Academy Announces Special Merit Awards Honorees
Leonard Cohen, Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Jackson, and Loretta Lynn among Special Merit Awards recipients
December 10, 2009
The Recording Academy announced its 2010 Special Merit Awards recipients today. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award honorees are Leonard Cohen, Bobby Darin, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Michael Jackson, Loretta Lynn, André Previn, and Clark Terry; this year's Trustees Award honorees are Harold Bradley, Florence Greenberg and Walter C. Miller; and AKG and Thomas Alva Edison are this year's Technical GRAMMY Award honorees.
The special invitation-only ceremony will be held during GRAMMY Week on Jan. 30, 2010, and a formal acknowledgment will be made during the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast, which will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 31 and broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.
"This year's honorees are a prestigious group of diverse and prominent creators who have contributed some of the most distinguished and influential recordings," said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. "Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy that has positively affected multiple generations, and will continue to influence generations to come. It is an honor and privilege to recognize such talented individuals who have had and will continue to have such an influence in both our culture and the music industry." The Lifetime Achievement Award honors lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium while the Trustees Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity. Both awards are determined by vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by vote of The Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees as well as The Academy's Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.
About the Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees:
With a career that has spanned four decades and 18 albums, singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen has worked with the likes of such artists as Elton John, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, and Iggy Pop. He has garnered a number of awards including an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and just recently won a GRAMMY Award for his participation on the album Herbie Hancock: The Joni Letters, which won Album Of The Year at the 50th Annual GRAMMYs. This past February, Cohen launched an international tour that began with the reopening of the legendary New York City Beacon Theater.
Leave it to Leonard Cohen, perhaps contemporary music's greatest living musical poet, to sum up the spirit of the Special Merit Awards Ceremony during his Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech Saturday at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. Dressed in a black suit and speaking in his trademark vampire baritone, the stubbly singer/songwriter thanked The Recording Academy for allowing him to be a part of "this distinguished company…as we make our way to the finish line that some of us have already crossed."
Sobering words. If we are to take away anything from Michael Jackson's senseless, unexpected death last year at age 50, it's that we must appreciate our heroes and loved ones before, and after, they cross over into the unknowable beyond. Appreciation is exactly what the annual Special Merit Awards are all about, and The Academy honored 12 legendary artists, innovators, companies, and behind-the-scenes technicians whose timeless works have helped improve the quality of lives worldwide.
Though Cohen's poetic, fateful words resounded throughout the event, other recipients delivered insightful stories and jokes that appealed more to the funny bone. A frail Clark Terry had to be helped to the stage, but not even illness could dampen the trumpeter's indomitable comic spirit. Hobbling down the stage in his wheelchair, the iconic jazz trumpeter joked that he was going to "keep doing it" until he got it right. Summing up his career, Delta blues singer/guitarist David "Honeyboy" Edwards stated that he "played a lot of blues out there…and I’m still 'knocking 'em dead." The son of late Scepter Records founder Florence Greenberg, who was there to accept a Trustees Award on her behalf, reminisced that "if you called her 'mother' at the office, our pay got docked."
Accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award for the late Bobby Darin, Dodd Darin struggled to compose himself as he remembered his dad. Flanked by his two school-aged daughters, Dodd shared how his multi-talented father was outraged that blacks were not allowed to perform at New York's legendary Copacabana, and recounted how he insisted black comic George Kirby open his show at the nightspot. The club's owner balked at the request, but Darin stood his ground and prevailed.
When the ancestors of phonograph inventor Thomas Alva Edison and country singer Loretta Lynn took the stage to accept awards for their famous elders, you couldn't help but think of their distinguished heredity. A Technical GRAMMY Award was given to pro audio company AKG Acoustics, the award-winning subsidiary of Harman International. Classical conductor/pianist André Previn (accepting his award via video presentation), country producer/guitarist Harold Bradley, and longtime GRAMMY telecast producer Walter C. Miller jammed the hilarity meter with their wry speeches.
Finally, former Michael Jackson manager Frank DiLeo took the stage to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award for his late client. Accepting the award for Jackson's three children, DiLeo told the hushed crowd the King of Pop had a tremendous sense of humor, which the singer would reveal when he watched the GRAMMYs. As DiLeo recalled, Jackson would phone him after a particularly weird acceptance speech and say, "Do you believe what that guy just said?"
"Then he would laugh and hang up," DiLeo said.
While Jackson has crossed Cohen's proverbial finish line, his work — along with that of the rest of this year's Special Merit Awards class — will be appreciated and celebrated for many years to come.
Leonard Cohen and Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow at the Special Merit Awards and Nominee Reception on Jan. 30 at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles
Reuters - January 30, 2010 by Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson won yet another posthumous honor on Saturday, joining six other musicians including Leonard Cohen and Loretta Lynn who received Grammy awards for lifetime achievement.
But Jackson's family, whose members rarely turn down an opportunity to share his spotlight, did not attend the ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theater, despite speculation that some of his children might accept the statuette on his behalf.
Instead, Jackson's former manager, Frank DiLeo, did the honors, describing the pop star as "a funny guy, he had a sense of humor like none of you ever knew."
Jackson, who died of a drug overdose last year, aged 50, won 13 Grammys in his lifetime.
An unshaved Cohen, sporting a fedora and bolo tie, wryly noted that he never won a Grammy for any of his recordings.
"As we make our way toward the finish line that some of us have already crossed, I never thought I'd get a Grammy award. In fact, I was always touched by the modesty of their interest," he said to loud applause.
The 75-year-old Canadian folk poet did receive a Grammy two years ago as one of the featured artists on Herbie Hancock's surprise album of the year winner.
As a bonus, he recited the lyrics of his comic tune "The Tower of Song" featuring such lines as "I was born like this, I had no choice. I was born with the gift of a golden voice."
Bobby Darin, the man behind such hits as "Mack the Knife" and "Splish Splash," was another posthumous winner. The award was accepted by his son, Dodd, who tearfully recalled that his father knew "he wouldn't be around for the long haul."
Bobby Darin, who had been born with a heart defect, died after surgery in 1973 when he was 37 and his only son 12.
Noting that his father would be 73 now, Dodd Darin told Reuters that his father could have followed a similar trajectory to Tony Bennett, "connecting with 25-year-olds."
"Had he lived I think he would be performing and producing other artists. He loved music. I think he'd still be very active. He never had any quit in him," he said.
Age was also no impediment for another honoree, 95-year-old blues guitarist David "Honeyboy" Edwards, who just completed a European tour. "I can still knock 'em dead," he said.
Another veteran, 89-year-old jazz trumpeter Clark Terry was also honored.
Country star Loretta Lynn, marking her 50th anniversary in the music business this year, was a last-minute no-show because her brother was ill. The award was accepted by her twin daughters, Peggy and Patsy Lynn.
Classical pianist, conductor and composer Andre Previn was prevented by ill-health from accepting his award, but sent in a video message.
Spinner - January 29, 2010 by Joshua Ostroff
Some artists, like the Rolling Stones back in 1986, get their Grammy lifetime achievement recognition too early; others come, as with Michael Jackson this year, sadly too late. But 75-year-old Leonard Cohen has, as always, impeccable timing.
Cohen's Grammy 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award arrives at the height of the iconic septuagenarian's umpteenth comeback. A wildly acclaimed two-years-and-counting world tour has seen Cohen storm the gates of popular culture as crowds clamoured for sold-out tickets and artists increasingly name-dropped his influence.
Right this moment, the top iTunes download is Justin Timberlake's cover of Cohen's 'Hallelujah,' which the pop star performed with Matt Morris at the recent Hope for Haiti telethon, quietly using Cohen's songcraft to outshine a superstar collaboration between U2, Rihanna and Jay-Z.
JT's just the latest in a winding line of singers covering that classic, including baroque-pop star Rufus Wainwright, country legend Willie Nelson, folk hero Bob Dylan, 'American Idol' wannabe Jason Castro, pop-punks Fall Out Boy, X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke and, most famously, the late singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. The latter pair even simultaneously nabbed the top two spots on the UK charts in Christmas 2008 while Cohen's own version also entered the Top 40 for the first time. (Though when the song subsequently appeared in 'The Watchmen' last summer, Cohen echoed many fans' thoughts, telling CBC Radio "I think it's a good song, but too many people sing it.")
Ironically, 'Hallelujah' appeared on Cohen's 1984 album 'Various Positions,' a synth-fuelled record which Columbia refused to release in America despite it also containing such now-classic songs as the achingly romantic 'Dance Me to the End of Love' and mournful ballad 'If It Be Your Will.' That temerity would be unlikely to occur again as Cohen is rumoured to be prepping a new album of material after road-testing a few new songs last year. If that record does see a 2010 release it will be arrive more than a half-century after Cohen first began shaping our culture.
Cohen, known by some as the prince of pessimism, came by his musical darkness naturally. His father, a clothier, died when he was nine and brought the illogical nature of death, and of the world, into stark relief early on. That perspective would serve Cohen well as he came of age during the Beat Generation, becoming a hero poet in the mid-'50s Montreal coffee-house scene with the release of his first poetry collection, 'Let Us Compare Mythologies.' In 1961, his second book of poems, 'Spice Box of Earth,' made him an international presence.
Though he'd always been interested in music, having formed the country trio Buckskin Boys at age 17, Cohen spent the early '60s in seclusion on the Greek island of Hydra, writing poems and books (including 'Beautiful Losers,' which has since sold about 800,000 copies) and living with his muse Marianne Jensen until 1966 when he split for Nashville to start a music career. Even before he released a single song, he'd already sold 'Suzanne' to Judy Collins, who recorded the first of a reported 2000 (!) Cohen covers.
By the summer of 1967 he was working the folk festival circuit and that winter released his debut, 'The Songs of Leonard Cohen,' which included 'Suzanne,' 'Sisters of Mercy,' and his ode to Jensen, 'So Long, Marianne.' His next two albums, 'Songs from a Room' and 'Songs of Love and Hate' cemented his iconic status with tracks like 'Bird on a Wire' and 'Famous Blue Raincoat.' As Lou Reed would say when inducting Cohen into the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame, he had entered the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."
Though never a chart-topper -- his songs were ultimately too weighty to float in the mainstream -- Cohen created an enduring, multi-generational and international cult following. Combining Serge Gainsbourg's Euro sexuality, Elvis Presley's innate charisma and Bob Dylan's pop poetics, Cohen added his own deep rumbling baritone to give an aura of prophesy to every lyric, be it biblical or boudoir based.
Though his influence waned in the 1980s, he came back with a force at the turn of the decade with 1988's blackly comedic 'I'm Your Man' and the apocalyptic techno-pop of 1992's 'The Future' ("I've seen the future, brother," Cohen intones. "It is murder.") These arrived just as the alt-rock revolution was gearing up to take over music and Cohen was being introduced to a younger audience via Hollywood.
In the 1990 teen cult classic 'Pump Up the Volume,' a high-school pirate radio DJ began each of his phony-exposing shows by lighting a cigarette and dropping the needle on Cohen's midnight-black anthem 'Everybody Knows,' a sonic exercise in cultural cynicism whose only true equivalent is the late J.D. Salinger's book, 'Catcher in the Rye.' (It has recently been used to similar anti-establishment effect as bumper music for Alex Jones' hyper-conspiratorial radio show.)
The following year came the tribute album 'I'm Your Fan,' which included covers by R.E.M., the Pixies, John Cale and Nick Cave, giving Cohen further cred with the Lollopalooza generation. (A second covers album in 1995, 'Tower of Song,' aimed a little older with the legendary likes Billy Joel, Elton John, Peter Gabriel, Don Henley, Sting and Bono).
In 1993, Oliver Stone snagged three songs from 'The Future' for his agit-pop tour-de-force 'Natural Born Killers,' including giving the ballad 'Waiting for the Miracle' a prominent spot on the smash soundtrack.
After touring 'The Future,' Cohen went into seclusion again, this time at a Zen retreat on Mount Baldy, California. He spent five years out of sight -- becoming a Buddhist monk and going by the name Jikan, or 'silent one' -- only emerging in 1999. Though he released a couple of albums in the 2000s, as well as the new poetry collection, 'Book of Longing,' the biggest news came mid-decade when Cohen announced he was nearly broke after his manager Kelly Lynch embezzled $5 million from his savings (which has yet to be repaid).
But this dark cloud for Cohen had a silver lining for his fans as it lay the groundwork for his triumphant tour -- including now-legendary headlining performances at Glastonbury and Coachella -- and late-career revival.
When he accepts his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday, we should remember that the lesson of Leonard Cohen -- a man whom Angelica Huston once aptly described as "part wolf, part angel" -- is ultimately the opposite of his bleak 'Everybody Knows' worldview. Even if the fight is fixed, the poor stay poor and the rich get rich, Cohen has now taught us that sometimes the good guys do win.
LOS ANGELES—Always a class act, Leonard Cohen demonstrated the power of minimalism with a brief but unforgettable appearance on Thursday evening at a Canadian government bash celebrating honorees at Sunday night's Grammy Awards.
Avoiding an adoring mob that included scribes and photographers as well as fans, the great 75-year-old troubadour skipped the shmooze but materialized magically on stage at the right moment to say a few well-chosen words before disappearing again, almost in a puff of smoke.
We won't know until Sunday night's telecast who or how many of the Canadians nominated in 13 categories – including Nickelback, Michael Bublé and Drake – will be among this year's Grammy winners. But no matter what happens, two of this country's icons are bound to be celebrated.
Cohen receives a lifetime achievement award, which was presented Saturday afternoon at a special advance ceremony.
And Neil Young, chosen as person of the year for his charitable work as well as his music, was the guest of honour Friday night at the annual $1,200-a-plate Musicares fundraising dinner.
The mood was ebullient at the elegant Hancock Park official residence of consul-general David Fransen, despite the fact that a number of the honorees did not show up, most notably Young, who has reportedly been devastated by the sudden death last week of his close friend and filmmaking collaborator of many years, Larry Johnson.
Among the nominees who were at the party: David Foster, the powwow band Northern Cree and the Montreal electronic duo Beast, who will segue from the glitter of the Grammy awards to the grittiness of the Horseshoe Tavern for a performance on Friday.
The guests enjoying Niagara wine and Molson beer included many notables from the music world, including producer/musician Daniel Lanois and singer Emmylou Harris, who ended the evening on a bubbly note by performing an unscheduled duet.
They upstaged several emerging Canadian artists who were given a chance to be in the spotlight by playing their music during the party – Vancouver songwriter Dan Mangan, Newfoundland's Hey Rosetta! and Toronto hip-hopper K'Naan who performed his song "Wavin' Flag," now the official anthem of this year's World Cup.
When he was invited to the party, Cohen told the consul-general he would like to participate – if he could avoid being the centre of attention.
"Leonard is a very gracious man," says Fransen. "I think he was concerned because he did not want to distract attention from the other honorees."
Robert Kory, Cohen's manager and lawyer – who kept Cohen in a kind of plastic bubble, seeing no one during his exhausting world tour – negotiated a plan that would shield him at the party.
Instead of mingling with other guests, Cohen – wearing his trademark fedora – was ushered to the private den of Fransen and his wife. Then at the right moment, he went directly to the stage appearing in a kind of chorus line with other Grammy hopefuls.
And then he delivered a message that, like his greatest songs, came across as true, pure, courtly and straight from the heart.
"My great grandfather, Lazarus Cohen, came to Canada in 1869," he began. "On this occasion, because of the great hospitality accorded to my ancestor, who came here over 140 years ago, I want to thank this country for allowing us to live and work and flourish in a place that was differ from all other places in the world."
When the presentation was over, one of Cohen's friends from those golden days of his youth in Montreal, Aviva Layton Whiteson, stepped onto the stage to give him a kiss and murmur: "Leonard, you're an icon."
Then Cohen made a fast yet dignified exit, braced for bigger crowds and more adulation as Grammy weekend continues.
With the Grammy Awards about to honour Leonard Cohen, the 75-year-old Montreal legend decided to pay respect to his home country during a party at the Canadian consul general's residence on Thursday.
Cohen, clad in a dark suit with his trademark fedora shading his eyes, climbed onstage alongside a group of other artists at the gathering – held annually in honour of Canadian Grammy nominees – before making a brief speech to the cheers of a grateful crowd.
“My great grandfather, Lazarus Cohen, came to Canada in 1869, to the county of Glengarry, a little town in Maberly,” Cohen said.
“It's customary to thank people for the help and aid they've given. On this occasion, because of the great hospitality that was accorded my ancestor who came here over 140 years ago, I want to thank this country, Canada, for allowing us to live and work and flourish in a place that was different from all other places in the world.
“So I thank Canada for the opportunity that was given me to work and play and flourish. ... Thank you, friends.”
While Cohen made only a brief appearance at the party, his presence carried weight with the other attendees.
“It's nice to be up there with an icon,” said Steve Wood of Alberta powwow dance group Northern Cree, nominated for a fifth time for best native American album, who stood next to Cohen onstage.
Cohen will be honoured on Saturday with a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys.
The celebrated musician and poet, oddly, has only ever won one Grammy and it wasn't for one of his own albums. He earned a trophy for contributing vocals to Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters, which won album of the year in 2008.
The group of Canadian Grammy hopefuls who attended the poolside party on Thursday could then potentially match Cohen's tally at Sunday's 51st Grammy Awards (Global, 8 p.m. ET).
Nominees in attendance included Montreal trip-rock band Beast and producer David Foster, whose brief visit was long enough to brighten fellow nominee Melanie Fiona's night.
“I was very excited to meet David Foster,” said the beaming Toronto singer, who's up for best female R&B vocal performance.
“I got to meet him as soon as I came through the door.”
The showcase featured performances from Toronto hip-hop artist K'naan, St. John's indie-rockers Hey Rosetta and Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Mangan.
While Cohen might have been considered the guest of honour, it was producer Daniel Lanois who was the life of the party.
Clad in a black leather jacket and snug jeans with a pair of sunglasses obscuring his eyes, a smiling Lanois arrived toward the beginning of the party, happily chatting with anyone who approached him. When asked by a reporter if there were any stars he was hoping to meet at Sunday's gala, he shrugged and said “Satan?” before laughing and clarifying that he was only joking.
Later, he hopped onstage unexpectedly for an impromptu after-show bonus performance with his guests, country legend Emmylou Harris and singer Trixie Whitley. It was one of the only moments during which a chatty crowd composed of musicians, Grammy organizers, industry folk and journalists actually fell silent.
And for Lanois's finale, he rode into the balmy night atop a motorcycle, pausing to wave to a cluster of valets and party-goers who were lingering around the driveway.
Lanois has won seven Grammys. He isn't directly nominated this year, but he produced and co-wrote several tracks on U2's No Line on the Horizon, which is up for three awards.
He says he thinks the Grammys are moving in the right direction.
“I think they're catching people on the rise rather than waiting for people to get to the top,” he said.
“Because when we're on our way up, that's when we need the most help. So it's nice when you can get someone complimenting you and encouraging you as you're building your career.”
Meanwhile, Pierre Cossette wasn't far from the minds of many attending the party. The Valleyfield, Que., native – considered by most to be the father of the Grammy Awards – died in September.
A collage of photographs of Cossette stood next to the stage, along with a TV screen looping a slide show of Cossette pictured with stars including Celine Dion and Will Smith.
Cossette's wife, Mary, spoke in his honour.
“My very deepest gratitude and thanks for honouring my husband, Pierre Cossette, who spent his life loving music and encouraging music of all kinds to be written and recorded and produced and thereby making the world a happier place,” she said.
“His greatest pride was his Canadian heritage.”
January 28, 2010 by Marie-Joelle Parent
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PRESS RELEASE
Will IRS prosecute singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen for criminal tax fraud?
Was Leonard Cohen a participant in CIA’s MKULTRA program?
On June 23, 2015, in Department 24 of Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Robert Hess will determine whether or not he will vacate singer songwriter Leonard Cohen’s default judgment against his former personal manager, Kelley Lynch, and refer Cohen together with his lawyers, Robert Kory and Michelle Rice, to the appropriate authorities for perjury prosecutions and disciplinary actions. Judge Hess will, of course, be acting without personal jurisdiction over Kelley Lynch as she was never served Leonard Cohen’s legal complaint or summons.
Los Angeles Superior Court
Stanley Mosk Courthouse
111 N. Hill Street
Department 24
Los Angeles, California 90012
Hearing: 8:30 AM
The details of the salacious story involving Leonard Cohen, his former personal manager, allegations of criminal tax fraud, and Cohen’s three versions of his famous Phil Spector gun incident now before LA Superior Court can be found at riverdeepbook.blogspot.com. Journalist Ann Diamond’s article, Whatever Happened to Kelley Lynch, gives a very nice, concise overview of what actually unfolded when Leonard Cohen heard (in the fall of 2004) that his trusted personal manager planned to report his tax fraud to Internal Revenue Service. After publishing this article (enclosed below) on her blog, Leonard Cohen and his lawyers promptly threatened to sue Ms. Diamond. To date, the media coverage has been limited to Leonard Cohen’s highly fictional narrative that Kelley Lynch was his disgruntled ex-lover who embezzled his retirement funds, stalked him for no reason whatsoever, and may have wanted to attend his concert. While this rather entertaining story has a fairy tale ring to it, the reality of the situation is far more scandalous.
In addition, Kelley Lynch was actually prosecuted for, among other things, annoying Leonard Cohen by addressing the fact that he falsely accused her of having sex with Oliver Stone to stir up a custody matter (that was successful although essentially a default judgment); explaining to journalist Glenn Greenwald (the Intercept) that Cohen exposed himself to Lynch and routinely sexually harassed her; repeating what Mick Brown (UK Telegraph) advised her – that Cohen’s statements/testimony were presented to Phil Spector’s Grand Jury; requesting IRS tax and corporate information that Cohen is required to provide her; and violating a fraudulent restraining order (primarily used to discredit and silence Lynch) that the Court repeatedly told her (and Phil Spector’s former personal assistant, Paulette Brandt) had expired in 2009. It was during Kelley Lynch’s 2012 trial for annoying Leonard Cohen that she understood he, former District Attorney Steve Cooley (who prosecuted Phil Spector), and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich had publicly joined forces to target and discredit her. Lynch has now notified Cohen, the City of Los Angeles, and County of Los Angeles that she will be litigating these issues in federal court.
Kelley Lynch, Paulette Brandt, and Ann Diamond’s interviews for Truth Sentinel internet radio program can be found at the following links:
Truth Sentinel Episode 39 (Leonard Cohen, truth, lies, guilt, innocence, law, MK ULTRA)
Truth Sentinel Episode 40 (Phil Spector, truth, lies, guilt and innocence, murder trial)
For those of you interested in the latest legal documents, including declarations, filed in Case No BC 338322, many of them can be found at this link:
Ann Diamond
Kelley Lynch is the woman accused in 2005 of skimming millions from singer Leonard Cohen’s retirement fund. I knew of her through friends of Leonard Cohen, and had heard her described in glowing terms as the agent who, singlehandedly, saved Cohen’s career in the 1990s.
In early May of this year, Lynch suddenly contacted me. She said she was mainly interested in my perceptions of Cohen as a former friend and next door neighbour in Montreal. At one time I also studied with his Zen Master in California, and had spent time with him on Hydra, Greece.
Not having heard her side of the story (I doubt that anyone has, apart from a circle of her closest friends), I was curious. Over the next few weeks, she shared several documents pertaining to the case including an affidavit written and signed by her older son, Rutger.
Together, they paint a picture very much at variance from the sketchy media image of Lynch as a reckless, delusional woman on the brink of a career meltdown. Lynch's own timeline also includes disturbing behind-the-scene dealings that suggest she may have been set up to take the blame for Cohen's tax situation.
The following account is based on what Lynch has sent me --
Since 2005 when she became the object of media gossip, little if anything has been heard from Kelley Lynch.
A single mother with two sons, Lynch was Leonard Cohen's personal manager from approximately 1988 to 2004, and was known for her skill, hard work, and dedication. Until 2004, Kelley lived and worked in Los Angeles where she still has many friends and acquaintances in the entertainment world including Phil Spector and Oliver Stone.
Her own account of the events that wrecked her career, varies widely from the media portrait of a reckless, delusional woman in the throes of a personal meltdown. The meltdown was real, however. By late December, 2005, Lynch had lost custody of one son and was homeless and living on the streets with her older son, Rutger, who witnessed the chain of bizarre events that had begun a year earlier.
In 2004, Lynch owned a house in Brentwood, and still worked for Cohen, who owed her money for royalties and other services, but was increasingly involved with his new girlfriend, Anjani Thomas, ex-wife of Cohen’s attorney, Robert Kory.
In retrospect, Lynch believes she was set up by Cohen and his representatives to help cover up a tax situation which made the IRS “nervous.” In September 2004, Cohen’s attorney Weston told Lynch that a financial entity known as Traditional Holdings, LLC could be overturned by the IRS. Lynch, who had been selected as a partner on the entity, became uneasy and consulted a new accountant, who referred her to tax lawyers, who found irregularities in Cohen's tax history, both in the US and Canada where he has residences.
Rattled by what she was hearing – that she was being dragged into criminal tax fraud -- Lynch called the IRS in Washington and also contacted their website. An IRS collection agent advised her to call the Fraud Hotline, which she did.
Told that any further action on her part might implicate her in fraud, Lynch refused to meet with Cohen or turn over the corporate books. At that stage, Cohen’s advisers began claiming that certain payments, distributions, or advances made to her were actually "over-payments." Lynch says their accounting was incomplete and ignored her share of intellectual property, unpaid commissions and royalties, and share in Traditional Holdings, LLC. Apparently Lynch had also been issued K1 partnership tax documents and made a partner on another Cohen investment entity, LC Investments, LLC, without her permission or awareness.
Lynch says an increasingly nervous and desperate Cohen was pressuring her to agree to mediation and told a friend of hers that Lynch was "the love of his life." She and Cohen had had a brief affair in 1990, but Cohen now was offering her 50% of his "community property" as well as "palimony" through lawyer Robert Kory at a meeting attended by Lynch's legal representatives and her accountant, Dale Burgess. To Lynch, none of this made sense at the time.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office received an anonymous tip informing them that Lynch was a friend of producer Phil Spector, whom Lynch maintains is innocent. Cohen, on the other hand, had given an interview in which he described a gun-waving Spector who threatened him during recording sessions in 1977.
At around the same time he was offering her “millions”, Lynch says, Cohen was also circulating slanderous stories about her. She believes Cohen encouraged Los Angeles record producer Steve Lindsey, the father of her son Ray, to initiate a custody suit – on May 25, 2005, the same day a 25-man SWAT team from the LAPD, acting on a bogus 911 call, suddenly cordoned off her street and surrounded her home in response to a "hostage taking."
Earlier that morning, Lynch says, her 12 year old son Ray woke up not feeling well. She sent an email to his school informing them she was keeping him at home. When the boy's father found out Ray was home he became agitated and abusive over the phone to Lynch.
Lynch says she had young people who worked for her coming and going that day, and did not want Ray’s father coming to the house and attacking her, as he had in the past. She called her older son Rutger, who was visiting a friend nearby, and asked him to pick Ray up and take him down the hill where actress Cloris Leachman waited in her car. Leachman, a friend of Lindsey, took charge of Ray – just as seven LAPD squad cars came speeding up Mandeville Canyon Road in the direction of Lynch’s house. With them was Ray’s father, Steve Lindsey.
Lynch says she looked out the window and saw armed men on her lawn. Her son Rutger and his friends were telling police there was no hostage-taking, that they had spent the morning with Lynch, and that there must be some mistake. For reasons no one understands, LAPD/Inglewood PD decided to believe Steve Lindsey, who had left the scene.
Police later gave varying explanations about what led up to the incident. West LAPD said they responded to a report that someone heard "shots fired." But a company that oversees SWAT said Lynch would have to have a superior caliber weapon to warrant such a high risk entry. A member of the SWAT team claimed to have seen a note that Lynch’s sister had placed the call stating Lynch posed “a danger to herself and everyone around her.” Her sister denies this.
Lynch stayed inside her house and called her former custody lawyer, Lee Kanon Alpert. She also called Leonard Cohen, assuming he had played a role in the events unfolding on her lawn. Lynch says she knew Steve Lindsey had also been meeting with Cohen and his attorney, and had recently told their son Ray that Lynch was “going to jail,” upsetting the boy. She says Cohen taped the phone call later used in his successful court case against her – for which, Lynch says, she never received a summons.
Lynch says, “Police were on my hillside and crouching under my kitchen window.” She says the standoff on her lawn continued for several more hours, disrupting the neighbourhood. Members of Inglewood Police Department also participated in the operation.
Eventually, she decided to go into the back yard. Seeing her son Rutger acting as a “human shield and hostage negotiator,” Lynch ventured out front with her Akita on leash and joked to the cops: "Who am I supposed to be holding hostage? My dog?"
The police responded by telling her son they would only shoot Lynch and her dog if necessary.
“That was when I dove into the pool.”
SWAT team members searched her house. As they entered, Lynch's African Grey parrot, Lou, called out: "I see dead people!" – further alarming the nervous cops.
Offering her a hand out of the pool, one officer said they were only there to help her and not to hurt her.
“No one asked me if I was all right; no one questioned me about my well-being.” The Medical Examiners Office later wondered how the police had evaluated her. After stating they were not arresting her, they handcuffed Lynch, still in her bikini. On her way out the door, her son managed to hand her a brocade jacket.
Although she lived near UCLA Medical Center, she was taken in a squad car to King-Drew Medical Centre in Watts, 40 miles away and a three-hour drive in traffic. Known as one of America’s worst hospitals, King-Drew was recently closed down as a place where patients routinely die from neglect and medical errors. During the long ride through South Central Los Angeles, Lynch says she was questioned closely about her relationship with Phil Spector, who had been charged with first degree murder of Lana Clarkson. In the car, Lynch voiced concern over what awaited her at the hospital but was told by a woman cop: "This will be good for you."
“I felt I was being kidnapped”.
At Emergency, the admitting psychiatrist administered anti-psychotic drugs without authorization and left Lynch in the waiting area for hours, still in her bikini and brocade jacket, and handcuffed to a chair. A nurse advised her she would be transferred – but did not tell her where. Examining her file, the nurse noticed it listed her as 19 years old with wrong social security number, wrong date of birth, wrong religion, and her name misspelled as "Kelly Lynch" Lynch thinks it was the same file she had seen, several months earlier, in the hands of the Special Investigator who came to question her about Spector.
A second doctor told her to wait her turn to ensure no further harm would come to her, and assured her that nothing in the King Drew report could cause her to lose custody of her child. The following day, she was released after nearly 24 hours in the psych ward.
Back home, Lynch learned that while she was being held at the hospital her younger son's father, Steven Clark Lindsey, had filed for custody of her son Ray Charles Lindsey and obtained a restraining order denying her access to the boy. She says Lindsey attempted to convince doctors at King Drew that she was dangerous, in order to have her committed, She says Lindsey also threatened the psychiatrist who had her released.
On that same day, Cohen’s attorney Robert Kory filed a Declaration in the custody matter, as did Betsy Superfon (a friend of Cohen, Kory and Lindsey who had befriended Lynch a few months earlier ). Superfon later told Lynch she didn't realize what she was signing, and that Cohen had offered Lindsey money “or something else” to take Ray away from Lynch.
Her older son alleges Lindsey offered him money to go to Leonard Cohen's lawyer's office and transfer or sign over Lynch’s house to Cohen or his attorney Robert Kory. Rutger refused and phoned his own father, who advised him to contact a lawyer.
Two weeks later, in early June, as she drove down her street to buy dog food, a Mercedes sped out of a neighbouring driveway and rear-ended her car, Lynch was thrown forward, fracturing her nose against the steering well, and was knocked unconscious. Later, she says, as she drove back up the hill to her home, the same driver was standing in his driveway and called out: “We are watching you” as she passed.
Seeing his injured, bleeding mother enter the house, her older son again phoned his father, who may have called 911. Accounts vary as whether the call referred to an incident of "domestic violence" or a "drug overdose." Either way, police arrived at Lynch’s door for the second time in two weeks. Over the protests of her son, they entered while she was on the phone to a friend, Dr. Wendi Knaak who stayed on the phone talking with Rutger while police again handcuffed Lynch. This time they took her to UCLA hospital where her obvious head injuries were ignored. Instead, she was once again drugged and placed in the psychiatric unit where she remained for several days.
Lynch and her advisors maintain these events were coordinated by Cohen, Kory and Lindsey, with the help of former LA District Attorney Ira Reiner in a well- orchestrated plan to traumatize and discredit her – paving the way for media stories which accused her of skimming millions from Cohen’s retirement fund.
In the summer of 2005, as Lynch was struggling to save her home and protect her child from a father her friends describe as "viciously anti-social" and “violent”, reports of Leonard Cohen's financial troubles hit the press. They alleged the 70-something singer had been scammed by his personal manager, Kelley Lynch, who colluded with an advisor at the AGILE Group in Colorado to send him false financial statements while emptying his accounts of millions of dollars.
Although listed as the owner of Traditional Holdings, the entity in question, Lynch says she never received any statements from the AGILE Group -- who instead had been sending them to Cohen -- having changed her mailing address to Cohen's home in Los Angeles. She has since filed a complaint with the US Post Office for mail tampering.
NOTE: It appears that Leonard Cohen, or his representatives, attempted to change Lynch's mailing address from her home in Brentwood, California to his home in Los Angeles, California. A Complaint was filed with USPS.
She insists Cohen sued her because she went to the IRS about his tax situation. She says he is not, and never was, "broke" and that missing funds went to buy homes for his son Adam Cohen and girlfriend, singer Anjani Thomas, ex-wife of Robert Kory. Noting Cohen is famous for his financial largesse and once gave Zen Master Sasaki Roshi $500,000 as a gift, Lynch also cites hefty payments to advisers, various transaction fees, personal taxes, and other monies which may have been sent offshore.
While Cohen and Lindsey attempted to persuade others, including LA Superior Court, that she intended to flee to Tibet or another non-extradition country, Lynch was isolated and penniless and still in Los Angeles. Lynch was former personal secretary to the late Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a flamboyant Tibetan spiritual teacher who founded Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s, and died in 1987. She says various Tibetan lamas are praying for her safety.
NOTE: Lynch was a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche; resided with his son (her nephew) for years; and was Kusum Lingpa Rinpoche's personal assistant and is his chos kyi dags mos and lineage holder.
Journalists covering the story were either unable, or didn't bother, to track Lynch down, and most reported Cohen's statements as fact. The NY Times contacted Kelley for a quote which they never printed
By July 2005, Lynch had lost her custody battle and Ray went to live with his father. On December 28, she and Rutger were evicted from the house in Brentwood, and ended up homeless in Santa Monica, which has no resources for the homeless. The Police Department gave her no help and, she claims, laughed when she brought in evidence that she was being stalked by a known serial killer while she camped on the beach.
In 2006, Cohen was awarded a symbolic $9 million settlement in a civil suit against Lynch, who still does not have a lawyer representing her. Corporate books and other evidence of fraud appear to have been overlooked by Judge Ken Freeman in his judgment, Lynch says, although she admits she has not read the court documents and was never served a summons. At the time of the decision, she told reporters she lacked the money to make a phone call. That same year, her older son lost his fingers in an accident with a meat grinder while he was working at Whole Foods in Los Angeles and Lynch could not afford a bus ticket to visit him in hospital.
Lynch heard through a journalist that Cohen later testified for the District Attorney’s office in a secret grand jury relating to the Phil Spector case with former District Attorney Ira Reiner acting as his lawyer. Reiner is a personal friend of Cohen, and as D.A. presided over some high-profile cases including the “Night Stalker” serial killer and the McMartin Day Care scandal.
Recently, on June 17, 2008, Cohen's lawsuit against the Agile Group was thrown out of court for lack of evidence. In response the AGILE Group dropped its counter-suit accusing Cohen of defamation and fraud. AGILE still claims to be shocked that a singer of Leonard Cohen's talent and stature would engage in false accusations against his own representatives.
Lynch believes Cohen and AGILE colluded to defraud her. She continues to deny all allegations against her, and remains hopeful that Phil Spector's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, will represent her in recouping damages to her livelihood and reputation. She now lives in another state and recently learned her younger son, 15, whom she has not seen since July 2005, stopped attending school last January.
These days Cohen’s fans seem to have expended their rage at Kelley Lynch for driving their idol into bankruptcy. Some now say she unwittingly did them a service -- by forcing him to go on tour for the first time in nearly two decades.
At 74, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen continues to ride a wave of sympathy, gathering wide support from the music world and even some British royalty. Unquestionably, his career and finances have benefited from news reports that he is too impoverished to retire.
From his tower of song, Cohen has written:
I smile when I'm angry
I cheat and I lie
I do what I have to do
To get by
And I’m always alone
And my heart is like ice
And it’s crowded and cold
In my secret life
My Secret Life. Leonard Cohen
His many admirers need to listen closely.
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