Jay Bennett posts about upcoming surgery

[isadorah]

why does one wait 8 years to file a law suit for $$$$ that yeah...forget it...

 

I think there should be a fundraiser put together to help someone pay their doctor bills that no one in the world has ever heard of...maybe a matching fundraiser for every $1 that is raised for Jay a $1 goes to an anonymous person in need. or Jay should split half his lawsuit money with someone that also needs a surgery and cannot pay for it.

 

or Jay's lawyers should take the money they are making from the lawsuit and pay for someone's medical bills...

 

*sigh*

 

I should stay out of this thread. It makes me sad and angry.

[SquashedFrog]

I bet he didn't tell the original poster about this!!! So much for inside scoop.

[Bhickman]

I bet he didn't tell the original poster about this!!! So much for inside scoop.

 

uh....no. I'm floored and I think my exuberance to possibly help him may have an adverse affect on my interview request with Wilco. That may be paranoid thinking on my part, but this news is fucked up and I feel like someone just smashed me over the head with a baseball bat.

[mountain bed]

uh....no. I'm floored and I think my exuberance to possibly help him may have an adverse affect on my interview request with Wilco. That may be paranoid thinking on my part, but this news is fucked up and I feel like someone just smashed me over the head with a baseball bat.

Your heart was/is in the right place. We're still talking about someone who needs medical attention. I still think a benefit is a good idea. Nothing has changed in that respect, so go on and do what you think is right.

[Bhickman]

I think I can only laugh about at this point. The timing couldn't be more perfect.

[bobbob1313]

Man, Jay Bennet suing Wilco is going to be one of the most fun things to ever happen on this board.

 

We've already had people wishing further injury on him now, how long before death wishes start popping up.

[Bhickman]

What I'm not understanding is if he's truly suing Jeff. Why not the publishing company, the management or the label(s)?

 

I know it's not him that set this up to go this exact way, that it's most likely an attorney of some sort, but it sounds more than a little odd that Jeff is singled out.

 

Unless the sad state of newspapers has gotten so sad that it's becoming like that movie "Idiocracy" and everyone's got the story wrong.

[solace]

yeah, seems like if the facts are as they're stated in the article, he has a decent case, but it should be directed towards the labels really.

 

royalties are often a pretty ugly deal and getting shafted on them is hardly rare sadly.

[Bhickman]

I know that Bennett & Burch didn't get a dime from Undertow for "The Palace at 4 AM" ... maybe they're next? LoL.

 

Jay Bennett - musical attorney!

[pillowy star]

I guess this will probably mean no upcoming Wilco benefit for Jay:

 

Wilco ex-member sues frontman Tweedy

 

Ditto.

 

What. An. Idiot.

 

Pathetic.

 

I'm out.

[John Smith]

Man, Jay Bennet suing Wilco is going to be one of the most fun things to ever happen on this board.

 

We've already had people wishing further injury on him now, how long before death wishes start popping up.

 

I would reserve judgement on this. These things happen al the time with bands and ex-members. If the case has no merit it will be tossed or he will lose the case and the $$ to take the case to court. If the case has merit, then what? Probably many people will still think JB is an ass for suing for what should have been his ($$).

[isadorah]

I think my exuberance to possibly help him may have an adverse affect on my interview request with Wilco.

 

 

If you aren't able to get an interview with Wilco, I don't think it will because of your connection to or exuberance to help Jay. They don't quite strike me as being that way.

[Bhickman]

Yeah, I'm just being a little paranoid like I said earlier.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I would reserve judgement on this. These things happen al the time with bands and ex-members. If the case has no merit it will be tossed or he will lose the case and the $ to take the case to court. If the case has merit, then what? Probably many people will still think JB is an ass for suing for what should have been his ($).

 

I think it's hard for anybody who's seen the Heavy Metal Drummer/Jeff puking scene of IATTBYH to not think Jay is an ass. But whether he's an ass or not, if he's owed money for his work with Wilco, he has as much a right to it as anyone else in the band does. Wilco has been in the spotlight more lately, and the timing of his lawsuit does seem opportunistic and it doesn't really make sense why he's suing Jeff and not the label or Sam Jones, but I'm sure there's a lot we don't know. Maybe his upcoming surgery made him realize how badly he does need this money, even if he's got to fight for it.

[Bhickman]

okay - to address this infamous scene in that film.

 

You can tell Jay is one of those people who gets so involved in what he's doing he can't see past what he's thinking sometimes. He's an incredibly smart guy and, as he freely admits in the Greg Kot book, someone with some emotional issues. Sometimes we can all argue points stronger than may need to be argued or feel we need to make ourselves clear if we feel someone's not understanding what they're saying. It's not hard to get wrapped up in something and not know how to get out of it.

 

I think that this is what happened in that scene.

 

Now, is it possible this sort of thing happened enough to wear thin? Most likely. I think the key problem with Jay leaving the band has more to do with him stepping in as engineer on YHF than anything. He freely admits that the band members were a bit resentful of him taking too much control. The problem is this, how did that door get opened to allow him to do so?

 

It's a common problem with Wilco in earlier years that communication was beyond poor. Ignoring problems was easier than confronting them head on to resolve them before they became bigger problems. If someone were to have pulled Jay aside before the recording of YHF and said that he can't engineer the album as well as write on it and perform on it, he may still even be in the band. But that's not the case and now we're where we're at.

 

Mind you this is all my opinion based off of all of my accumulative reading about the band. None of this even comes from discussions I've had with any of the band members at any time.

[gogo]

I'm guessing everyone's seen it already, but there's a thread in Just A Fan, specifically about the lawsuit, which is working up to a pretty solid foam already: http://forums.viachicago.org/index.php?showtopic=39830

 

I'm not going to close/merge these (yet ), but if possible (and I know they're going to be intertwined in most people's minds), could we keep discussion of Jay's health issues and any possible benefits for him in this thread, and the lawsuit stuff over there?

 

Otherwise, we're going to have two parallel threads on essentially the same topic.

 

Thanks.

[Bhickman]

feel free to close this one - if there is a benefit we can start a new one. he isn't returning my calls anyways, so I don't know what the likelihood of one happening is.

[gogo]

I'm not going to close it, because I'm sensitive to charges of moderator abuse , but you (the thread's owner) can close it any time. I'm fine with it staying open, people may still want to post updates on Jay's condition if he posts further on myspace, etc.

[John Smith]

I think it's hard for anybody who's seen the Heavy Metal Drummer/Jeff puking scene of IATTBYH to not think Jay is an ass. But whether he's an ass or not, if he's owed money for his work with Wilco, he has as much a right to it as anyone else in the band does. Wilco has been in the spotlight more lately, and the timing of his lawsuit does seem opportunistic and it doesn't really make sense why he's suing Jeff and not the label or Sam Jones, but I'm sure there's a lot we don't know. Maybe his upcoming surgery made him realize how badly he does need this money, even if he's got to fight for it.

 

Remember the scene/movie is edited to tell a story.

 

As to the timing of the suit, we have no idea if they have been going back and forth for years, or if Jay suddenly decided to go after the money because Wilco has put out the movie, is touring and is about to release a new album so strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. However the courts really don

[gogo]

if possible (and I know they're going to be intertwined in most people's minds), could we keep discussion of Jay's health issues and any possible benefits for him in this thread, and the lawsuit stuff over there?

Thanks for cooperating!

[Doug C]

Thanks for cooperating!

I hope that his hip gets replaced ASAP.

[ction]

I hope for Tweedy's sake he doesn't own stock in an artificial hip company with a history of poor quality control.

[Central Scrutinizer]

I hope that his hip gets replaced ASAP.

When he does get it done, will it be a fixied hipster?

[Guest Speed Racer]

Did anyone think he was being an ass? Every time I watch that, I just think he's sick, and that Jeff is sick, too; understand that I don't mean that in a bad way at all. Jay is so caught up in himself in that scene (and in a few scenes in that movie), so anxious and so dependent, I think it's pretty sad (again, no bad connotations). Jeff and Jay had a tremendously successful relationship for a long time, but that scene underscores to me that two sick people reach a point where either one gets healthy(/ier) or one gets sicker, and they simply can't connect how they used to. In unhealthy relationships, just one change can transform the relationship into a pretty toxic dynamic, and that's what I see in that scene.

 

If Jay had stayed in Wilco they would have crashed and burned; his talents didn't dimisnish, Jeff's didn't diminish, but they were no longer compatible.

 

I feel for Jay. He's in a bad position, which he got into because of his own actions and inactions. He ended up on the bad end of a career break-up, which I don't think he could have avoided. He ignored an ailment for a little too long, and now it's much worse than it would have been otherwise.

 

As odd as this sounds (and it WILL sound odd), Jay reminds me a LOT of my mother in his/her more erratic moments; oddly enough, she recently had shoulder replacement surgery because she neglected to address a nagging problem for five years. And as is the case for both of them, when someone with a history of chronic grandiosity/histrionic displays of self actually does have a big problem, it's hard to want to get out and pity party with them. If Jeff, Nels, John, Pat, Glenn or Mike were having a hip replacement and couldn't afford it, I think our collective attitude would be a lot different; it's sad, but it's true.

 

Yeah, this was kind of an odd post.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Did anyone think he was being an ass? Every time I watch that, I just think he's sick, and that Jeff is sick, too; understand that I don't mean that in a bad way at all. Jay is so caught up in himself in that scene (and in a few scenes in that movie), so anxious and so dependent, I think it's pretty sad (again, no bad connotations). Jeff and Jay had a tremendously successful relationship for a long time, but that scene underscores to me that two sick people reach a point where either one gets healthy(/ier) or one gets sicker, and they simply can't connect how they used to. In unhealthy relationships, just one change can transform the relationship into a pretty toxic dynamic, and that's what I see in that scene.

 

If Jay had stayed in Wilco they would have crashed and burned; his talents didn't dimisnish, Jeff's didn't diminish, but they were no longer compatible.

 

I feel for Jay. He's in a bad position, which he got into because of his own actions and inactions. He ended up on the bad end of a career break-up, which I don't think he could have avoided. He ignored an ailment for a little too long, and now it's much worse than it would have been otherwise.

 

As odd as this sounds (and it WILL sound odd), Jay reminds me a LOT of my mother in his/her more erratic moments; oddly enough, she recently had shoulder replacement surgery because she neglected to address a nagging problem for five years. And as is the case for both of them, when someone with a history of chronic grandiosity/histrionic displays of self actually does have a big problem, it's hard to want to get out and pity party with them. If Jeff, Nels, John, Pat, Glenn or Mike were having a hip replacement and couldn't afford it, I think our collective attitude would be a lot different; it's sad, but it's true.

 

Yeah, this was kind of an odd post.

I understand what you mean, and that was sort of my point, as far as JB and JT and their mental health. There's a story related in Kot's book (I think he quotes Bennett) about JT having a bad trip and Bennett holding him and helping him through it that sounded ... so ... creepy. But dependency/enabling his a weird cycle.

 

On the current lineup, if they couldn't afford the surgery, we would not know who they were. I think if JB would have said "lil' help?" prior to this, it would have come out of the woodwork.