.

Henley to Speak on Labor Law

Don Henley, Courtney Love to testify on California labor laws

August 24, 2001 12:00 AM ET

Don Henley and Courtney Love are scheduled to testify at a California Senate hearing on that state's contractual laws in Sacramento on September 5th.

The hearing will specifically examine the "Seven Year Statute," which limits personal service contracts to a maximum of seven years. While the statute has its roots in movie studio contracts, it was amended in 1987 to provide a limited exception for recording contracts. Courtney Love is currently involved in a lawsuit with Universal Records that speaks to this issue. Love is seeking to free her band Hole from its recording contract with Geffen Records under the Seven Year rule. Henley and Luther Vandross had been involved in similar lawsuits addressing that statute.

Chairing the hearing is California State Senator Kevin Murray, a former music agent for the William Morris Agency and personal manager and an attorney for both artists and small record companies. "Virtually every other industry in California -- with the exception of the record industry -- is held to personal-service contracts that cannot legally run longer than seven years," Murray said. "I am aware that there are two side to this issue, that is precisely the reason this hearing is necessary."

The hearing will also examine other issues facing the entertainment industry, including music and movie piracy and online music sharing.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
Music Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“Jimbrowski”

Jungle Brothers | 1988

Jungle Brothers sampled, among other things, jazz, James Brown and house music. The New York crew's lyrics were equally diverse but never short on clever wordplay or a playful sense of humor, as exemplified by this song from 1988's Straight Out the Jungle. "The idea for that came at the end of a studio session, with Mike, me, Red Alert and a woman Red was dating at the time," says the group’s Afrika Baby Bam. "Red was flirting with her and kept saying 'Jimbrowski' the whole night. Mike and I wrote the rhymes on the way back from the subway."

More Song Stories entries »