Scott Weiland Countersues Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots recently sued fired frontman Scott Weiland, claiming that he sabotaged the band’s 20th anniversary tour by repeatedly skipping promotional shows, showing up late for concerts and using STP to promote his solo career, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
In true music mayhem form, Weiland has countersued his old bandmates in Los Angeles, accusing them of conspiring to oust him, reports Entertainment Weekly.
In the bitter court filings that are more like a tiff between lovers than business partners, Weiland makes it sound like he was a one-man-band. He asks "How do you expel a man from the band that he started, named, sang lead on every song, wrote the lyrics, and was the face of for twenty years, and then try to grab the name and goodwill for yourselves?"
While the former bandmates want Weiland to stop playing STP songs and using the STP band name on his solo tour, Weiland's countersuit seeks $7 million in damages and wants a judge to dissolve the band partnership.
Without a written agreement stating otherwise, the law in most states will assume a number of things about a band's partnership.
The biggest assumption the law generally makes is that all members of the partnership have equal ownership of, and an equal right to use, all the assets of the partnership. In the case of a band, those assets include the band's name. But a number of factors can result in unequal ownership rights.
Though not as traditionally rocker-ish as trashing a hotel room and getting into fistfights, rock legends legally battling bandmates over band name rights happens more than you'd think.
Remember when Gun N' Roses called it quits? As it turns out, there was a long legal showdown that ended with lead singer Axl Rose as the owner of the band's incredibly iconic name, reports Entertainment Weekly.
In a legal six degrees of separation twist that should make Kevin Bacon smirk, non-Axl members of Guns N' Roses formed a band called Velvet Revolver, which recruited STP's Scott Weiland for vocals -- who is now in the same kind of mess with his old bandmates.
Related Resources:
- Scott Weiland Countersuing Stone Temple Pilots (Billboard Magazine)
- No Doubt Settles Lawsuit w/ 'Band Hero' Maker (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)
- Velvet Underground Goes 'Bananas' in Andy Warhol Lawsuit (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)
- Lady Gaga Countersuit Claims Unlawful Contract Deal (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)