State of Indiana Settles With Sugarland Stage Collapse Victims

A view of the crowd as Sugarland's stage collapses at the Indiana State Fair.

Joey Foley/Getty Images

The state of Indiana has settled with 63 of 65 victims in a class action lawsuit, which charged that the state was liable for deaths and injuries resulting from the August 13th stage collapse during a Sugarland performance at the Indiana State Fair.

Five million dollars in compensation has been made available to the victims and their families, all but $2,000 of which has been claimed. The state is still attempting to reach two claimants who have not yet accepted monetary offers. In addition to the $300,000 awarded to each claimant, fair officials have distributed nearly $800,000 in donations.

This is the first lawsuit to be settled stemming from the stage collapse tragedy. Another suit filed last month makes the band Sugarland liable on the claim that they neglected to call off the show despite dangerous weather conditions.

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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.”

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