Lady A just sued Anita White, a blues singer who performs under the name Lady A, claiming her team asked for $10 million for use of the name. Well, now White is responding. In an interview with Vulture, White says she believes country Lady A always planned for things to go down this way. She notes, “I think they always knew what they were gonna do.”

She says that since she didn’t have a team behind her when she started using the name in 1987, she didn’t realize she should trademark the name. She adds that when the band filed to trademark Lady A back in 2010, she didn’t know she needed to protect herself. “You don’t get to just come and take because you have that privilege,” White says. “We don’t have that luxury or that privilege, so we need somebody to help us and lift us up.”

White says when negotiations started Lady A sent her a contract that “had no substance,” and suggested they just “coexist,” with them trying to help her out. White offered that they go by Lady A the Band, and she go by Lady A the Artist, but they weren’t into that.

As for that $10 mil she asked for, she says the money was not only to help support herself, but also the black community, noting she planned to donate half of it. “I was quiet for two weeks because I was trying to believe that it was going to be okay and that they would realize that it would be easier to just change their name, or pay me for my name,” White says. “Five million dollars is nothing, and I’m actually worth more than that, regardless of what they think.”
Finally she notes, “But here we go again with another white person trying to take something from a Black person, even though they say they’re trying to help,” adding, “If you want to be an advocate or an ally, you help those who you’re oppressing. And that might require you to give up something because I am not going to be erased."

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