Levon Helm’s Daughter Amy on His Woodstock ‘Barn’ Studio Dispute: ‘This is a Shakedown’

Photo of a beaming Levon Helm via his Facebook page.

Levon Helm Studios, the recording studio and live music venue founded by the late Levon Helm, drummer and vocalist with The Band, is “in turmoil,” according to a July 13, 2026, article written by John W. Barry and Noah Eckstein and published in The Overlook. Otherwise known as “The Barn,” the Woodstock, N.Y., venue, which had been under the control of the musician’s daughter, Amy Helm, underwent “a shift in voting control [that] removed…Amy Helm from management and put longtime shareholder Brian Parillo in charge.”

[July 30 update: In a new post, Amy Helm wrote, “This is a shakedown. The hustlers who think they can… cash in on my father’s legacy, will be exposed. It is extortion. I have it in writing.” See below for her complete latest statement.”]

The Barn, built in 1975, best known for its regular series of “Midnight Ramble” concerts that began in 2004, has featured such artists as John Prine, Phil Lesh, Norah Jones, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Marc Cohn, and Mavis Staples. Recently, however, the reporters stated, “Three scheduled Helm Family Midnight Ramble shows were postponed, and a confrontation between Amy Helm and Parillo drew Woodstock police to The Barn.”

Related: John Barry, co-author of the Overlook article, previous authored a book on Levon Helm

Parillo, “who became involved with the studio in the early 2000s, said shareholders removed Amy Helm from management on May 26 and later appointed him chief executive officer.” Parillo “now controls 60% of the company’s voting power after Sandra ‘Sandy’ Helm, the widow of Levon Helm, and shareholder Barbara O’Brien assigned him their voting rights.”

Photo © Greg Brodsky

The dispute became so heated that, the authors contend, “Woodstock police were called to The Barn on May 28 after a confrontation between Amy Helm and Parillo. No charges were filed, and the two have offered contradictory accounts of what happened.”

Sandra Helm, the article states, “wanted new leadership at a venue that she believed was staging too few performances and booking acts that didn’t fit The Barn’s rock ’n’ roll character. She also wanted to make clear to Amy, her stepdaughter, that she was serious about changing leadership.”

Amy Helm, in return, “called the situation ‘unconscionable’ and said the changes were disrespectful to her father’s memory…Neither I, nor our long-time core staff, are currently part of Levon Helm Studios and have nothing to do with any decisions made or actions taken by the new ‘management,’” she said.

By Monday evening, July 13, all of the parties had weighed in and the situation had become a public “he said, she said.”

In a post on July 12 on her Facebook page, Amy Helm wrote, “In time, I will be able to speak to the disturbing circumstances behind the current situation at my father’s home and recording studio.

“What’s paramount to us right now is making sure that The Barn — both the legacy and the community of which we’re family — is safe and protected.

“It’s not only been my responsibility, but my privilege to carry on my Dad’s vision. Along with an endless family of musicians and friends who were close to him, we have honored his memory and music, and will continue to do so.”

On July 13, Sandy Helm wrote, “The Barn is where Levon and I lived for 44 years, through 2 Barns, a fire in 1991, now the present residence and studio.

“Now our business has been presented to the public yesterday and my privacy invaded, which was Amy’s decision, not mine.

“Levon built The Barn for a place to celebrate the glory of music. He would hate what is happening right now. He never liked conflict, he only wanted to make music, and ‘make people dance.’

“I refuse to be any part of the erroneous portrayal of my private life, or to stand idly by and watch Levon’s legacy to be besmirched. This is no one else’s business.”

Parillo wrote an extensive post on the Levon Helm Studios’ Facebook page. “Back in 2000, Levon invited me and my band to come play with him in Woodstock. A lifelong friendship with Levon and his wife, Sandy, quickly developed. I am saddened that Amy Helm, his daughter, has chosen to make a private family matter public, and we now have no choice but to respond to set the record straight.

“In 2004, Levon started the Midnight Rambles, which were a runaway success. Levon, I and two other partners became the founding stockholders of LHS when the company was formed [in] 2004. I have never received a penny in connection with my shares in LHS. I have also not received a penny from LHS since becoming president.

“LHS is not a birthright. It is Levon’s legacy.

“After Levon passed away too soon on April 19, 2012, Sandy and Amy split his shares, each becoming 40% owners of LHS. What transpired for the next 14 years was a concerted effort by Amy and her advisors to deny Sandy, me and the other stockholders access to any corporate records or any meaningful updates on how the company was being run. Sandy and I care deeply about Levon’s legacy, and we were worried it was being coopted and mismanaged by Amy.

“After attempting for years to resolve the dispute, our patience ran out. Sandy, I and the other stockholder elected me as the sole director of LHS, and I was appointed the president of LHS, so that I could conduct an investigation into how LHS has been run. No one is above being held to the legal, ethical and moral standards of running a company for the benefit of all of its stakeholders, which we believe includes Levon, our performers, guests, employees, officers, directors and stockholders. No claim of ‘birthright’ washes clean a decade plus of malfeasance.

“We have concluded the initial phase of our investigation and made the results available to Amy in connection with a settlement offer. Amy has made her response publicly known. She would rather burn her father’s company to the ground by mobilizing ignorance and hatred against LHS instead of accepting responsibility for her actions. If she can’t have it, then no one can.

“[W]e urge you to wait for the full story to come out.”

Amy Helm shared a brief update on July 30. “Thank you for the outpouring of support,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “The recognition and love have moved me beyond words. Yet I feel compelled to offer some context—for my friends, my fans, and in response to the deluge of media questions and speculation.

“Here’s what I am able to say: I am not the story. The question that should be asked is: Who is Brian Parillo and who is bankrolling him? There is no ‘dispute,’ this is a shakedown.

“I wish I could protect my stepmother; I have tried. The legal system has determined her accountability and will continue to do so. The hustlers who think they can manipulate her and further, cash in on my father’s legacy, will be exposed. Their business plan is a ‘settlement’ demand. It is extortion. I have it in writing.

“Although they have told me that I am barred from the property and have changed the locks, nobody will be kicking me out of a home I co-own or separting me from my father’s legacy. I carry this—my birthright, our family’s music, and his spirit in his only grandsons—everywhere I go. In the words of my day, which I am reclaiming for his legacy, I am avowed to ‘keep it going’.”

Watch Levon perform at a Midnight Ramble at his 65th birthday celebration in 2005

Author John Barry’s book on Levon is available here.