Chris Daughtry Is Being Sued By His Former Band
By Laura Aguirre
Chris Daughtry is being sued. His former bandmates – pre-American Idol – claim they are owed royalties for several hit songs that Daughtry wrote before he became famous. Daughtry has denied all of these claims. Who should be believe?
Before becoming a finalist on American Idol, Daughtry was in a band called Absent Element with bass player Ryan Andrews, drummer Scott Crawford, and guitarist Mark Perry. According to the Greensboro News and Record report, all three members have filed a lawsuit in North Carolina seeking royalties for songs they say they helped write with Daughtry. Among those songs are “Home”, “Breakdown”, “Conviction” and “Sinking”.
Daughtry did respond to the suit on his website saying that he was hurt by the ‘false’ accusations, and that the songs listed in the lawsuit were written by him and no one else.
In the lawsuit, the men claim that all four members of Absent Element wrote the music and lyrics for their songs, and collaborated on the arrangement and recording for those songs (stated above).
The strange thing about the lawsuit is that Absent Element only released one album, Uprooted. The album does feature two songs mentioned in the lawsuit (“Conviction” and “Breakdown”), but Daughtry combined those two songs on his first album and called the song “Breakdown”. He’s also credited as a songwriter for the song.
It seems like Ryan, Scott, and Mark want some of that Idol cash that Daughtry’s been enjoying for the past six years.
What do you think?
