Megadeth 's album The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! is suing the band. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he claims he received neither payment nor credit for his work.
In a lawsuit filed on February 3rd in New York, illustrator and designer Brent Elliott White , who has worked with Trivium, Job For A Cowboy, Death Angel , and Arch Enemy , among others, says he was contacted for the job in 2020. He recounts that the band was looking for a concept art and cover for Megadeth's new album. This was the third Megadeth album he was involved in creating.
In April 2021, according to the lawsuit, the illustrator and the band chose a concept and artwork that would serve as the current cover for the album titled The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!. White said that they then asked him to design the cover.
On June 22, 2022, the CEO of 5B Artists + Media and Megadeth's manager, Bob Johnsen , told White that the group was working on costumes for an upcoming tour and demanded additional renderings of the chosen album cover art because the stage decorations for the tour would be based on the album cover art, the lawsuit states.
In a message, White reminded Johnsen that he didn't yet have a written contract with Megadeth and hadn't been paid for his work, saying, “I know the album release timeline is hectic, but I should mention that any submissions, including the album artwork, are contingent on compensation and contract. So we'll have to sort this out soon.” In response, Johnsen told White, “The first song comes out tomorrow,” but assured him, “Nobody intended to put this on paper right now” and that he would “bring this out the right way.”
On June 23, 2022, without a signed agreement with White and without paying him anything for his work, Megadeth released White's artwork and – “surprisingly to” White, according to the lawsuit – credited frontman Dave Mustaine for the “album artwork concept”.
The following day, White contacted Megadeth's record label, Universal Music Group, complaining: “I still don’t have a contract or payment from UMG [Universal group] for The Sick The Dying and the Dead … Bob [Johnsen] contacted me yesterday… and he said he left it with UMG… I assumed someone would contact me to do this before the album release. Now, the artwork has been released with the pre-order of the single and album on social media, the band's website, Rolling Stone [website and magazine]… None of that gives me credit, no mention on social media and no credit in the article. We don't have a contract or artwork release or usage agreement. I'm not trying to legalize this, but since we don't have the rights, the copyright of the transferred agreement resides with me.”
After the artwork was released, Megadeth “tried to force” White to accept the same terms as on Megadeth’s first album for which he provided the artwork, according to the lawsuit. White “never agreed to those terms and expressly told” the group “before the album cover was released that this arrangement would not be acceptable.”
In late July 2021, White detailed to Johnsen how much time he had spent working on the album cover up to that point, which totaled $21,500, approximately R$67,000 at the current exchange rate. Johnsen agreed to the amount, but only if it was for a "total purchase" of White's intellectual property rights to his artwork. White refused, and when he gave Megadeth a price for the purchase of his intellectual property rights, Megadeth refused. Still without a contract or usage agreement with White, Megadeth released The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! in September 2022.
White is suing Megadeth, Universal Music Group, and others for copyright infringement and is asking the court for an injunction to prevent Megadeth and UMG from using the artwork. He is also seeking damages and restitution of profits.
