The White Stripes have been in court to testify in the previously reported lawsuit being pursued against them by producer Jim Diamond. As previously reported, Diamond claims he is due a share of the royalties on the band's first two albums, which he worked on and the sound of which, he claims, he was integral in creating.
Taking to the stand first, Meg White denied that she or Jack had made any promises to Diamond regarding future fees or a cut of royalties, adding that Diamond's credit as co-producer on their first album was more a gesture of kindness on their part than a recognition of the producer's role in creating the band's distinctive sound. She said that Jack, in fact, deserved all the credit for producing the first album.
While Jack White's testimony covered some of the same ground, most attention has gone on the questioning relating to his run-in with Von Bondies frontman Jason Stollsteimer back in 2003. As you might remember, White gave former friend Stollsteimer quite a beating during the incident at a Detroit club, a run in seemingly related to long standing tensions between the two relating to White's involvement as a producer on the Von Bondies 2001 album 'Lack Of Communication'.
Diamond's people have raised that incident because they want to demonstrate that White has a history of threatening his associates - Diamond claims White made threats to him when he found out that he was planning to sue the band. To that end they called Stollsteimer to testify. The Von Bondies man related his side of the story behind that 2003 altercation, while claiming that two years earlier he had found a note from White stuck to the front door of his house with a knife - the note was scrawled on a magazine interview with the Von Bondies in which White felt his role on 'Lack Of Communication' had been played down by Stollsteimer, the note concluding with the line "That's the last time I help you out".
In his testimony White admitted to attacking Stollsteimer at the Detroit club in 2003, but described the note on the door story as "a laughable lie". Asked about allegations that he had told Diamond that he would ruin the producer's career if he proceeded with his lawsuit against the band, the Detroit News says that White replied: "I believe I said this was going to ruin his reputation, if he did something like this."
The case continues.