In this 2002 photo released by Bryan Wayne Perry, country music songwriter Darrell “Wayne” Perry is shown. The children of a hit country music songwriter accuse their evangelist aunt of promising to use her healing powers to cure the cancer that killed him and then stealing an inheritance that could be worth millions. The heirs of Darrell “Wayne” Perry, whose songs included Tim McGraw’s “Not a Moment Too Soon,” allege that their aunt said she had been healed of breast cancer through prayer and faith, and that she would heal their father the same way. (AP Photo/Family Photo via Bryan Perry) ** NO SALES **
By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FAIRFIELD TWP. — He was a Hamilton boy who told his sons he lived on peanut butter and mac-n-cheese while he panhandled with his guitar and an open case on the streets of downtown Nashville, hoping to get noticed.
It was 10 years before Darrell “Wayne” Perry would break into the music industry with songs that scored big for artists like Tim McGraw and the Backstreet Boys.
When he died of cancer in 2005 — and his name was dragged through a nasty, public fight over his estate — Perry’s son Justin Wayne Jones vowed that he would move forward to keep his dad’s legacy and music alive.
He did.
In a Fairfield Twp. studio filled with memorabilia honoring his father’s career, Jones and business partner Craig Maher have collaborated in a venture aimed at giving small companies exposure and giving fledgling musicians a start.
Jones also keeps a handle on his father’s music catalog, working with the Universal Music Group as a co-publisher.
Waynote Media Productions — named after Perry and Maher’s music publishing company Noteslinger — opened about a month ago on Ohio 4.
Waynote’s products range from recording, production publishing services for musical artists to full-flash websites, jingles and high-definition commercials for small businesses.
The business partnership between Jones and Maher started with a Craigslist ad about 18 months ago.
At the time, Maher was running Noteslinger Publishing with his father, Rick, and they were looking for a vocalist. Jones was the lone person to answer the ad.
He told Maher about his dad’s history in the music business and Maher recognized the name.
His dad and Perry were old high school buddies from Hamilton. In fact, Rick Maher had tried to track down Perry for pointers when he started Noteslinger four years before. That’s when the Mahers found out Perry had died.
“It seemed like fate or destiny or whatever you want to call it. Maybe my dad had something to do with that,” Jones mused about how Perry may have orchestrated the meeting with Maher from beyond. “His family knew my family for their whole lives and it just seemed like it was sort of ...”
“Serendipitous,” Maher said, finishing the thought.
At Waynote, the two are merging Jones’ connections and know-how in the music industry with Maher’s creative side. Maher plays guitar, bass, keyboard, harmonica and mandolin and has amassed a sizeable catalog of his own music.
Maher, 34, of Fairfield Twp., is the company’s creative director. Jones, 32, of Middletown, is executive producer.
Rappers hopeful
Middletown rap artists Lenar Mitchell (Ellz), brother Demetrius Mitchell (Dmitch) and cousin Aamas Smith (Mezzy) want Waynote to take their group Better Den Them (aka BDT) to the top.
BDT signed contracts with Waynote last week to publish their original material, manage the group and for studio recording.
The Mitchells and Smith, 23, 21 and 20 respectively, have been rapping together since high school. But their group has had little public exposure, except for a few YouTube videos and one performance last December in a Clifton bar.
“They look like hip-hop gangsters,” Jones said of the trio. “But they are very humble.”
Said Lenar Mitchell: “We just hope that we get real big. We’d like to show people that with your dreams, you can make it too. This never really happens, for real, to people in Middletown. We want to be the first people to blow up real big from Middletown.”
A long, long road
Getting to this point hasn’t been easy for Jones.
He and his siblings made headlines about five years ago in the midst of a heated battle with their aunt, Solid Rock Church co-pastor Darlene Bishop, who is Perry’s sister. Perry had named her executrix of his estate and administrator of the trust he had set up for his children to receive royalties from his music.
In the end, the family worked it out. The estate was settled, accusations of fraud, deceit and misspending ceased and Bishop turned over control of the trust to Justin about six months ago.
A wrongful death suit that Perry’s children filed against Bishop in Butler County also went away. It claimed that Perry had stopped cancer treatments because Bishop persuaded him that God had cured his throat cancer.
“You can imagine everybody (in the music industry) shut us out entirely. But everybody’s opened the door back up to me,” Jones said of renewing those ties since the controversy ended.
He’s hoping those connections will help new artists get discovered or at least get their music out there. Jones remembers what his father went through trying to get someone to listen to his.
“He was kicking doors in that were closed in his face, sneaking into the Grand Ole Opry, sneaking into parties and things like that. He forced other people to accept him,” Jones said.
He and Maher want to make it a little easier for other musicians.