Fired Manager Sues Over Music Chain’s ‘Satanic’ Lyrics Claims He Had Deal To Reject Offensive Material
A member of a traditional Catholic church in Post Falls is suing a national music store chain, claiming he was fired for refusing to sell sheet music that contained “blasphemous, pornographic and satanic” lyrics.
Jack De Blasi, 55, said he was recruited by the Spokane-area manager of Malecki Music Inc. to run the new Spokane Valley Mall store.
De Blasi said his boss, Dan Kennedy, also a traditional Catholic, promised him he wouldn’t have to sell anything that compromised his religious beliefs.
Malecki Music, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., sells gifts and sheet music at seven stores in Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska and Washington. The main Spokane store is at 621 N. Argonne.
A week after the new Valley store opened, De Blasi set aside more than 200 song sheets by popular bands such as Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Slayer, because he found the lyrics morally offensive.
When he refused to sell the pile of merchandise, De Blasi said he was fired Oct. 30.
“Those lyrics were abominable,” De Blasi said Tuesday. “They were promoting suicide, murder, hatred of people, hatred of God. The holy sacrifice of the Mass was blasphemed and with the foulest, blackest language one could come up with.”
Kennedy refused to comment on the case. The chain’s local attorney, Jim Black, did not return calls Tuesday and Wednesday.
De Blasi said he moved to Post Falls last year to join Immaculate Conception Catholic Parish, a large traditional congregation that functions outside the hierarchy of the American bishops.
The congregation operates under the pre-Vatican II teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, worshiping in Latin and abstaining from ecumenical relationships with other faiths.
De Blasi said he has spent the bulk of his career in the music industry, producing classical music albums and public television programs.
After living in Post Falls for a year, De Blasi moved to Seattle to live with his daughter.
He agreed to take the $17,500-a-year manager’s job in order to move back to the parish.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Spokane County Superior Court, seeks restitution of past and future income, as well as punitive damages.
The suit is as much about a breach of contract as it is religious freedom, said James Bendell, De Blasi’s attorney.
“He was told he would not have to do it, then he was fired for not doing it,” Bendell said. “I don’t see how they are going to have a defense.”
De Blasi said there was little room for misunderstanding between him and Kennedy.
“We are brother Catholics,” he said. “And a Catholic cannot traffic in this stuff.”
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