Lil Peep’s mother, Liza Womack has opened up about her ongoing legal battle, after filing a wrongful death lawsuit against her son’s managers in 2019.
In an interview with Pitchfork, Womack spoke about the upcoming trial for the case, which asserts that First Access Entertainment, Bryant Ortega, and Belinda Mercer were personally responsible for Peep’s death from an accidental overdose on Nov. 15, 2017. FAE CEO Sarah Stennett was added as a co-defendant to the suit for breaching her fiduciary duty.
“I want justice for Gus,” she told the outlet. “That’s why I’m doing this. Whatever form it takes, what I’m looking for is for people to be held accountable for their behavior.”
“More lasting change will come if we figure out a way to further remove the stigma on mental health issues and support artists,” John Seay, an Atlanta entertainment lawyer said of the case.
“I see examples of the pressures other artists are under,” Womack added. “With COVID, I know there aren’t performances, so in a way there’s this pause, and it can be frustrating. But on the other hand they all got a break. Gus would’ve loved the break,” she said of her son, whose real name is Gustav Elijah Åhr. First Access have filed a countersuit against Womack, claiming that she sold posthumous Lil Peep merch and breached a contract.
“I’ve had two strokes, and I am not going to die until I take care of this matter. I’m going to live. I have a mission,” she explained, adding that she reminds herself of her son with fan art that she’s received from all over the world.
The case is currently scheduled to go before a jury trial on Nov. 10, 2021, with Womack claiming Peep’s tour managers ignored his concerns regarding a scheduled performance. He allegedly told them he didn’t want to perform, and they said he’d have to get “sick” if their insurance policy were to cover any cancelled shows. Womack claims the managers told Peep to take “too much” Xanax, and he later posted a video of himself taking the drug on social media. As a result of the clip, Peep’s managers told the promoters that the show would go ahead, and the managers allegedly asked him to share a video to tell his fans he was okay.
“If people are held accountable for their actions, I will feel that justice has been done,” Womack said. “You learn to live with the pain, and you’re a different person, because when your child dies, the person that you were dies, too. But I will be glad, and I hope to feel satisfaction.”
FAE has denied her claims, telling Pitchfork in a 2019 statement that accusations that “any of its employees, or Chase Ortega, or anyone else under our auspices was somehow responsible for, complicit in, or contributed to his death is categorically untrue.”
