April 24, 2003

Lawsuit: Singer to "impaired" to perform

Creed, a band mostly known for their near-interchangable songs and status as "maybe Christian" band has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that Scott Stapp, the lead singer, was "so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable to sing the lyrics of a single Creed song.

Four fans of the rock group Creed filed a suit Monday demanding their money back for a Dec. 29 concert at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont at which, they claim, the band's singer was too drug-addled to remember his own songs.
The plaintiffs are request class-action status on behalf of all who attended the concert that evening and have said that Stapp "left the stage on several occasions during several songs for long periods of time, rolled around on the floor of the stage in apparent pain or distress, and appeared to pass out on stage during the performance."

Now, for a rock performer to be stoned, drunk or otherwise "altered" on-stage is nothing unusual, but I'm not aware of any circumstances in which fans have been able to get their money back for a sub-par performance. Of course, with the way ticket prices have escelated over the years, there's a lot more money at stake now if the show ends up being poorly done. According to the suit, the four concertgoes had spent $227 total in tickets, service fees and parking. That's roughly $54 per person - not a cheap evening out.

What will be most interesting, however, is the impact this suit has among Creed's many Christian fans. The suit itself alleges that Stapp has a known drug or alcohol dependency that the other band members and their management company were aware of, yet the band has been hailed by many a good band for Christian teens. Even the "Focus on the Family" publication "Breakaway" has written about them. The article notes that Creed does not claim to be a Christian band and that they describe themselves more as asking questions and searching for the answers they don't have. It also says, however, that "Creed is by far the best option in a dark musical genre".

I don't know if the plaintiffs in this suit have any kind of a realistic chance of prevailing in this suit, but I have to say I really feel for them. I've been to over 50 concerts in my life, and know how angry I'd be if, after the usual mad scramble and hours waiting in line to get decent tickets, unbelievable ticket prices, trying to find a place to park that's reasonably near the venue and everything else that goes into just getting to the concert, the band or artist I was there to see couldn't perform their own songs because he was just a bit to wasted - regardless of what he might have been wasted on. Good luck, guys!

Posted by thorswitch at April 24, 2003 01:17 AM | TrackBack


Comments

I understand their plight, though the sense of entitlement is interesting. They clearly wouldn't remember when the band The Pogues would show up for gigs and not know if Shane McGowan, the lead singer/songwriter, would even show up, much less be lucid enough to understand what to do. He remarked once to having been almost continually drunk from the age of 12.

One caveat to this is the concerts for Guns'n'Roses this last summer that were cancelled because Axl couldn't see fit to show up (or even leave his NY hotel). However, the difference was that the Creed shows at least continued, even if the lead singer was AWOL most of the evening. A similar situation occurred a couple of years ago when Oasis played some gigs without Liam Gallagher, who decided to take off some nights, sit in the audience, and heckle his brother Noel. Fun stuff. At least Noel could cover for him.

Posted by: Heath at April 24, 2003 09:24 AM