CJ Chenier performs at Music & Market Dominick Cross
In some ways, the lawsuit filed against C.J. Chenier by the heirs of zydeco musician Clifton Chenier is a matter of setting the record straight as at least one of the 22 plaintiffs sees it.
"It's nothing more than trying to clean it up," said Mike Vital, nephew of the late Margaret Vital Chenier, deceased wife of Clifton Chenier. "I wish him well. You can live off of a person's fame all you want, but you've got to prove it. You've got to have documents."
C.J. Chenier fronts C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band, which was once led by the late King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier. He has claimed for years he is Chenier's son.
In the petition, filed in 15th Judicial District Court in Lafayette and delivered to C.J. Chenier (Clayton Joseph Thompson in the document) at his Music & Market gig in Opelousas, plaintiffs want Chenier to stop claiming he is Clifton Chenier's son because Chenier "was medically unable to sire any biological or natural children." They do not want the musician to use the name Chenier; and there's an assertion that Chenier sought to divert royalties to himself that was supposed to go to the plaintiffs.
"Of course, none of that's true, man," C.J. Chenier sighed. "It's going to all come out when it's all said and done. You know?"
C.J. Chenier, 57, said he began playing with Clifton Chenier and his band in 1978 when he was 20 years old. Then, at Clifton's behest, as diabetes wore down the King of Zydeco, C.J. Chenier took over the band in 1987.
"I've been on my own 27 years now, and to me, when something like this arises there's an ulterior motive behind it," said Chenier.
Lake Charles attorney King Alexander, who represents Chenier's heirs, said they and others have stated Thompson said he legally changed his name.
"But as far as I know he has never produced any documentation to back that up. If he did it in some other jurisdiction, such as Texas, we just haven't seen it," said Alexander. "So until I see some documentary evidence that he has done it, then I'm going to assume that he has not done it."
Chenier recalled how he got involved with the band.
"(Clifton Chenier) came and got me when I was 20 years old, one week before I made 21. How did I wind up there?" he said. "He called my momma, said, 'Tell my boy pack his bags. I'm coming to get him.' And that was that. That was that."
And then, Chenier said, Clifton Chenier came to Port Arthur, Texas, and picked him up.
"I played my first gig with him in Bridge City, Texas, in 1978. September twenty-something — right before I made 21," said Chenier. "And that was the start of my career with him. I went on the road at the point and I'd been with him until the day he died, man.
"So that's the thing. My life has taken a natural course. I didn't plan for nothing," Chenier said. "I didn't do anything through my life trying to prepare for when he died so I could take this and take that. I didn't have none of that in my mind.
"So all of a sudden, here comes somebody who's not no relation to him whatsoever; they're not no relation to Clifton Chenier whatsoever; there's no Chenier blood around there at all. They're kin to his wife.
"I made my living, but these fingers are mine. They don't belong to nobody else but me," he said. "And I don't care what your last name is, if people don't like you, they're not going to come and see you.
"I just think there's ulterior motives behind it. I've got my own royalties — I don't need his," said Chenier. "Years ago, when he first passed away, I never tried to go after nothing that they had. I never, not once, messed with Miss Margaret about anything.
"As a matter of fact, me and her, before my daddy passed, had a pretty good relationship," said Chenier. "She used to cook and send food. There's a lot of things people don't know, man, because they weren't there."
Vital disputes that, recalling a time when C.J. Chenier dropped by the Clifton Chenier Club in Loreauville and Chenier's wife sent him away.
"One day, he came to the club and she made him put Clifton's instrument down (saying), 'Get out. Get out of here," said Vital. "And that's why he couldn't play with my aunt. My aunt wouldn't play."
Chenier said he was the one who took care of the King of Zydeco.
"Who they think was rolling around the United States with him making sure he got to his dialysis? Making sure he was OK? Who they think was doing that?" Chenier said. "I was there, man, doing that.
"Who they think was making sure when he couldn't play a whole gig, who was up there to step in for him to make sure the gig got completed? That was me," he continued. "But I never asked for no props for that. I never asked nobody for no pats on the back for that stuff. That was my daddy and that's what I did, man."
Chenier said he had a regular father-son relationship with Clifton Chenier.
"They weren't there for the talks he and I had when he was telling me, 'Hey, Ol' Hog ain't gonna always to be here; you gotta take over for me one day," Chenier said. "I got in his band with the intentions of being a jazz saxophonist. I had no idea I was going to play zydeco."
Chenier said Clifton Chenier's wife's relatives "got nothing to do with my daddy, man; my dad's probably flipping in his grave knowing what they're doing some junk like that, man, the whole time misleading the public," he said and then added with sarcasm: "Well, he must have been misleading them, too, taking me all around the world with him telling everybody I was his son. So what in the world did that mean?"
Referring to the petition he received Friday, Chenier said, "I don't understand all that legal kind of junk because I never got involved in it. I'm a musician. I play music. And that's what I do."
Chenier said he has earned his living himself.
Chenier said he's getting names and petitions of people who know who he is from Lafayette.
"I was in Lafayette in the '70s. I moved there with my daddy in the '70s. I didn't know nobody there," he said. "How did a little boy from Port Arthur, Texas, wind up in Clifton Chenier's zydeco band if he's not my daddy?"
When he moved to Louisiana, he met musicians, including "saxophone players who could blow circles around my head," said Chenier. "He could've had any one of them. But he came and got me, somebody who didn't know nothing about zydeco; nothing about playing blues in his band. Why did that happen? Oh, because I was just some little kid that he met and took a liking to? That's what they said one time."
It appears the plaintiffs are "reaching for the stars," said Chenier. "They're reaching for stuff that I can't comprehend why somebody is trying to personally ruin me like this. I can't comprehend it. I really don't know what to say, man. It's a bunch of bull."
Chenier paused and recalled the declining days of Clifton Chenier.
"He got sick sometimes and couldn't perform. I made sure he got to dialysis. I made sure the gigs went on. And not only that, he'd got to the point I was collecting money and paying everybody because he wasn't able to do that, man," Chenier said. "See, they don't know everything that went on on the road and what went down between me and my dad. They don't know nothing."
As part of the petition's third cause of action: Louisiana "Common Law" Trademark, it states that C.J. Chenier did not come by the name Chenier legally or naturally.
King said he checked the Secretary of State website to see "if Clayton Joseph Thompson, or C.J. Chenier had tried to register any name, or had appointed an agent for service or process and I just didn't find him there at all."
"That's not true either," said Chenier, adding that he changed his name in 1983-84. "I've got a birth certificate with my name on it. I've got Social Security. I've got a driver's license. I've got a passport. How can you have all that if you never changed your name? You can't leave the country trying to be somebody else.
"And the reason why I changed my name is because when I started playing with my daddy, he was telling everybody I was his son," said Chenier. "They were all calling me junior. They'd either call me Clifton Jr. or C.J. Chenier. That's what they called me. Ain't nobody knew my last name. Because he told everybody I was his son, I became C.J. Chenier.
"So after awhile, after years went by, I thought about it. I said, 'Well, you know, that's who I am," said Chenier. "And so I talked to my daddy about it."
And the name-change ball was set in motion. But when it came to the legalities and such, C.J. Chenier said, "I told him, 'You know what? Don't worry about it. I'll do it. I'll do it myself. And that's what I did."
"I don't know what they're talking about. They say I've just started using his name. I've got my daddy calling me C.J. Chenier," said Chenier. "I've been getting called C.J. Chenier standing right next to him for since – I can't even tell you how long – before I even changed my name."
In December 2013, prior to the Grammy Awards in January where Clifton Chenier was to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, controversy surfaced because the Recording Academy was going to present the honor to C. J. Chenier.
However, Vital presented legal documents indicating that any assets or royalties should be awarded to the Vital family. The Academy reversed its decision and both C.J. Chenier and Vital were on hand for the presentation. Vital went home with the award.
"I met him at the Grammy's for the first time," said Vital of Chenier. "I kept everything cordial. I don't know how it's going to end up. I'm not trying to hurt this guy."
"It's nothing more than trying to clean it up," said Mike Vital, nephew of the late Margaret Vital Chenier, deceased wife of Clifton Chenier. "I wish him well. You can live off of a person's fame all you want, but you've got to prove it. You've got to have documents."
C.J. Chenier fronts C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band, which was once led by the late King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier. He has claimed for years he is Chenier's son.
In the petition, filed in 15th Judicial District Court in Lafayette and delivered to C.J. Chenier (Clayton Joseph Thompson in the document) at his Music & Market gig in Opelousas, plaintiffs want Chenier to stop claiming he is Clifton Chenier's son because Chenier "was medically unable to sire any biological or natural children." They do not want the musician to use the name Chenier; and there's an assertion that Chenier sought to divert royalties to himself that was supposed to go to the plaintiffs.
"Of course, none of that's true, man," C.J. Chenier sighed. "It's going to all come out when it's all said and done. You know?"
C.J. Chenier, 57, said he began playing with Clifton Chenier and his band in 1978 when he was 20 years old. Then, at Clifton's behest, as diabetes wore down the King of Zydeco, C.J. Chenier took over the band in 1987.
"I've been on my own 27 years now, and to me, when something like this arises there's an ulterior motive behind it," said Chenier.
Lake Charles attorney King Alexander, who represents Chenier's heirs, said they and others have stated Thompson said he legally changed his name.
"But as far as I know he has never produced any documentation to back that up. If he did it in some other jurisdiction, such as Texas, we just haven't seen it," said Alexander. "So until I see some documentary evidence that he has done it, then I'm going to assume that he has not done it."
Chenier recalled how he got involved with the band.
"(Clifton Chenier) came and got me when I was 20 years old, one week before I made 21. How did I wind up there?" he said. "He called my momma, said, 'Tell my boy pack his bags. I'm coming to get him.' And that was that. That was that."
And then, Chenier said, Clifton Chenier came to Port Arthur, Texas, and picked him up.
"I played my first gig with him in Bridge City, Texas, in 1978. September twenty-something — right before I made 21," said Chenier. "And that was the start of my career with him. I went on the road at the point and I'd been with him until the day he died, man.
"So that's the thing. My life has taken a natural course. I didn't plan for nothing," Chenier said. "I didn't do anything through my life trying to prepare for when he died so I could take this and take that. I didn't have none of that in my mind.
"So all of a sudden, here comes somebody who's not no relation to him whatsoever; they're not no relation to Clifton Chenier whatsoever; there's no Chenier blood around there at all. They're kin to his wife.
"I made my living, but these fingers are mine. They don't belong to nobody else but me," he said. "And I don't care what your last name is, if people don't like you, they're not going to come and see you.
"I just think there's ulterior motives behind it. I've got my own royalties — I don't need his," said Chenier. "Years ago, when he first passed away, I never tried to go after nothing that they had. I never, not once, messed with Miss Margaret about anything.
"As a matter of fact, me and her, before my daddy passed, had a pretty good relationship," said Chenier. "She used to cook and send food. There's a lot of things people don't know, man, because they weren't there."
Vital disputes that, recalling a time when C.J. Chenier dropped by the Clifton Chenier Club in Loreauville and Chenier's wife sent him away.
"One day, he came to the club and she made him put Clifton's instrument down (saying), 'Get out. Get out of here," said Vital. "And that's why he couldn't play with my aunt. My aunt wouldn't play."
Chenier said he was the one who took care of the King of Zydeco.
"Who they think was rolling around the United States with him making sure he got to his dialysis? Making sure he was OK? Who they think was doing that?" Chenier said. "I was there, man, doing that.
"Who they think was making sure when he couldn't play a whole gig, who was up there to step in for him to make sure the gig got completed? That was me," he continued. "But I never asked for no props for that. I never asked nobody for no pats on the back for that stuff. That was my daddy and that's what I did, man."
Chenier said he had a regular father-son relationship with Clifton Chenier.
"They weren't there for the talks he and I had when he was telling me, 'Hey, Ol' Hog ain't gonna always to be here; you gotta take over for me one day," Chenier said. "I got in his band with the intentions of being a jazz saxophonist. I had no idea I was going to play zydeco."
Chenier said Clifton Chenier's wife's relatives "got nothing to do with my daddy, man; my dad's probably flipping in his grave knowing what they're doing some junk like that, man, the whole time misleading the public," he said and then added with sarcasm: "Well, he must have been misleading them, too, taking me all around the world with him telling everybody I was his son. So what in the world did that mean?"
Referring to the petition he received Friday, Chenier said, "I don't understand all that legal kind of junk because I never got involved in it. I'm a musician. I play music. And that's what I do."
Chenier said he has earned his living himself.
Chenier said he's getting names and petitions of people who know who he is from Lafayette.
"I was in Lafayette in the '70s. I moved there with my daddy in the '70s. I didn't know nobody there," he said. "How did a little boy from Port Arthur, Texas, wind up in Clifton Chenier's zydeco band if he's not my daddy?"
When he moved to Louisiana, he met musicians, including "saxophone players who could blow circles around my head," said Chenier. "He could've had any one of them. But he came and got me, somebody who didn't know nothing about zydeco; nothing about playing blues in his band. Why did that happen? Oh, because I was just some little kid that he met and took a liking to? That's what they said one time."
It appears the plaintiffs are "reaching for the stars," said Chenier. "They're reaching for stuff that I can't comprehend why somebody is trying to personally ruin me like this. I can't comprehend it. I really don't know what to say, man. It's a bunch of bull."
Chenier paused and recalled the declining days of Clifton Chenier.
"He got sick sometimes and couldn't perform. I made sure he got to dialysis. I made sure the gigs went on. And not only that, he'd got to the point I was collecting money and paying everybody because he wasn't able to do that, man," Chenier said. "See, they don't know everything that went on on the road and what went down between me and my dad. They don't know nothing."
As part of the petition's third cause of action: Louisiana "Common Law" Trademark, it states that C.J. Chenier did not come by the name Chenier legally or naturally.
King said he checked the Secretary of State website to see "if Clayton Joseph Thompson, or C.J. Chenier had tried to register any name, or had appointed an agent for service or process and I just didn't find him there at all."
"That's not true either," said Chenier, adding that he changed his name in 1983-84. "I've got a birth certificate with my name on it. I've got Social Security. I've got a driver's license. I've got a passport. How can you have all that if you never changed your name? You can't leave the country trying to be somebody else.
"And the reason why I changed my name is because when I started playing with my daddy, he was telling everybody I was his son," said Chenier. "They were all calling me junior. They'd either call me Clifton Jr. or C.J. Chenier. That's what they called me. Ain't nobody knew my last name. Because he told everybody I was his son, I became C.J. Chenier.
"So after awhile, after years went by, I thought about it. I said, 'Well, you know, that's who I am," said Chenier. "And so I talked to my daddy about it."
And the name-change ball was set in motion. But when it came to the legalities and such, C.J. Chenier said, "I told him, 'You know what? Don't worry about it. I'll do it. I'll do it myself. And that's what I did."
"I don't know what they're talking about. They say I've just started using his name. I've got my daddy calling me C.J. Chenier," said Chenier. "I've been getting called C.J. Chenier standing right next to him for since – I can't even tell you how long – before I even changed my name."
In December 2013, prior to the Grammy Awards in January where Clifton Chenier was to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, controversy surfaced because the Recording Academy was going to present the honor to C. J. Chenier.
However, Vital presented legal documents indicating that any assets or royalties should be awarded to the Vital family. The Academy reversed its decision and both C.J. Chenier and Vital were on hand for the presentation. Vital went home with the award.
"I met him at the Grammy's for the first time," said Vital of Chenier. "I kept everything cordial. I don't know how it's going to end up. I'm not trying to hurt this guy."
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