A son of Bruce Springsteen’s late sax player Clarence Clemons is facing a federal judge’s wrath for using his father’s name and likeness to sell cannabis and other products without permission, including a $250 per day fine until he stops.
A family trust that controls Clemons’ assets sued Nick Clemons last year for allegedly launching “Big Man Blazed Baked Goods” and other products without their permission, but he never responded to the lawsuit nor has he stopped using his father’s name and likeness – even after a judge ordered him to do so.
Now, a federal judge is getting serious. In an order on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp held Nick and his Big Man’s West LLC in contempt of court, and said they would face a fine of $250 every single day that they continued to flout the court’s authority.
“Defendants have taken no actions to comply with the order since receiving it,” Judge Shipp wrote. “They have not responded to any filing in this action [and] more troublingly … plaintiffs detail defendants’ extensive and ongoing violations of the order.”
The judge also ordered Nick and Big Man’s West to repay more than $7000 in legal fees incurred by the trust in seeking the contempt order.
Reached by Billboard, Nick Clemons said the lawsuit was “frivolous” and that he had “totally disregarded it.” He said he was a part owner of the trust entity and that you “cannot sue yourself.” He said he was “not even considering” complying with the order, but might file a response on Friday.
After decades playing saxophone as the legendary “Big Man” with Springsteen and the E Street Band, Clemons died suddenly in 2011 at the age of 69, after complications from hand surgery led to a blood clot that caused a stroke.
Before his death, Clemons established a legal trust to control his assets, naming Nick and three other siblings as beneficiaries. But under the terms he established, the trust itself has sole control over the rights to his name and likeness until his youngest song, Jarod, reaches the age of 25 in 2023.
But according to those that control the trust, Nick Clemons and brother Charles Clemons began violating those terms as early as 2017, when they established Big Man’s West to sell a beer called “Big Man’s Brew” beer. In 2020, they expanded to cannabis, advertising “Big Man Blazed Goods.”
The trustees finally sued Nick in April 2021, saying they had repeatedly demanded that he cease using the name and likeness. Charles Clemons was not named in the lawsuit. The trust is repped by Brett Van Benthysen, Brian D. Caplan, and Robert W. Clarida of the law firm Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLC.
A separate brand of Big Man’s Brew beer is now sold under a license from the estate and is not at issue in the lawsuit.