Queen Guitarist Says Late Photographer’s ‘Grasping’ Household are Suing Band Over Iconic Album Cowl

Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen, has revealed {that a} late photographer’s household is suing the band “for vast amounts of money” over their iconic album cowl picture.

Mick Rock, who’s considered some of the influential British music photographers and is dubbed as “the man who shot the 70s,” captured the duvet artwork for Queen’s second studio album Queen II (1974). Rock’s {photograph} — which exhibits the 4 band members wanting up on the digicam, with Freddie Mercury on the entrance, arms crossed — grew to become a defining picture for the band. The cowl portrait was ceaselessly re-used by Queen all through its profession, together with within the Bohemian Rhapsody music video.

Rock handed away on the age of 72 in 2021. In an interview with U.K. news outlet The Sun to advertise the band’s current reissue of Queen II, May revealed that Rock’s relations have since sued the band, claiming that the late photographer wasn’t correctly recompensed for his work with Queen.

“His family is suing us at the moment for vast amounts of money,” May says.

May claims that the band believes Rock was “very, very well” paid for his work on the time, however claims his household has since taken an aggressive authorized strategy, alleging they’re owed hundreds of thousands.

“Mick was a lovely guy, very ambitious, quite money-oriented. We paid him very, very well for what he did for us,” May tells The Sun. “His dependents became incredibly greedy and decided that everything was his idea, and we owed him millions and millions, not just in the UK, but all around the world.”

“So they’re suing us all around. So it’s a little hard for me to be objective about the thing.”

May went on to say that he needs Rock had been nonetheless alive, including that he believes they’d have been in a position to resolve the scenario rapidly and informally between themselves with out his relations within the image.

“I’m sorry he’s not around because I know if he was around, we’d go, ‘Oh, come on, we’ll settle this’” May explains. “We’d shake hands and it would be done tomorrow.”

A photographer’s property or relations could increase issues or pursue claims after their demise in the event that they imagine the unique phrases of use or compensation had been inadequate, or that the work is getting used past what was agreed.

A photographer’s property could increase issues or pursue claims after their demise if it believes the unique phrases of use or compensation for his or her work had been inadequate or have been exceeded. For instance, photographer Chi Modu took a number of the most recognizable photographs of rapper Notorious B.I.G. in entrance of the World Trade Center in 1996, a yr earlier than his demise. In 2022, Notorious BIG LLC — arrange by the mom and spouse of Christopher Wallace, often known as Biggie Smalls — requested a Los Angeles decide to cease Modu’s property from promoting merchandise that includes the pictures, arguing it violated their proper to publicity. The events later reached a settlement.

More not too long ago, relations of the photographer Mike Disfarmer reached a settlement in a copyright dispute involving 1000’s of his images and glass-plate negatives. The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts had acquired most of the surviving negatives after members of the family confirmed little curiosity in them on the time of his demise in 1959. While the phrases of the current settlement weren’t disclosed, the settlement seems to go away Disfarmer’s relations with the copyright and round 3,000 glass-plate negatives, together with lots of of posthumous prints.