When it comes to the traditional rock band the Guess Who, its moniker seemingly matches its present lineup.

There aren’t any original members within the present touring group, so it’s powerful to maintain observe of the names. And that’s elevating the hackles of Burton Cummings, one of many co-founders of the the Guess Who and accountable for a few of its greatest hits, resembling “American Woman” and “These Eyes.”

Rolling Stone stories Cummings has canceled his performance-license agreements, that means the present Guess Who can’t carry out any songs that Cummings wrote, co-wrote and printed. It additionally means nobody else can carry out Guess Who songs stay and, astonishingly, that Cummings is sacrificing royalties from his songs utilized in commercials, performed on the radio, and elsewhere, Billboard stories.

“I’m willing to do anything to stop the fake band,” Cummings says within the Rolling Stone story. “They’re not the people who made these records and they shouldn’t act like they did.

“This doesn’t stop this cover band from playing their shows; it just stops them from playing the songs I wrote. If the songs are performed by the fake Guess Who, they will be sued for every occurrence.”

In October, Cummings and Randy Bachman, the band’s former guitarist and co-founder, filed a lawsuit in opposition to the present group and former original bassist, Jim Kale, and drummer Garry Peterson. The lawsuit claims the present iteration is “a cover band” and provides the misunderstanding that the original lineup is acting at exhibits.

Kale retired in 2016 whereas Peterson performs with the present band “intermittently,” stories say. Kale and Peterson say in a response to the lawsuit that they’ve all the time been upfront in regards to the band’s lineup, cbc.com stories.

The band has canceled 5 upcoming exhibits due to Cumming’s motion, stories say.

“This is about way more than just money, I wouldn’t have pulled the catalog if it wasn’t,” Cummings tells Rolling Stone. “This is about the legacy of the songs and the fact that the cover band is doing anything they can to erase me and Bachman from the history of the group. I see advertisements for their shows, and it’s me singing ‘American Woman.’”

John Einarson, a music historian in Winnipeg, tells cbc.com that Cummings’ move is “unprecedented” and that Cummings has taken “a very benign music arm of the business that collects [royalties] for songwriters … and he’s weaponized it.”

“It really opens up a whole floodgate of, you know, possibly a lot of negativity happening and a lot of artists who discover that they can’t perform anymore because someone else is preventing them from doing it,” Einarson stated.