Burton Cummings tells us why he pulled the performance rights for The Guess Who's songs

The Guess Who were the most popular Canadian rock band on both sides of the border at the turn of the '70s.

Their most famous songs were largely written by singer Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman. Both had left the band by 1975, but since then, the original bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson have toured, at different times, as The Guess Who with various musicians.

Burton Cummings joins host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to dive into the battle over a band's legacy, and who gets to control it.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: So the timeline, for people who are wondering: The Guess Who ended in 1975. I think somewhere around 1977, CBC asks The Guess Who if they would play a reunion show, and it turns out that for you and for Randy, you're not interested in doing that show, but Jim asked for the permission to use the name for the show — at least that's some of the public history that is available, that he asked for the permission to use the name. And then from there on, he has ownership of the name, or at least he appears to have ownership of the name, for the last 35 years or so. Is that an accurate history of what happened here?

Burton: Kale discovered that officially, the name had never been trademarked…. And as far as we know, my lawyers have told me — and we've done all kinds of research — there was false information given when … the band's name was first exploited in 1978. Had he written 1965, he would have been turned down because it was wrong information.

Elamin: Earlier this month, we learned that you took the pretty radical step of withdrawing the performing rights permissions for The Guess Who songs that you wrote, which essentially leaves the current Guess Who without a setlist to play live. They don't have your permission to play those songs live, because you own the publishing. How did you come up with that idea? Because that's a pretty radical idea. What was weighing on you?

Burton: That was my lawyers. My legal team came up with this idea and, you know, I've already issued permission to Randy Bachman. He's out there playing the songs. Lenny Kravitz wants to play American Woman? He's welcome to it. There's a group in Ontario called No Sugar Tonight. We have already issued licenses to them. This all comes down to the legality of the use of the original records without a license. You can't promote a show with the original records when who's going to show up but a cover band. That's just not legal.

Elamin: We've got to say, Kale and Peterson have argued they've always been up front about all of the band's member changes, and they said they've never advertised you and Bachman as being part of the current lineup. What do you say to that statement?

Burton: That's absolute nonsense. I've got tons of things I've downloaded from the internet where they're showing this cover band on stage visually, and it's American Woman or Share the Land playing in the background, the original records showing the visual of the current cover band. What can I say? I mean, come on, we all know what's real and what isn't.

Elamin: A lot of the reporting of this story has said that this move doesn't only stop the current Guess Who from performing the songs; it actually prevents you yourself from collecting royalties on your own work. First of all, is that really the case?

Burton: Well, listen, what is a person's life work worth? I'm not just going to roll over and let this go on any longer. And Randy is furious about this, too. This is not just me. Bachman doesn't like the fact that you turn on the internet and there's an advertisement for the fake Guess Who, and you hear Randy's guitar solo from American Woman playing for 30 seconds. Randy is not happy about this either. This is a whole fake situation.

Elamin: What are you yourself sacrificing when you pull the permission for these songs to be performed live?

Burton: I'm giving up royalties. I'm giving up everything right now to stop the fake band continuing. I'm going to do everything I can, and so is Randy. Here's a great way to put it. A friend of mine the other day said this online, a friend named Jeff out west. He said the cover band is like a band of bank robbers who are upset that the bank they've been robbing for years has decided to improve their security so it can't go on. That's the perfect analogy to what's been happening here.

Elamin: We've seen the current version of The Guess Who cancel a bunch of upcoming shows as a result of the action. How does this end, Burton? What's the endgame here?

Burton: The band cannot misrepresent themselves anymore as The Guess Who. So if they want to use a tribute name or something like that, that's fine. But they'll have to decide what value the name has without the songs. They're Randy's songs, my songs, Kurt Winter's songs. They're still drawing people using the recordings that we made, that different people made decades earlier. A resolution to this? They can't play those songs anymore and call themselves The Guess Who. Everything has to change, and it will.

Commotion reached out to The Guess Who for a response. The band's manager, Randy Erwin, said he couldn't comment because the case is still before the courts. However, CBC News reported that in their own court filing, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson say they have never advertised Cummings and Bachman as being part of the current lineup. They also maintain they lawfully own the Guess Who trademark and are allowed to call their band by that name.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Burton Cummings produced by Stuart Berman.