Aston 'Family Man' Barrett

AN AMERICAN show promoter has sued legendary reggae band The Wailers to recover US$2 million in concert fees he claims it owes him.

The promoter, Bill Reid, told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper last week that the funds represent eight years of unpaid concert revenues. As their promoter, Reid said he was contracted to receive 10 per cent of The Wailers' live show fees.

"It's an unfortunate turn of events for people who used to get along really, really well," Reid's attorney, Jeff Breit, is quoted as saying in the Virginian-Pilot.

The lawsuit was filed in a Virginia court.

It states, in part, that Wailers' agents, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Jennifer Miller, lived lavishly while at the same time pleading poverty to Reid. Barrett is also the band's leader and bass player. Miller is his common-law wife.

Reid says he was The Wailers' promoter from 1998 to 2006. During that time, he says the band remained a popular draw, opening for big-name acts like Santana, the Allman Brothers and Sting.

Band profits

Although the band's coffers reportedly swelled, Reid said he never got his 10 per cent fee. In his suit, he charged that Barrett and Miller used band profits to take vacations, buy jewellery and expensive homes and send their children to private schools.

"Miller and Barrett continue to live extravagantly off the funds, which were supposed to be used to pay for band expenses, taxes owed to the state and federal government, and salaries of band members," the suit states.

The suit says Miller and Barrett live together in Centreville, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, operate a business there and are parents of seven children.

Richard Ottinger, a Norfolk, Virginia attorney, who represents The Wailers, Barrett and Miller in the lawsuit, declined to comment on specifics of the case.

"The comment for now is only that all the allegations are denied by the defendants," he told the Virginian-Pilot.

This is the second legal battle involving Barrett in two years. In 2006, he lost a 60 million pound lawsuit against the Bob Marley Estate for unpaid royalties, in London's High Court.

Barrett was reggae legend Bob Marley's musical director in The Wailers from the early 1970s until his death from cancer in 1981. Barrett is also credited as writer of Marley songs such as Rebel Music and Who The Cap Fit.

Although there have been many personnel changes, the band has continued to tour and record. They are currently enjoying a revival, making the American country charts with superstar singer Kenny Chesney whose song, Everybody Wants to go to Heaven, they appear.

The Wailers are scheduled to perform with Chesney at the November 12 Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee.