Mug-Shot Saloon's tab is past due, lawsuit says

Aaron Jansen illustration

Who knew playing ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" could get you into so much trouble.

The Mug-Shot Saloon has racked up a tab and now it's time to pay up, says the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The licensing organization has filed a copyright lawsuit that could cost the popular Wasilla watering hole, where the world's reporters congregated last fall to chat up Sarah Palin's neighbors, up to $180,000 in damages.

"I didn't see the lawsuit coming," said Theodore Anderson, Jr., owner of the Mug-Shot. "They're making it sound like they were in contact with me all the time, and they weren't."

ASCAP is a nonprofit group that acts as an intermediary between musical artists and performance venues. The organization collects royalties from every bar and restaurant that plays any of the 8.5 million songs it licenses, which brings in just under $1 billion a year in the United States. ASCAP has an enforcement arm that goes to pubs and eateries to listen for its tunes, and licensing managers who contact offending establishments to let them know they need to pay up if they want to keep playing musicians like Jay-Z and Garth Brooks.

Vincent Candilora, senior vice president of licensing for ASCAP, which is based in New York, said that the Mug-Shot was first asked in 1996 to sign a licensing agreement and pay the applicable fees back. Since then ASCAP has written, called, and even sent licensing managers to the bar to ask the owners to pay for the music the bar played.

"We only sue people as a very last resort," Candilora said. "If this establishment had simply signed the license, because their occupancy is only 144 they would only be paying $940.32 a year. That's only $2.57 a day. If I were the bartender at Mug-Shot, I'd probably make $2.50 within the first 30 minutes of tending bar."

The six songs listed in the lawsuit include "You May Be Right," by Billy Joel; "Redneck Woman," by Gretchen Wilson; and "Sharp Dressed Man," by ZZ Top. The lawsuit asks that the Mug-Shot pay statutory damages of up to $30,000 per song, which adds up to a maximum tab of $180,000.

It's unclear if the songs in question were recorded tracks played over the bar's speakers, or if they were played by a live band.

The suit was filed in federal court in Anchorage, and ASCAP has hired Guess & Rudd, a downtown Anchorage law firm, while the Mug-Shot is represented by an Outside firm.

"We couldn't find anybody with this specialty, so we had to go to Seattle," Anderson said.

The lawsuit states that the violations occurred on a Saturday and Sunday night in July 2008, meaning that at least one ASCAP licensing agent got to experience the Mug-Shot long enough to listen to Linda Perry warble 4 Non Blondes's 1992 hit "What's Up."

The lawsuit names Anderson and his wife Marilyn as defendants. Marilyn, who was diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer in July 2008, passed away last month, according to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. Her memorial service was held at the Mug-Shot Saloon.

Theodore and Marilyn opened the Mug-Shot in 1989 and were launched into the international spotlight when Sarah Palin was selected as the Republican vice-presidential nominee in August 2008.

"I had a pretty good time with it; I'm a Sarah backer," Anderson said. "We got calls from people from all over the world looking for dirt."

National reporters rubbed elbows with Mug-Shot regulars, and when Palin spoke at the Republican National Convention, the crowd was spellbound. Marilyn joked to a Washington Post reporter that "They weren't drinking enough, dammit."

There's a jukebox at the Mug-Shot, and Anderson said that royalties for songs played on the jukebox are covered by the vendor.

"It's been years since I talked to anybody (from ASCAP)," Anderson said. "I didn't know all this stuff was coming down, and since we were paying through the jukebox I thought we were covered."