Grateful Dead deal scuttled
Jerry Garcia's guitar maker backs out of settlement with band
Ray Delgado, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, December 4, 2001
sfgate.com
A settlement that would have put to rest a dispute over the ownership of four guitars that belonged to Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia has fallen apart, after the maker of the guitars refused to say that he was happy with the deal.
Guitar maker Doug Irwin announced yesterday that he would not accept the settlement crafted by his attorneys and attorneys for Grateful Dead Productions, which represents several of Garcia's band mates.
"I drew the line when their lawyers' fine print said that I had to do a joint press conference with the Grateful Dead where I would have to say that I was fully satisfied with the settlement," Irwin said in a statement.
Now both sides are headed back to court tomorrow morning, not to submit the settlement but to resume the case.
"We're absolutely shocked," said Eric Doney, attorney for Grateful Dead Productions. "The settlement agreement that we proposed is exactly the same one he agreed to last month. It doesn't make any sense."
According to terms of a codicil that were revealed after his death in 1995, Garcia wanted all four guitars made by Irwin to be returned to him. But surviving band members filed suit to keep the guitars, maintaining that the band members collectively owned all instruments purchased with Dead funds.
The group has long planned to open a museum in San Francisco called Terrapin Station, of which Garcia's guitars would be a cornerstone exhibit.
Dennis McNally, a publicist for the band, said he was sad to hear that the case would proceed.
"Nobody from the Grateful Dead went into this with the notion that they would keep the guitars," he said. "They went into this with the desire to protect the interests of Deadheads. Obviously, now it's going to drag on, and that's too bad."
Under the terms of the settlement, Irwin would have received the first two guitars he made for Garcia, Wolf and Tiger, while the band would have kept the other two, Rosebud and Headless. A fifth guitar made by Irwin, who has fallen on hard times after he was almost killed in a hit-and-run accident in 1998, is apparently lost.
Irwin's attorney, William Romaine, said his client was prepared to go back to court because he felt that the settlement went against Garcia's wishes and because he was not willing to say he supported it.
"He felt that if it was in accord with Jerry's wishes, they would have given him all four of the guitars," Romaine said. Irwin also objected to a clause in the settlement that required him to sell the guitars immediately rather than take possession of them, Romaine said.
"I'm afraid the devils in the details have swallowed up the angels in the accord," Romaine said.
If they are put up for auction, the guitars are estimated to fetch opening bids of $100,000 -- and could possibly rival the highest price ever paid for a guitar, $450,000 in August 1999 for Eric Clapton's "Brownie."
Irwin initially offered to sell his rights to all five guitars for $2.5 million. |
