American singer and songwriter Eddie Money.

A California appellate court has revived 70s rocker Eddie Money's bid to knock out an age discrimination claim brought by his former drummer.

In a published decision issued Friday, the Second District Court of Appeal found that band lineup decisions by the singer of 'Baby Hold On' and 'Two Tickets to Paradise,' whose birth name is Edward Joseph Mahoney, implicate the First Amendment.

“A singer's selection of the musicians that play with him both advances and assists the performance of the music, and therefore is an act in furtherance of his exercise of the right of free speech,” wrote Justice Helen Bendix.

Friday's ruling reverses a trial court decision denying an anti-SLAPP motion brought by Money's lawyers at Fox Rothschild. Money and his lawyers had sought to dismiss a discrimination claim brought by Glenn Symmonds, a longtime drummer for his band. Symmonds claims that Money fired him after he suffered a back injury and became incontinent following chemotherapy for cancer treatment. Money maintains that he let go of Symmonds and other band members out of a desire to play alongside his grown children.

Friday's decision sided with Money on the first step of the anti-SLAPP analysis, finding that the decision to terminate Symmonds was protected conduct. The decision, however, remands the case to the trial court to determine whether Symmonds can demonstrate that he's likely to succeed on the merits of his claims that Money discriminated on the basis of age, disability and medical condition.

Money's attorney, Fox Rothschild's Lincoln Bandlow, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Likewise, Symmonds's lawyer, Lawrance Bohm of the Bohm Law Group in Sacramento, wasn't immediately available.