Conflicts arise after Delp's death
Singer's fiancee says rumors about suicide's cause misplaced
CONCORD, N.H. -- The band Boston spoke to people's souls during the 1970s with smash hits like "More Than a Feeling" and "Peace of Mind." But two weeks after lead singer Brad Delp's suicide at his New Hampshire home, bad feelings abound. Current members of the band, including the chief songwriter and founder, Tom Scholz , were not informed about or invited to Delp's funeral, which was attended by early band members who opposed Scholz in a 1980s legal battle.
Last week, Delp's ex-wife Micki was quoted on a radio station saying Delp was distressed about the conflicts in his professional life and became despondent after a longtime friend, Fran Cosmo, was cut from Boston's summer concert lineup. The story spread online, where fans trying to figure out the reason for Delp's suicide took up the cudgels.
Scholz, who called Delp his "closest friend and collaborator in music for over 35 years," said he was crushed by Delp's suicide and his exclusion from the funeral. Now he feels he is being unfairly blamed for Delp's death.
"It went from devastating on the initial phone call to an absolute nightmare," Scholz told The Associated Press yesterday in a tearful telephone interview, his first since Delp's death on March 9. (An interview conducted by e-mail was published earlier in Rolling Stone.) "We had been told it would only be his immediate family [at the funeral], and of course it wasn't," he said.
A lawyer for Scholz sent a letter to Micki Delp yesterday demanding a retraction. She did not immediately respond yesterday to an e-mail message from the Associated Press via the publicist who has handled statements for the family. Boston has canceled its summer engagements, and Scholz said he still hopes the rift can be mended and the band can be part of a public memorial service that Delp's children and fiancee, Pamela Sullivan, said last week was in the works.
In a statement to The Boston Globe yesterday, Sullivan said that "speculation and rumor" over Delp's death was misplaced.
"Words have been taken out of context, statements have been misconstrued, and people have been hurt. People are looking for answers, and there are none to be had," Sullivan said.
"Bradley blamed no one, held no one accountable, for what was in his own heart," she added. "His music, his business, his relationships, these were the things that brought him joy. His sadness came from within; it was his own."
Tensions between Scholz and some of the early band members date from the early 1980s, when CBS Inc. sued the band over delays in recording new albums. The company's Epic Records label recorded the band's first two releases: "Boston," in 1976, and "Don't Look Back," in 1978.
Scholz countersued for the rights to the band's name and music. Three members of the original band -- Barry Goudreau , Sib Hashian, and Fran Sheehan -- testified for the record company, which lost. Goudreau is Micki Delp's brother-in-law, and she reportedly remains close to the ousted band members.
