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Almost a year after Brian Wilson filed suit against one-time collaborator Joe Thomas seeking damages and a break-up of their 1997 joint venture -- and Thomas' counter lawsuit, filed ten days later -- the two former partners have settled out of court. Neither side would disclose the particulars of the settlement.
Wilson and Thomas began working together in 1996, co-producing the
Beach Boys tribute album Stars and
Stripes, and Thomas helped produce and arrange Wilson's 1998
album, Imagination. The two men grew so close that they
even purchased homes right next door to each other in a Chicago
suburb.
Thomas accompanied Wilson on his U.S. tour last year, playing
piano, but last August, Brian's wife Melinda Wilson sued Thomas,
claiming that the producer used his association with her husband to
raise his industry profile and wrongfully enrich himself through
his association with the former Beach Boy. Thomas ripped a lawsuit
back at Mrs. Wilson alleging that she had "schemed against and
manipulated" both himself and Brian.
JAAN UHELSZKI
(July 19, 2000)