Even the sorriest excuse for a "So You Wanna Be a VJ" contestant knows there's no Sugar Ray in the modern rock outfit Sugar Ray -- though almost no one can name a member other than Mark McGrath. That in mind, it stands to reason no one within a thousand brain cells of Jesse knows who the real Sugar Ray is.

"I don't even know who that is," says David Codikow, the popular SoCal band's lawyer. With all due respect to Sugar Ray, the forty-three year-old blues artist, and wannabe VJs alike, not many do. For twenty-seven years now Raymond Alan Norcia has been using the name Sugar Ray, first with the group Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, later with Roomful of Blues and, recently, as a solo artist.

"They [the group Sugar Ray] were probably too young to go to clubs when I was using the name," jokes the "original" Sugar Ray. No kidding. About five years ago -- prior to the release of the band's Lemonade and Brownies -- lawyers for the group Sugar Ray contacted the artist Sugar Ray about the name issue. Sugar Ray says the lawyers had done a title search revealing the musician's name and subsequently offered him $1,000 to sign a waiver stating he wouldn't sue the group for trademark infringement. Sugar Ray balked at the offer, saying he'd need another $500 to make it worth his while. Though the difference seemed negligible, Sugar Ray never heard from them again.

That was until Feb. '98, when Sugar Ray, the person, noticed that Sugar Ray, the band, was a bit more popular with a lot more at stake than years past. It was then that lawyers for the artist Sugar Ray contacted the lawyers for the group Sugar Ray. "We did get their attention at this point and it got as far as them asking for proof," Sugar Ray says. Proof?

Lawyers for the group Sugar Ray wanted evidence that the artist Sugar Ray had been using the name for commercial means before the group began. No problem. Sugar Ray inundated their law offices with magazine clips, album covers, promo pictures, posters and audio interviews, including one conducted by Dan Aykroyd, as Elwood Blues. "That one I sent them was perfect because [Aykroyd] asked about the history of my name, when that came about, when that started."

Still, attorneys for the group Sugar Ray were stubborn, citing a multitude of other bands with "Sugar" in its name (the Sugarcubes, Sugar Hill Gang, Sugarloaf and just plain Sugar). "A lot of [a potential lawsuits] could be based on things like who the public perceives as 'Sugar Ray,'" says Codikow, who wasn't the group's attorney during last year's spat. "There's Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard. They're both boxers, but the public wouldn't confuse one with the other since one was much younger, they [fought] in different time periods, things like that." And there's also the obvious difference between the artists' music that, according to Codikow, is "so significantly different that the reasonable person wouldn't confuse the two." Sugar Ray also has hurt his case by referring to himself as Sugar Ray Norcia while on tour.

All decent arguments, but a tad thin for Sugar Ray Norcia's lawyers, who were itching to take their case before a judge, absorb some free publicity, and perhaps get a hefty pay-off. It was their client, however, whose pockets aren't anywhere near as deep as those of Mr. McGrath, who decided not to foot the legal bill -- for now.

"In the past few months there's been more confusion than ever because they've been on a lot of TV shows," says Sugar Ray, who hasn't ruled out future litigation against the group. "I get a lot of phone calls saying, 'how can you appear here when your schedule says you're appearing there?' A couple people called and congratulated me on record sales."

BLAIR R. FISCHER
(April 22, 1999)