Judge Caps Expenses for Etta James

Etta James performs at the Santa Cruz Blues Festival.

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

The husband and sons of terminally ill singer Etta James have reached an agreement on the singer's estate and medical care. James, 73, was reported near death last week of complications from leukemia and chronic kidney problems. Her son Donto James asked a Riverside County (CA) judge to name him temporary conservator of James' $1 million estate in place of his stepfather, Artis Mills, who married James in 1969. 

The judge ruled in favor of letting Mills retain his position, but reduced the amount of money available to Mills for his wife's expenses to $350,000. Mills had been seeking $500,000, while Etta James' sons, Donto and Sametto, requested the figure be capped at $100,000.

Much of the expense has been accrued by the salary of Dr. Elaine James (no relation), the singer's around-the-clock physician, who made the announcement last week about Etta James' failing health. The doctor recently received a raise in her monthly salary from $25,000 to $30,000.

"Dr. James is keeping this lady alive," Mills' attorney told the court.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter