Settlement dashes hopes for Post Malone courtroom concert in 'Circles' co-writing trial
The 10-time Grammy nominee was at the Los Angeles federal courthouse Tuesday morning for a scheduled jury trial in a lawsuit from Canadian musician Tyler Armes.
Post Malone was inside the courthouse. The guitars and amps were ready to go. The reporters and the sketch artist were there, too, along with a pool of prospective jurors.
But in a move that disappointed all hopeful spectators, the singer and rapper struck a literal last-minute deal with Tyler Armes that thwarted a scheduled four-day trial and sent the jury pool home.
“Sorry we’ve lost all control of this case,” a jovial U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II said as attorneys left his courtroom.
Armes is a Canadian musician whose all-night, Aug. 8, 2018, jam session with Post and his producer Frank Dukes in Toronto was to be the subject of a trial exploring the origins of the smash hit “Circles.”
Armes left the courthouse with his guitar after declining to speak with a reporter about the settlement. Post’s lawyers wouldn’t talk, either, and Judge Wright let Post exit his courtroom through a back way that allowed him to avoid the reporters in the hallway.
Armes sued Post, legal name Austin Richard Post, in April 2020, seeking partial credit and profits for co-writing the music for “Circles.” The lawsuit was consolidated with a complaint Post filed in the Southern District of New York seeking declaratory relief stating Armes has no stake in “Circles.”
Judge Wright granted summary judgment last April for Armes’ claim of authorship regarding the commercial release of “Circles,” but he denied summary judgment for the session composition, saying Armes “demonstrates genuine disputes in regard to his authorship.”
The trial was to include witnesses playing live music on the stand. Wright’s law clerk held a “sound check” last week to test the courtroom’s audio system and recording system.
As disappointing as the cancelled trial is, I did get to see Armes play the guitar on the witness stand during last week’s sound check (though he was not under oath), and I caught a solid view of Post sitting in one of the attorney conference rooms as I walked into the courtroom Tuesday morning. And I should be sticking to suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ corruption trial, anyway. (I’ll have another article on that soon.)