Photo Credit: Ilan Rubin by RachelCWood123 / CC by 4.0
Drummer Ilan Rubin is accused of orchestrating a scheme to seize control of the drum company he co-owned following his late business partner’s death.
Ilan Rubin, the drummer best known for his work with Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails, has been hit with allegations in a new filing. The cross-complaint asserts that he orchestrated a scheme to seize control of Q Drum Co., the boutique drum manufacturing company he co-owned with his late business partner, Jeremy Berman.
Filed by Brandi Booth, the executor and sole beneficiary of Jeremy Berman’s estate, the filing accuses Rubin of wrongfully taking control of company assets and manipulating financial records, deliberately excluding her from the business after Berman’s death from stomach cancer in January 2023. Booth claims she became the successor to Berman’s 51% ownership interest in the company through his estate, which Rubin allegedly refused to recognize.
Booth accuses Rubin of selling company property without her consent, taking control of Berman’s email and financial accounts, withholding company books and records, manipulating tax filings, allowing company tax obligations and loans to lapse, and obtaining federal trademark registrations tied to the company without her knowledge.
Further, Booth alleges that Rubin and his associate, Roger Ko, took control of GoFundMe donations intended to benefit Berman’s family while making false and misleading statements about her authority over the estate and the company. Her complaint asserts claims for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraud, and civil conspiracy. She is seeking compensatory damages, restitution, punitive damages, and other relief, as well as demanding a jury trial.
The filing is the latest in a series of litigation that began in December 2024, when Rubin filed a lawsuit against Booth, accusing her of fraud, conversion, unfair competition, and interference with the company’s prospective economic advantage. He also sought the reinstatement of Q Drum Co., claiming that Booth wrongfully terminated the original company and later formed another entity using the same name.
In a public statement posted on social media, Rubin claims that Booth’s cross-complaint amounts to a “smear campaign” against him.
“Please be aware that I have the full support of Jeremy’s parents regarding this matter, and it means the world to me,” Rubin explained. “I knew Jeremy for about 32 years, and we were in business together for the last 10. […] After his death, all of the loose ends related to Q Drum Co. needed resolution, and it fell to me. I tried to do it in a patient, polite, and understanding manner, but it is an odd feeling when you get a notice of a warehouse lease termination out of the blue, only to find a workshop has been all but gutted. Still, I tried to handle things personally and directly, but eventually had to seek legal representation.”
“The person on the other side of this dispute was told by a very well-respected lawyer that if she was willing to take on her appointed role and initiate probate proceedings, we would be more than willing to discuss stepping away from the proceedings personally,” he continued. “But she hasn’t taken steps to initiate probate, and has instead put her energy into posting about it on social media for some inexplicable reason while making it sound like I am profiting from the petition (I am not!).”
Jeremy Berman began his career as a drum builder at Orange County Drums and Percussion in the ‘90s. He went on to have a successful career as a drum tech, which continued until his diagnosis with stomach cancer. He died on January 9, 2023.
Ilan Rubin is best known as the current drummer of Foo Fighters, but he has played with numerous bands, including Nine Inch Nails, Paramore, Lostprophets, and Danny Elfman. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of Nine Inch Nails, making him the youngest living inductee and the first to be born in the 1980s.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, he was also the youngest musician to play on a Woodstock stage, having opened Woodstock ‘99 on the Emerging Artist Stage as the drummer for punk/ska band F.o.N. (Freak of Nature) at only 11 years old.
