Jello Biafra Ordered To Pay Back Royalties To Dead Kennedys Bandmates

A San Francisco Superior Court jury decided on Friday (5/19) that Jello Biafra, former frontman of Dead Kennedys, must pay his ex-bandmates $220,000 in damages. The three ex-Dead Kennedys members--guitarist "East Bay Ray" Pepperell, bassist Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall) and drummer D.H. Peligro (Darren Henley)--filed a lawsuit against their former singer in 1998.

In their lawsuit, the former band members claimed that Biafra and his record label, Alternative Tentacles, shorted them out of $76,000 in royalties garnered from Dead Kennedys' music. The trio also alleged that Biafra and his label had not put any effort into promoting the band's back catalog of albums.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Biafra had the following to say after the verdict was delivered: "If every single person who sells a product … can sue claiming there should have been more ads [placed], that's the biggest fraud I can think of in the history of rock, and a terrible precedent for all American business.''

According to published reports, Biafra felt his former bandmates had filed the suit in retaliation for his refusal to license the rights to Dead Kennedys' song "Holiday in Cambodia" to Levi's for use in an ad campaign.

In addition to deciding against Biafra, the jury also determined that the band's songs were the property of Decay Music--a company comprised of the four band members--and not the individual songwriters. That verdict means that the Decay Music partnership can now make decisions based on a majority vote rather than a unanimous one.

Biafra reportedly plans to appeal the decision.