Clint Black Gets Mixed Advice

Clint Black photo courtesy of Equity Music Group

Nov. 19, 2008 — Like any good businessman, Clint Black turns to other advisers for input on the moves he makes, and he’s had at least two major issues on his plate of late: a TV taping and a label-related lawsuit.

Clint is one of the contestants on the upcoming season of "The Celebrity Apprentice," which increased Trace Adkins’ profile earlier this year. The bulk of Trace’s work on the 2008 show was finished the day after the Country Music Association Awards last year, and Clint reached out to Trace during this year’s tapings.

"He did call me before the thing started, just kinda picked my brain a little bit about what to expect," Trace says. "And I got one text from him while they were doing it. That’s all I heard from him."

Clint meanwhile is suing a longterm adviser, manager-accountant Charles Sussman. According to The Nashville City Paper, Clint claims in his filing that Charles talked him into investing $500,000 in Equity Records, which launched Little Big Town to hit status. Clint charges that Charles engaged in "self-dealing, negligence and/or gross negligence" and took monthly payments from the label without communicating that to Clint.

Further raising Clint’s ire, Little Big Town’s contract with Equity allowed the band to leave the company after two albums. The band moved to Capitol this year, and its album A Place To Land was reissued with additional material. Again, Clint maintains he was uninformed about that key clause when the deal was signed.

Sussman declined to comment, Dial-Global reports, calling Clint’s accusations "false" and insisting he would not discuss the case in the media.

Other Equity acts include Laura Bryna, Kevin Fowler, Blake Wise and Carolina Rain, which was nominated bthis year by the Academy of Country Music as Top New Duo or Group.