Rival testifies against White

DETROIT —  A rival of White Stripes singer and guitarist Jack White says he found an obscenity-filled warning note stuck to his door, but White denies he put it there.

The statements came in testimony Tuesday in the trial of a federal lawsuit brought by a producer who worked on the first two White Stripes albums and asserts he deserves a share of the royalties. Jim Diamond is listed as co-producer on the band’s self-titled first album, released in 1999, and is also listed as sound mixer on “De Stijl,” released in 2000.

In an aside to Diamond’s claim about the note, White and Jason Stollsteimer of the Von Bondies testified about their fight inside a Detroit nightclub in 2003. Stollsteimer also told of finding a message he said was from White. “I found a note stuck to my door with a knife in it,” Stollsteimer told the jury.

The knife held up a magazine interview in which White allegedly thought Stollsteimer slighted him by minimizing his role in producing a Von Bondies album. The article, Stollsteimer said, had written across it: “That’s the last ... time I help you out.” Earlier, White said it was “a laughable lie” that he stuck a knife in Stollsteimer’s door.