September 16, 2005

Tom Waits has filed a lawsuit against a unit of automaker General Motors Corp. and a German advertising agency for allegedly using a soundalike in a series of European ads.

The 55-year-old singer/songwriter, whose distinct, gravelly voice has won him two Grammy Awards, filed the civil lawsuit this week with a state court in Frankfurt, listing Adam Opel AG and the advertising firm McCann Erickson as the defendants.

Andreas Schumacher, Waits’ German lawyer, said the singer was approached numerous times about doing the ads last year but declined, citing a policy of not doing commercials. He said the firm then hired a sound-alike and the ads aired earlier this year in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.

Source: billboard

“Lennon,” the musical about the life and music of John Lennon that earned dismal reviews, will close just six weeks after it opened on Broadway. Created with the help of the former Beatle’s widow, Yoko Ono, the show had a troubled road to Broadway that involved major rewrites after it was first produced in San Francisco.

Critics slammed it for what The New York Times called its “Ono-centric” view of Lennon’s life, and audiences have dwindled since its Aug. 15 opening night, falling to around 40 percent capacity in recent weeks.

Source: billboard.com