The bench used by Aretha Franklin to prop herself up while playing piano for her 2009 tour has filed for workers compensation in the State of New York.
Reports are that the bench wasn’t able to move following Franklin’s September 18th performance at Radio City Music Hall. Documents obtained through the State of New York and the Freedom of Information Act show that the bench was used and abused far more than it signed up for.
[Image via: SheetMusic]
The bench had signed up to be sat on for three songs or roughly 15 minutes out of Franklin’s two and a half our set; however, on the night of September 18th Franklin sat on the bench for three songs plus an obscure piano solo that ran in excess of an additional 15 minutes.
Afterwards, the piano bench was reportedly in a state of shock and extreme dehydration despite a large round ring of sweat being left behind on its top. Its legs were so frail and weakened by the extreme length of time that Franklin was sitting on it that a crew of three unionized stage workers had to remove the piano bench to the safety of the backstage ‘to get some fresh air.’
One of the more interesting details of this case is in the contract.
The contract that the piano bench signed to be part of the show states that Franklin weighs roughly 112lbs soaking wet. 112lbs is a weight that the piano bench has stated that this is an extreme and gross understatement and misrepresentation by roughly three to four hundred pounds when dry.
When asked for comment, the piano bench said, “I haven’t been able to put in a day of work ever since. I thought Ms. Franklin was an extremely wonderful and kind lady up until that fateful night. I don’t know what was going through her mind when she took such an unplanned and extremely long piano solo without having asked me if I could hold up first.”
“During the first few weeks following the incident I took blame for my injury because I should have known that the contract was wrong when it stated that she was ‘112lbs soaking wet’. The woman is a beast the size of a water buffalo. Heck, my brother’s adoptive little three year old desk weighs 40lbs. and it is nowhere near as large as Ms. Franklin is.”
The piano bench went on further to state that “I’m not trying to be a bad man here. I’m nothing more than a working piano bench. I have a coffee table, an ottoman and a set of chairs at home that all depend on the money I earn to support them. They haven’t been able to be polished properly. I haven’t been able to pay my bills and I fear that we’re all going to end up on the streets like we’re a bunch of deadbeats and unwanted furniture. Or worse yet seized by our landlord and sold off to become props in an NBC sitcom.”