Photo Credit: Amy Helm by Steven Pisano / CC by 2.0
Levon Helm Studios’ new leadership team claims Helm’s daughter Amy was the cause of “millions” in damages during her tenure as president of the venue.
Singer-songwriter Amy Helm, daughter of musician and actor Levon Helm, is accused of causing at least $2 million in damages to Levon Helm Studios in a new lawsuit involving the ongoing dispute over the venue. The Woodstock venue’s new leadership team claims Amy Helm was the cause of “millions of dollars of self-dealing transactions” during her tenure as president.
Filed in federal court in New York on Monday, the lawsuit largely focuses on Amy Helm’s alleged financial mismanagement of the venue during her tenure as president between 2017 and 2026. The filing claims that a recent review of Levon Helm Studios’ financial records “uncovered millions of dollars of self-dealing transactions apparently authorized by Amy, or for her benefit.”
The lawsuit also includes claims of trademark infringement related to Helm’s continued use of the “Midnight Ramble” name, a concert series that began when her father was still alive. Amy Helm has continued the series under the name “Helm Family Midnight Ramble,” allegedly in violation of a trademark obtained in 2011.
The dispute has been far-reaching and has pitted Amy Helm against her stepmother, Sandra “Sandy” Helm, as well as Brian Parillo, musician and longtime shareholder in the venue. The suit includes new details about the personal drama involved, including references to security camera footage of an alleged altercation on May 28—just two days after Helm was removed from the LHS management group.
The camera footage allegedly shows that Amy “spent hours berating” Sandy, “demanding that she withdraw support for the change in management.” The suit also claims that Parillo and others recorded portions of the alleged argument on their phones; after Amy saw she was being filmed, she is said to have “cursed at Brian and shoved him.” Police were called to the scene at the time, but no charges were filed.
In court filings related to the ongoing dispute, Amy Helm accused Parillo of manipulating Sandy, of “financial exploitation,” and of “elder abuse.” Parillo has accused Helm of denying him and other shareholders access to corporate records, as well as financial mismanagement.
Amy Helm “unilaterally” denied the allegations, calling them “baseless” and “spurious” in a statement to Rolling Stone. “My legal team finds it interesting to note that media received this filing a full day before it was received by the court,” she added. “It is clear what the intention is behind this filing: publicity.”
According to Parillo—and the findings detailed in the new lawsuit—Helm charged $400,000 to LHS to cover everything from touring expenses to “personal tax repayments, her health and life insurance, her driver, her personal lawyer’s fees,” and more. Of this money, $167,000 was “apparently so unrelated to the company” that Helm’s accountant, also named as a defendant in the suit, couldn’t “justify them as legitimate expenses.”
Helm is also accused of taking out hundreds of thousands in “loans” from the Levon Helm Estate, including an LLC set up to distribute royalties from Levon’s final three albums. As a result, the suit claims that the LLC was unable to distribute royalties to the musicians who helped record the albums over the course of four years.
“Levon and Sandy always treated me like family, and I felt the same about Amy. There’s no version of this I’m happy about,” said Parillo. “But Levon Helm Studios has obligations to its ticketholders, artists, and employees, and those obligations weren’t being met. Levon’s legacy isn’t being honored if this place falls apart.”