LINKIN PARK Sued By Former Bassist
November 10, 2023, 10 months ago
A bass player — who claimed he collaborated on and recorded numerous songs with Linkin Park back in 1999 — has filed a lawsuit against the Grammy-winning group, seeking credit and unpaid royalties, reports Rolling Stone.
Kyle Christner said he never received “a penny” for his work, and asked a federal judge to step in and sort out ownership and authorship of more than 20 disputed songs, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles Wednesday and obtained by Rolling Stone.
At the center of the lawsuit is a claim that one of the band’s managers contacted Christner last April to say the bass player was owed royalties for three demos and the six-song Hybrid Theory EP that was included in the rap-metal group’s 20th anniversary box set released in 2020, which commemorated their landmark 2000 studio album of the same name.
The box set included Linkin Park’s 1999 self-released EP featuring Christner and other rare and previously unreleased tracks, some listed as “forgotten demos.” One such 1999 demo titled “Could Have Been,” has been viewed nearly a million times on YouTube since its release three years ago, the lawsuit stated.
When Christner went back and reviewed all the archival material in the box set, he concluded his work appears on “more than twenty songs,” the complaint read. Christner said he reported his findings back to the management company, Machine Shop Entertainment, but the director who initially reached out “went dark” after acknowledging receipt of his letter.
Read more at RollingStone.com.
