A Los Angeles judge says producer Quincy Jones’s lawsuit against the estate of Michael Jackson estate can go to trial.
Jones is suing the estate for $10 million after they reworked, remixed, remastered, and reissued the landmark albums he produced for Jackson — including “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” and “Bad.”
The estate tried to get Judge Michael Stern to dismiss the case. Instead, Judge Stern said it can proceed.
Henry Gradstein is Jones’s lawyer, and he’s made a cottage business of suing the Jackson estate. He also represents Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck in their claims of molestation against Jackson when they were teens.
The Jones case may be harder for the estate and Sony to defend. First of all, this is Quincy Jones, and not just two mostly unknowns. Second, the Estate has documented in detail Jones’s work on the albums in all their reissues of the albums. Much as Michael Jackson was a genius, his best selling records wouldn’t have existed without Quincy Jones.
Jones contends that the Estate edited and changed his original recordings for the movie “This is It,” and for two Cirque du Soleil shows.
