Sharp Notes November 27 2002

REDDING IN THE FACE. Atlanta record executive Phil Walden and Zelma Redding, the widow of Georgia soul legend Otis Redding, are suing Atlanta magazine Executive Editor Scott Freeman over material in Freeman's recent biography, Otis! The Otis Redding Story. Walden first rose to prominence in the '60s as Redding's manager and business partner.

The suit, which seeks $15 million from Freeman and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, claims Freeman libeled Walden by printing rumors that had circulated about Walden's responsibility for Redding's death and Walden's connection to the Mafia. It also claims Freeman's book subjected Zelma Redding to humiliation and ridicule for printing what she says are false rumors that her husband had cheated on her and planned to divorce her.

While lawyers for Freeman and St. Martin's are expected to file a response to the suit by next week, Freeman says, "As a journalist, I strive to be very careful, and I believe that I've adhered to appropriate journalistic standards in the writing of the book."

This is not the first time Freeman has raised Walden's ire. Freeman's 1995 biography of the Allman Brothers, Midnight Riders, dealt in great detail with the tempestuous relationship between the band and Walden's Georgia-based record label, Capricorn Records.

While Otis! presents the conjecture about Walden sabotaging Redding's plane in the fatal 1967 crash as unsubstantiated rumor, the suit says those qualifications are merely "attempts by lawyers ... to distance oneself from defamatory and libelous statements." The suit also claims that Walden and Zelma Redding are private figures, and therefore enjoy more protection from potentially libelous statements than do public figures.

In addition, the suit states that the book caused Walden, who was undergoing treatments for lung cancer, emotional distress. According to his son, Philip Walden Jr. — who's also serving as one of his father's lawyers — Walden has now been given a clean bill of health.

For his part, Freeman says rumors about Walden have been circulating for years among Redding's friends, so reporting on them was appropriate in the course of writing a book-length biography.

(End reporting here; insert highly subjective opinion to follow:)

While it has no direct bearing on the legal issues, it's worth noting that Walden did not participate in interviews for either of Freeman's books, and his distrust of — and even hostility toward — the press goes back several decades. (Walden refused to be interviewed for my CL cover story about him and his family last year.)

Distancing himself from the press is his prerogative, of course, but it seems to have hurt Walden far more than it's helped him over his career. Had he granted an interview with Freeman, the author likely would've asked Walden directly about the rumors and gotten a better sense of Walden's sensitivity to the issue. Who knows? Walden may have warned Freeman about a potential lawsuit.

That wouldn't necessarily change the need to report on facts — namely, that rumors had circulated — but it certainly would've played a role in shaping the writer's words. Even a quote from Walden about how much he loved Redding would've balanced and further discredited the rumors. Forcing writers to work with only one side of the story, Walden shouldn't be surprised when his perspective doesn't come across as well as it might.

TLC FOR TLC. As TLC's surviving twosome entered into heavy promotion mode for the group's just-released album, 3D, one of group's publicists reports that Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins was forced to seek hospital care twice in recent weeks, causing the cancellation scheduled interviews and appearances. He did not specify T-Boz's illness or treatment, though the singer suffers from sickle cell anemia, a disease where pain and fatigue can flare up as a result of dehydration, over-activity or improper nutrition.

It's unclear how much the group's cancelled appearances will impact sales of 3D. The record has been well-received critically but entered the charts at a somewhat disappointing number six in a week where new releases by Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and Pearl Jam posed tough competition.

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