, unexpectedly and unceremoniously fired Plaintiffs without stating any reason for the termination,” the suit alleges. “The decision was made to help send business to Mustaine's son, who is trying to build a career in artist management.”
Months later, Megadeth and Mustaine hit back with a counterattack of their own, claiming that Brennan had been fired due to “repeated management failures” that “seriously damaged Megadeth's reputation and even David Mustaine's physical health.”
Mustaine's lawyers claimed both sides had always agreed that they would each “go their separate ways” after any split between Brennan and the band – and the lawsuit was merely retaliation because the former manager was “upset” that the “bad his handling' with the band the business finally 'caught up with him'.
“The cross-defendants' baseless allegations are nothing more than an attempt to pay back their years of mistreatment with extortionate demands for money neither earned by the defendants nor owed to the plaintiffs,” Bush wrote in the complaint.
From the initial accusations and counterclaims, the case had spent months in discovery — the process of sharing evidence in a lawsuit. No decisions have yet been issued on the merits of the cases.
After Brennan's claims are settled, Mustaine's allegations of wrongdoing against him — including breach of contract and negligence — will continue toward an eventual trial.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/megadeth-dave-mustaine-pay-settle-ex-manager-lawsuit/
