The Hendrix estate is suing Experience's bassist and drummer

Jimi Hendrix’s estate, Experience Hendrix, is suing the estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. 

Attorney Lawrence Abramson contacted The Experience’s distributor, Sony, and claimed they owed Redding and Mitchell performance royalties for around 3 billion streams. 

Abramson suggested that “such streaming figures and sales is estimated to be in the millions of pounds.”

“Ignoring this letter may lead our clients to commence proceedings against you and may increase your liability for costs,” he continued. 

In response, Experience Hendrix and Sony have launched a suit against the estate’s of both Redding and Mitchell. 

The “threats of suit have created a real and reasonable apprehension of liability on the part of plaintiffs [the Hendrix estate and Sony],” 

“The threat of such suit by defendants is sufficiently immediate and real as of the date of this filing, to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment of ownership and non-infringement.”

In summary, The Hendrix estate and Sony are seeking a ruling that no money is owed to the estate’s of Redding or Mitchell.  

Hendrix and Sony’s lawyer, Dorothy Weber, claims that Mitchell and Redding signed documents in 1973 and 1974 agreeing to not sue the estate in the future. 

However, the estates of Redding and Mitchell have countered, suggesting that those documents are no longer binding. 

Hendrix, Mitchell and Redding formed The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 and the three played together until Redding’s departure in 1969. 

Hendrix died in September of the following year. 

Hendrix’s estate was inherited by his father James Allen, and is now run by daughter Janie since James’ death in 2002. 

Abramson is claiming that “both [Redding and Mitchell] died in relative poverty having never received their true entitlement from their works, performances and founding membership.”

In contrast, Weber suggests that “Neither Redding nor Mitchell ever asserted an ownership, or any other performers’ rights, in the recordings.”