Last month, Rolling Stone reported that former Linkin Park bassist Kyle Christner filed a lawsuit against his ex-band claiming that he was owed royalties for songs he appeared on. Christner played with the band briefly in 1999, and he claims to have “collaborated on and recorded numerous songs with the band,” but that he “has never been paid a penny for his work with Linkin Park nor has he been properly credited.”
Linkin Park has responded to the lawsuit and is moving to have it dismissed. The band is also questioning why it took more than 20 years for the claims to have surfaced.
“Plaintiff claims that defendants … owe him money because he was a member of the band for, at most, eight months, 25 years ago, and was not paid for his ‘contributions’,” said Linkin Park’s lead counsel Edwin F. McPherson, via Billboard. “He asserts three claims, each of which fails.”
McPherson’s complaint continued: “Defendants cannot reasonably be expected to know how to respond to the [lawsuit] without knowing which copyrights are being addressed.”
Linkin Park’s lawyers also say the suit is past the statute of limitations. “Defendants repudiated Plaintiff’s purported ownership in any and all of the works mentioned in the [lawsuit] more than three years before Plaintiff filed this lawsuit — and indeed for over two decades. The Box Set was released in October, 2020; this action was filed on November 8, 2023 — over three years later.”
Christner’s attorney responded to Billboard saying: “Mr. Christner made valuable contributions to Linkin Park at a pivotal time for the band. He just wants his creative work acknowledged and compensated.”
Christner’s lawsuit also says that he thought his bass parts were re-recorded, but he found that not to be the case.
“Though Christner was once under the misimpression that his bass parts were re-recorded on the EP after he left the band, he has, upon closer review, identified his bass playing on the edition of the EP included in the box set,” read the lawsuit.
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