Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell estates to sue for Jimi Hendrix Experience royalties

The estates of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, who comprised the rhythm section of the Jimi Hendrix Experience have received confirmation to file a lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment over the rights to the band’s three albums: Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland.

The dispute centres on agreements that Redding and Mitchell signed in New York in the early 1970s, long before the advent of streaming and CDs significantly impacted such payout schemes. Royalties were granted for the trio’s recordings prior to Hendrix’s death in 1970 at age 27, with Redding and Mitchell receiving 25% each, and Hendrix allotting 50%. As per their agreement, Redding received $100,000 and Mitchell received $240,000 for their contributions to the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The pair also signed documents barring them from making any legal claims over the royalties.

Redding died in 2003, and Mitchell died in Oregon in 2008 at 62. In February 2022, their estates filed a lawsuit stating that the men died in relative poverty and that, under U.K. law, they’re legally entitled to larger cuts of the Jimi Hendrix Experience songs they helped develop.

Justice Michael Green, who will oversee the case, wrote in his ruling that his “overall conclusion is that the claims in respect of copyright and performers’ property rights survive and should go to trial,” in a statement obtained by Billboard.

Noel Redding first met Jimi Hendrix at an audition for the New Animals, where Redding’s bluesy bass stylings impressed Hendrix. Soon after, Redding joined the Experience as its bassist in 1966.

During the latter half of the ‘60s, The Jimi Hendrix Experience shook the world with iconic tunes such as ‘Purple Haze,’ ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return),’ the famed Dylan cover ‘All Along The Watchtower,’ ‘Hey Joe,’ and countless others. At the turn of 1969, it seemed The Jimi Hendrix Experience was on top of the world; Hendrix was the world’s highest-paid rock artist.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Photograph by Gered Maukowitz.

Despite their success, however, relations between the trio had deteriorated, particularly between Redding and Hendrix. After a performance in Denver in June 1969, Redding left the Jimi Hendrix Experience and formed his own band Fat Mattress, but sales were unsuccessful for their two albums.

Redding, a Kent native, spent his final decades in Ireland, living in Clonakilty, Co. Cork with his mother Margaret. In an article with Hot Press in 2003, Jackie Hayden reflected on his personal relationship with Redding and the bassist’s remarkable legacy:

“When I stayed with him a few times during visits to the Clonakilty area I was overwhelmed by the warmth and generosity of this quietly spoken man and felt privileged to be allowed view his lovingly-cared-for collection of Hendrix memorabilia.”

Speaking on Redding’s impoverished twilight years, Hayden said: “I was simultaneously depressed by the comparative dilapidation of a once great house and the penury in which Noel told me he regularly lived.

“He went so far as to admit that he and the love of his life Carol Appleby, who died in 1990 in a car crash in County Cork, had at times been reduced to bartering apples for potatoes, and cleaned windows and chopped logs in order to earn the essential shillings. Bands he played in often gigged around Munster for as little as 15 quid a night under various names, including Tonite and Secret Freaks. It was a mighty long way from the acclaim and adulation of the love generation.”

For all the fame and success of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Redding’s career was afflicted by various litigious attempts to secure the royalties and earnings he believed he was owed by several management, publishing and production agencies. The former Experience bassist poured a vast amount of resources and energy into filing through the courts, attempting, “to untangle the labyrinth of signed contracts, verbal agreements, dodgy investment schemes and financial arrangements often made with companies who often didn’t actually exist and could never be traced,” continued Hayden.

Yet, Redding spent his downtime helping young musicians avoid his experiences with practical advice and guidance. In the late ‘80s, Mitchell and Redding reunited for a Hot Press Music Seminar in the RDS, telling various horror stories in the realm of music royalties and ownership rights with the assertion of being swindled for a net total of £23 million over the years. Redding died in 2003, before he could make proper headway towards filing a lawsuit over royalties.

Carrying the torch for Redding and Mitchell’s legacy, their heirs have filed suit for copyright ownership on both sides of the Atlantic, more recently focusing on the Sony Music settlement. Sony Music Entertainment have maintained their previous contractual agreement, which prohibits the musicians legal claim to the band’s music. After years of pursuing litigation, the estates are closer than ever to a decision after Justice Green’s recent ruling to take the dispute to trial, with a date yet to be announced.