The unpleasant infighting among the children of Jimmy Martin over his estate, an open secret for years within the bluegrass community, has hit the mainstream media.

The Tennessean, Nashville’s hometown newspaper, has published a story on the ongoing legal battle over Martin’s reputed $2 million estate, and income from future royalties. As has happened so many times, a number of surviving siblings and an ex-wife are at odds over the terms of Martin’s will.

According to the August 30 piece by Kate Howard…

The case goes on because of an addendum he made two weeks before he died: scolding his children and adding two music business friends as co-executors with his son Lee “Buddy” Martin.

His children believe that the strong-willed musician was lied to about money missing from his bank account and that he was coerced into splitting the power of executing his will.

His four children are at odds over whether someone outside the family should decide who gets what. They have different attorneys and different perspectives on how it should all end.

“This is not what my dad worked all his life for,” son Ray Martin said.

You can read the full piece online.

We ran into this buzz saw a few years ago when we tried to get approval for a charitable venture that would have involved Jimmy Martin’s likeness. The attorney who represents the estate attempted to get this cleared through the many Martin survivors, but had warned us that there was not much agreement among them.

No luck in our case.