SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- Members of The Dead Kennedys, once one of California's most infamous punk rock bands, have won a suit against their former lead singer, Jello Biafra, after a jury found he had underpaid them and failed to promote their back catalog.
"This is the ugliest thing that's ever happened to me," Biafra, born Eric Boucher, told Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle after a jury awarded his former bandmates some $220,000 in damages.The suit, by ex-Dead Kennedys East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride, and D.H. Peligro, claimed that Biafra and his Alternative Tentacles record company failed to pay $76,000 in royalties for a number of Dead Kennedys hits from the late 1970s and early 1980s, including "Holiday in Cambodia" and "California Uber Alles."
Biafra contended that the band was angry because he refused to license "Holiday in Cambodia" to Levi's for use in an advertisement. The Dead Kennedys officially broke up in 1986.