When last we left Mike and Brian, Brian's doctor was being summoned to appear before the judge because Brian was said to be to ill to testify. Well, the doctor arrived and the circus began. First off the doctor explained that Brian was not "right." He said that the drugs and abuse from Murray had left him without "bumpers." He explained this by comparing people to cars. He said that most people have bumpers to deal with the little things that come up daily in one's life, these bumpers being a cushion against all of the difficulties, large and small, that we all encounter, According to the doctor, Brian doesn't have these bumpers. That's is why they say Brian needs handlers. He has one guy whose whole job is to hang around with Brian and make sure he takes his medication. His doctor went on to say that Brian is a person who thought that he (Brian) had died several years before.
And the medication? There are four different ones that Brian takes on a daily basis. The only one I can remember is lithium. One of the other drugs that Brian took was to stop the voices that Brian hears in his. Three of the voices that Brian hears are Murray, Phil Spector, and Danny Hutton (3 Dog Night).
Mike's lawyer again accused the defense of keeping Brian drugged against his own will (though what kind of will could he possible have?) and for the purpose of keeping him off the stand and for jury sympathy. The judge, who was forever telling the lawyers to stop their interminable bickering, gave the lawyer a couple of days to get Brian there.
Around this time, Mike took the stand. Now I didn't see much of his testimony, but it was all pretty much stuff that we heard from others, Mike claiming he wrote or helped write some lyrics. He never claimed that he did the music and said he helped on some of the lyrics. What came out was that even if a song is listed as Wilson/Love it doesn't necessarily mean a 50/50 split. It might mean 75% royalty for Brian and 25% for Mike. Mike wasn't protesting that, he just wanted some credit for the 39 songs. What percentage was not said. Another interesting thing that came out was the fact that Brian is still paid for the live shows. Even though he rarely appears he still gets a cut, I presume a full share, from every single show. One thing that was kind of interesting was that when Mike took the stand he was somewhat nervous and subdued-I expected a more upbeat, upfront Mike. I'm not if this was a legal ploy or not, but he seemed genuinely nervous.
Well, Brian hit the stand a couple of days later. This what everyone was looking for. The gallery of one (me) suddenly rose to about six with some tv news reporters and sketch artists who were probably on break from the OJ trial that was happening across the street.
When Brian walked up to the stand, he walked right across the middle of the courtroom as opposed to everyone else who would walk behind the defense table and up. He also cast a wary eye at Mike, sort of a side glance as if he was expecting Mike to strike, it was chilling. The testimony for this day was basically asking Brian the usual set up questions. Brian's voice would sometimes be a whisper and at other times it would be loud. He was looking over song lyrics or parts of contracts that the lawyer would ask him about, he would be so engrossed that the lawyer would have to raise his voice to get Brian's attention, Brian would then snap up with a loud "yes" as if waken from a dream.
He said he never read his own autobiography so he wasn't sure how much of it was true, he said he just dropped off a bunch of tapes and that was the end of it. Brian would only testify in the mornings as anything longer than that was too exhausting. The judge was very kind to Brian and really sympathized with him. As Brian left the stand this day, he accidentally hit his foot or shin on the lawyers table and let out a huge "owww"- almost like a five-year old, his lawyers running to his aid like hi mother.
Brian is extremely childlike-at least he was at court, I'm not sure if it was the medication or what.
Well, that's enough for now, I'll write soon on Brian's other days on the stand. The best is yet to come.
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