By Hannah Karp
LOS ANGELES--Two lawyers who have been vying for control over
the estate of the late pop star Prince were both denied official
roles by a judge last month. But neither man is going anywhere.
Veteran entertainment attorney L. Londell McMillan and CNN
political commentator Van Jones were close advisers to Prince at
different times in his life. Following the reclusive artist's
drug-overdose death in April, the two have ignited a family feud
among his six known heirs--a sister and five half-siblings--over
issues including the singer's legacy, a memorial concert and the
lawyers' own conflicts of interest.
Both men were in Los Angeles this week ahead of the music
industry's Grammy Awards on Sunday. The same day, Prince's catalog
will become available for the first time on major music-streaming
services such as Spotify AB and Apple Inc.'s Apple Music, people
familiar with the matter said.
The development comes nearly a year after Prince's death and
offers a window into Mr. McMillan's vision for how best to manage
the estate--a view that differs in some respects from that of Mr.
Jones.
"Prince did not rush to put all of his music on streaming--why
should we?" said Mr. McMillan, 50 years old, in an interview,
having helped negotiate the latest licensing deals on the estate's
behalf as one of the two court-appointed advisers to the estate's
interim administrator, Bremer Trust. He no longer has that title
with Bremer's replacement, Comerica Bank & Trust, which took
over in January.
Mr. McMillan added that if he had been in control from the
get-go, he would have more aggressively policed the videos of
Prince's music that popped up without the estate's permission after
his death, enlisting help from fans, even though "it would have
cost a lot."
"I'm here to make sure the legacy of Prince does not go afoul
from how he lived his life," he said. Prince hadn't wanted to
license his music to most streaming services--save Jay Z's
Tidal--during his life, Mr. McMillan and others close to him
said.
Mr. Jones, 48, on the other hand, has seen more urgency in
introducing Prince's music to new fans to keep his legacy alive,
especially as the anniversary of his death approaches, people
familiar with the matter said. He could also parlay his own current
fame as a pundit and documentarian into opportunities for the
estate, these people added.
In a court filing last month, Mr. Jones's team said that the
Prince tribute concert Mr. McMillan organized in October was
mismanaged and "has not been produced into a television event or
documentary that could enhance and build the Prince brand."
Mr. McMillan said that the sold-out show was a success.
Prince loathed the notion of entertainment executives exploiting
his music for their own gain and opted whenever possible to manage
his own affairs, according to many who knew him. Nonetheless he
left no will, leading to the current fights over his estate. The
estate's value has been estimated at roughly $200 million--about
half of that after taxes--and now belongs to his six estranged
siblings, under Minnesota state law. Assets include nearly $1
million in gold bars, $25 million in real estate and a "vault" of
recordings that Prince never released, according to court
filings.
As planning for the estate got under way last year, the two men
began vying for the heirs' allegiance, though Mr. McMillan said he
never intended to divide them.
Mr. Jones, who met Prince in 2008 and helped negotiate one of
his record deals, began representing the late singer's half-brother
Omarr Baker in August and his younger sister, Tyka Nelson, in
December. Mr. McMillan, who considered himself Prince's "co-pilot"
and "COO" in the '90s until peeling off to work with other clients
such as the late pop star Michael Jackson, has won the allegiance
of Prince's other half-siblings: Sharon Nelson, Alfred Jackson,
John Nelson and Norrine Nelson. Having shifted to private equity in
recent years, he is now acting as their business adviser, not their
attorney.
Alfred Jackson's brother and personal affairs manager, Bruce
Jackson, said in an email that they decided to "have a substantial
business relationship" with Mr. McMillan because he was Prince's
longest-serving manager and had guided "Prince in the right
direction" with an impressive work ethic.
Sharon Nelson said in an email that Mr. McMillan's bond with
Prince "resulted in innovative changes in the music business" and
that she was wary of non-experts or "others who wish to support
their own agenda."
"He has done a great job in the face of continuous opposition,"
Ms. Nelson wrote.
The other heirs declined to comment.
Mr. McMillan has already helped sell rights to license various
aspects of Prince's music to several different companies. Vivendi
SA's Universal Music Group said Thursday that it had bought
licensing rights to Prince's 25 independently released albums and
his "highly anticipated trove" of unreleased works known as "the
vault." The record company spent about $30 million on the deal,
which is good for at least five years, according to people familiar
with the matter.
Warner Music Group, the record label that issued his first 18
albums containing most of his hits, maintains its majority
ownership of those works in perpetuity overseas, though its U.S.
copyrights on some of them will expire in coming years and will now
go to Universal Music as part of its deal.
Immediately after Prince died, Messrs. Jones and McMillan both
traveled to Minneapolis for his memorial service and met in person
for the first time. It was a friendly encounter during which Mr.
McMillan said he made clear that he was "very, very concerned that
the estate needed to be handled properly and efficiently" and that
he "knew that there weren't many people" up to the job.
A judge in January appointed Comerica Bank to take over from
Bremer as the estate's administrator, naming neither Mr. McMillan
nor Mr. Jones to aid the bank, despite the heirs' divided
nominations for each. But both intend to remain involved.
"I actually had wanted to work with everybody--but somehow, some
way, it became very weird with two [of the] heirs," Mr. McMillan
said.
Write to Hannah Karp at hannah.karp@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 11, 2017 09:15 ET (14:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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