Ownership of Levon Helm Studios now the subject of intrafamilial spat

Levon Helm, who rose to fame as a drummer and vocalist in The Band, founded his Woodstock, New York, studio in the 1970s; since then, the venue—affectionately called The Barn—has become a site for intimate concerts and recordings. Now, it’s become the focal point of a legal dispute over Helm’s studio and legacy. When Helm died in 2012, his daughter Amy took control of the Hudson Valley venue. However, in May 2026, the Barn’s board booted Amy from her leadership position. In her place, they elected Helm’s friend, Brian Parillo, as the venue’s new CEO. 

Amy did not take kindly to the regime change, alleging that Parillo had manipulated her stepmother Sandra Helm into giving him control of the company. Parillo now controls 60% of the Barn LLC’s voting power, while Amy also claimed that Sandra had accused Parillo of “conning” her into handing him the company’s voting power, and that Parillo had engaged in “financial exploitation and elder abuse.”  

The dispute reached a tipping point in recent days, when Amy released a Woodstock police report from a late May fight between herself and Parillo that had allegedly become physical, though neither pressed charges. Events billed at “The Barn” through August have since been postponed. Though Sandra conceded that she was “disoriented” at the time of the interpersonal spat, she said in a recent interview with Hudson Valley paper The Overlook News that she changed the Barn’s leadership “to show Amy that I was serious about restructuring and a new administration, and this is who it’s going to be.” 

Amy called the situation “disturbing” on Instagram and announced it does not reflect her father’s legacy, which she argued was of paramount importance to protect. Sandra said in her own Instagram statement that her “privacy [had been] invaded” by Amy’s efforts, and that her stepdaughter had “besmirched” her husband’s legacy. Parillo, for his part, has stated that he was given control of the Barn after Amy mismanaged it, refusing to pay dividends to shareholders or provide company updates. “No claim of ‘birthright’ washes clean a decade plus of malfeasance,” he wrote on the Levon Helm Studios Instagram page.

Keep scrolling for more great stories.