Levon Helm’s daughter, singer-songwriter Amy Helm, is accused of causing at least $2 million in damages to Levon Helm Studios in a new lawsuit tied to the ongoing dispute over the Woodstock venue.
Filed in federal court in New York Monday, the suit focuses largely on Helm’s alleged financial mismanagement during her tenure as president of the Levon Helm Studios (also known as the Barn) between 2017 and 2026. The suit claims that a recent review of LHS’ financial records “uncovered millions of dollars of self-dealing transactions apparently authorized by Amy, or for her benefit.”
The suit also includes trademark infringement claims related to Helm’s continued use of the “Midnight Ramble” name. This was a concert series that began when Levon was still alive, and which Helm has continued under the moniker, “Helm Family Midnight Ramble,” allegedly in violation of a “Midnight Ramble” mark obtained in 2011.
The complaint contains some new details about the personal drama that’s played out alongside the business dispute, which has pitted Helm against her stepmother, Sandra “Sandy” Helm, and Brian Parillo, a musician and longtime shareholder in LHS. Specifically, the suit references security camera footage of an alleged altercation that took place May 28, two days after Helm was ousted from the LHS management group.
According to the suit, the camera footage shows that Helm “spent hours berating” Sandy, “demanding that she withdraw support for the change in management.” Along with the security footage, the suit claims Parillo and others recorded portions of the alleged argument on their phones, and that, after Helm saw she was being filmed, she “cursed at Brian and shoved him.” (Police were called to the Barn at the time, but no charges were filed.)
Helm, in court filings related to the ongoing matter of Levon Helm’s estate, has accused Parillo of manipulating Sandy, of “financial exploitation and elder abuse.” Parillo has denied this and, in turn, accused Helm of denying him and other LHS shareholders access to corporate records, along with financial mismanagement.
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In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, Helm said, “I unilaterally deny any and all of these baseless, spurious allegations. I have learned from my attorneys that there is now an index number associated with this filing, although the complaint itself is not loaded onto the court’s website. My legal team finds it interesting to note that media received this filing a full day before it was received by the court. It is clear what the intention is behind this filing: publicity.
“Once again, hustlers are attempting to scare and intimidate me, and once again, it is all a spin – the same garbage over and over again, spoon-fed to the media as an attempt to smear my name and make a cash grab. In other words: extortion.”
Since news of the dispute broke last month, Parillo has referred to an ongoing investigation into Helm’s alleged mismanagement of the company, with some of the findings included in the new lawsuit. It alleges that Helm charged $400,000 to LHS to cover everything from touring expenses to “personal tax repayments, her health and life insurance, her driver, her personal lawyer’s fees,” and more. Of this $400,000, the suit claims, $167,000 was “apparently so unrelated to the company” that Helm’s accountant (also named as a defendant) couldn’t “justify them as legitimate expenses” and categorized them as “Due from Amy.”
Furthermore, the suit claims that Helm “forced LHS to repay” a small business loan taken out during the pandemic to support her touring company. And that key office employees often worked on “personal business for Amy and companies she owned/was affiliated with” while ostensibly on the clock for LHS.
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Helm is also accused of taking out nearly $200,000 in “loans” from the estate of Levon Helm, including an LLC set up to distribute royalties from Levon’s final three albums. Because of these “loans,” the suit claims, the LLC was unable to distribute royalties to the various musicians who helped Levon record the albums for four years.
During Helm’s tenure as president of LHS, the suit alleges, the venue recorded increasingly larger losses. In 2017, the year Helm took over, the studio took in $120,000 in gross profit, with $134,000 in additional expenses, resulting in losses of about $14,000. By 2022, those losses were up to $308,000, as profits reached $344,000, but expenses hit $652,000.
According to the suit, Helm has continued to harm LHS since her ouster by publicizing the dispute and allegedly encouraging artists and vendors “to cancel contracts with LHS.” (Numerous artists have pulled out of gigs at the Barn over the past month, with many gigs moving to other venues in the Woodstock area.) “LHS believes that Amy is leading or encouraging show cancellations in hope that LHS will either run out of money, or be so focused on repaying ticketholders that it is unable to pay to continue its investigation into Amy and her co-conspirators or pursue them for damages in court,” the suit reads.
In a statement, Parillo said, “Levon and Sandy always treated me like family, and I felt the same about Amy. There’s no version of this I’m happy about. But Levon Helm Studios has obligations to its ticketholders, artists, and employees, and those obligations weren’t being met. Levon’s legacy isn’t honored if this place falls apart.”
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Sandy added, “I’ve been clear about where I stand on The Barn’s future and who I trust to run it. That hasn’t wavered.”
This story was updated at 5:02 p.m. ET with statements from Amy Helm, Sandy Helm, and Brian Parillo.
