According to SILive.com, Scott Stapp has been sued by the founders of ART OF ANARCHY for allegedly refusing to tour with the band and participate in promotional photo and video shoots and publicity events. The $1.2-million lawsuit was filed in New York State Supreme Court by Vice Inc. whose chief executive officer and principal executive officer are ART OF ANARCHY guitarist Jonathan Votta and drummer Vincent Votta. Vice claims to have paid the CREED singer $200,000 for services to be rendered, which he asked to be treated as a loan, for tax purposes. Stapp only performed at 18 concerts with ART OF ANARCHY last year and did not appear at scheduled a video shoot last October on the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the Hudson River in Manhattan. "Despite Vice's repeated and specific directions to Stapp, and Vice's entreaties for his cooperation, Stapp repeatedly and continually shirked his contractual obligations," the complaint states. Stapp's failure to live up to his contract led to the cancelation of the group's recording contact at the end of October, the complaint alleges. "If Stapp had dedicated himself to ART OF ANARCHY with the same fervor that he dedicated to his solo career, ART OF ANARCHY would have had a successful concert tour and its record contract would not have been terminated," the complaint alleges. This is not the first lawsuit that the founders of ART OF ANARCHY filed against a former singer. In July 2015, Vice sued ex-STONE TEMPLE PILOTS frontman Scott Weiland, alleging that he refused to help promote ART OF ANARCHY's debut album and take part in music videos after agreeing to write and perform the lyrics for 10 songs for the disc. According to The Blast, Vice said that it paid Weiland $230,000 upfront for his work. Although he sang on the first ART OF ANARCHY album, Weiland never performed live with the group and distanced himself from the project before his death from an overdose of drugs and alcohol in December 2015 while on the road. The final straw, Vice claimed, was when Weiland said in an interview that ART OF ANARCHY was a "scam from the beginning." Vice sued Weiland to recover its $230,000 and asked for an additional $20 million in damages. A month before the singer died, he counter-sued Vice, accusing the company of unlawfully using his name and image to promote ART OF ANARCHY. Stapp, sober after a well-publicized meltdown over three years ago that was partially the result of heavy drug use, was recruited in 2016 to sing for ART OF ANARCHY. The group, which also features DISTURBED bassist John Moyer, ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, issued its sophomore album, "The Madness", in March 2017. Photo: Annie Atlasman
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