I had stayed silent the whole time, reading, watching them fight over me as though I weren’t even in the room. I typed one response. I didn’t tear anything, I wrote. You chose sides yesterday. Then I muted the chat entirely.
The next morning an email arrived at 7:42. Subject line, Intent to Sue, Property Damage. Derek’s attorney was some man out of Louisville. The demand letter listed everything. Car replacement. Emotional distress. Lost work time. A total demand of one hundred twenty three thousand dollars. I forwarded it to my own attorney, Joel Ramos, a Nashville guy who’d handled contracts for half the musicians I knew personally. He called ten minutes later, laughing. This is the funniest demand letter I’ve seen all year, he said. They have no case, I asked. They have problems, he said. The kid destroyed your guitar first. Derek’s role in that matters legally. If they sue, we counter, and hard. They may end up regretting they opened this door. Draft the response, I told him. We’ll file a counterclaim, he said. Guitar, related damages, emotional distress, family interference. We’ll ask for fifty thousand. Do it, I said.
