Jay Bennett Files Suit Against Tweedy

The Wilco soap opera, revisited this time for the courtroom.

By Fred Mills

We'd barely finished posting out story about the new live Wilco DVD when word arrived of some rather unpleasant Wilco related news: yesterday in Illinois' Cook County Circuit Court, erstwhile Wilco member Jay Bennett filed a suit against bandleader Jeff Tweedy claiming he's owed "compensation for his services rendered in the form of continuing and perpetual artist royalty payments."

In a report filed by the Chicago Tribune Bennett is suing Tweedy because, while he did get paid during his 1994-2001 tenure with the band, it was only "infrequent partial payments" amounting to far less than he was actually owed - including compensation for appearing in the 2002 Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. Bennett is asking for damages of $50,000.

As Pitchfork further points out, there's no love lost between Bennett and Tweedy, as the aforementioned film, which was about the making of the album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, didn't portray Bennett in a very favorable light. The pair had a huge falling out and Bennett received the boot from Tweedy in August of 2001 (although to this date there continues to be commentary along the lines of "You're fired!/No, I quit first!" whenever the topic is revisited).