Chris Daughtry Being Sued For Royalties By Pre-Idol Band (UPDATED)

By On 04/06/2012 · 67 Comments · In American Idol, Chris Daughtry

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UPDATE: Chris has posted a statement on his official website:

“I am very hurt by these false accusations. The songs listed in this lawsuit were written solely by me and no one else and at this time, I have no further comment.”

Chris Daughtry is being sued by his pre-Idol band, Absent Element, for royalties:

Former American Idol contestant and Greensboro resident, Chris Daughtry is being sued by former bandmates for compensation and royalties for several songs on his first and second albums.

Ryan Andrews, Scott Crawford, and Mark Perry, all former members of Absent Element (Daughtry’s band before winning American Idol) filed the case yesterday (4/5/12) with the Guilford County Court.

Among the accusations are breaches of fiduciary duty, unfair trade practices and other deceptive and wrongful conduct.

The songs at issue are “Home”, “Breakdown”, “Conviction”, and “Sinking”. The band members say these songs were written and created before Daughtry joined the American Idol show.

Via WMFW News

I remember writing about these guys during Season 5. I recall band members, who all hail from North Carolina, auditioning for Chris’s touring band after he recorded his post-Idol debut. None of them made the cut.

They also played together at Chris’s homecoming after he was eliminated.

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  • Kirsten

     

    Karen, are all of the band members of Daughtry playing on his albums and
    are they signed with his label and management? Or do they only play in
    concert with him?

    The band was not formed until after the first album was recorded so studio musicians were used for that album (leading to a heated debate around here when the band was nominated for the Best Group performance Rock Grammy category for the album). The band members have played on the subsequent two albums.

    Chris is responsible for songwriting (sometimes with co-writers or band members). I imagine that it’s not an equal sharing of the profits amongst band members since Chris brings the most to the table. I don’t think we know one way or the other, though.

  • Kirsten

     

    I believe that because Daughtry didn’t win, he was signed as the band
    Daughtry and not as a solo artist.  Even though he didn’t have all the
    members in the band and they used studio musicians, I believe he was
    signed as a band, and they are full band members.

    I don’t think it was so much that he didn’t win (because I suspect that the producers wanted him to win), but that solo artists don’t have a lot of luck on the Rock charts. It is a genre for bands. I think even if he had won, they would have formed a band around him, anyway. Chris makes the kind of music people expect from a band even if it is a band that is dominated by its lead singer.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/DJ4FPAE2BM4XDCNVQITJSS3S2Q Sue

    Then why didn’t they sign Cook as a band too? (I’m not bringing Durbin into this yet cause he’s on a different label).

  • Kirsten

    Then why didn’t they sign Cook as a band too? (I’m not bringing Durbin into this yet cause he’s on a different label).

    I’m not sure. Either they ended up thinking that they needn’t have gone that route with Daughtry or they wanted to push Cook more to pop. Or maybe Cook flatly refused to get massive tattoo of “COOK” on his back. Actually, it maybe been as simple that “Daughtry” could be a band name, but “Cook” wouldn’t work as well. They certainly didn’t want to lose the name recognition that was built up on Idol. They could have called it “The David Cook Band”, but that’s too close to the “Dave Mathews Band”. It’s all Cookie’s parents’ fault!

  • Anonymous

    My interpretation of the court document is that AE is saying they had an agreement that the band would share the songwriting credits while they were a band, so even if he was the sole writer of the song,  they would share credit.  

    I think this is what they are saying too, and history will show them that they’ll have a hard time proving this.  This is why even if a band consists of people who are really good friends, everything should be in writing.

  • http://twitter.com/shoriagirl Shoriagirl

    Cook band may not wanted to play pop songs.  It is not just what label wants, it is also what the people in the band want.

    Hasn’t Daughtry lost some of his current band members already because they didn’t like working with him?

  • Tera2

    I believe Chris wrote those songs by himself as he said and his style shows in his other songs in later CDs.  He wrote a few of his first CD and co-wrote some. They are just bitter Chris formed a new band and made it big and now they want some money out of it.  maybe they should say they wrote songs in his later CD too that have similar vibe.  Chris had to form new bandmates and idol and its label wanted it that way too.

    Chris was my favorite that season and I liked his melodic rock vibe, and I remember listening to his old band songs on their site while Chris was on the show, and it was a bit more rock edge and christian rock. But Chris kept his melodic mainstream rock vibe for his new Daughtry band and that’s what I thought is best too.

  • http://twitter.com/Summergerl53 Summer

    Cathy Knott said:I’m assuming if they are willing to go to court they believe that they have proof.(Sorry don’t know how to italicize what I’m responding to!)

    They may not necessarily want to go to trial with this- often people bring lawsuits in hopes that it is easier for the person being sued to settle out of court rather than spend valuable time and money defending the lawsuit.I can see that happening in this case- depending on the amount in question it may be more economical for the record /publishing company to just settle with the band.

  • Anonymous

    I believe Chris wrote those songs by himself as he said and his style
    shows in his other songs in later CDs.  He wrote a few of his first CD
    and co-wrote some. They are just bitter Chris formed a new band and made
    it big and now they want some money out of it.

    It doesn’t matter who wrote the songs.
    The only thing that matters is what agreements were in place pre-Idol regarding songwriting credits (they could have split it any way they wanted) and more importantly whether or not said agreements were put down in writing.

    I can’t imagine RCA not vetting this thoroughly before releasing anything, but such omissions do occur and that is why courts exist.

  • iani

    Then why didn’t they sign Cook as a band too? (I’m not bringing Durbin into this yet cause he’s on a different label).

    I’m not sure. Either they ended up thinking that they needn’t have
    gone that route with Daughtry or they wanted to push Cook more to pop.

    DC won AI, TPTB needed the winner’s name to bear the show’s “flag”. The DC-album was out in 6 months and to go through all the legal-process to form a band would not be so easy and quick I think, plus financial-wise to promote a band with DC as the front-man would have been harder/costly than DC-solo the winner of a popular season. He won and they gave him his right, a record deal, not to form for him a band as a favor. I think CD was easier for them to promote him as a band using his name, he has had that tougher look, more manly-men, DC has been more of a heartthrob and easier to be promoted as a solo act, it’s what I think.

    ETA1:“It’s also possible David wanted to be a solo artist by the time he was on Idol, because he had already released one album as a solo artist,”

    He released his solo album to continue making music, there was no other choice at the moment back then but to come with a solo one after he was for more than 10 years a front-man of a band. I think there might have been some discussions for a DC-band after he won AI, but with the new life-wave and new winner-status guy and all the promos and interviews he had to do, it might have slipped through the whole process and he was happy to have his friends with him and he tried during his first tour to present himself and the band-members like a whole-band. Who knows, maybe with a band back in 2008 to take advantage of his popularity and some material fit for a band the situation could have been different.
    James might have a hard time to enter in the rock community when he will start his festivals with lots of bands, tough guys, certain lyrics and instrumentation sounds; the rock-formats don’t play any of his songs I think.

    ETA2:“Stand Up did get Active Rock play and even cracked the Top 40 there.”
    Oh great, my thought was about a JD-fan saying that she/he was trying to request the song on Active and the answer was something like: we don’t play Idols. So there would be hope for some radio-plays with his new material.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MV64BS4FSISCASL4P656RXAFYQ Kayla

    The only thing that matters is what agreements were in place pre-Idol regarding songwriting credits (they could have split it any way they wanted) and more importantly whether or not said agreements were put down in writing.

    I don’t think that’s the final word though. Even if the agreement actually exists, there’s still a possibility that depending on its nature it’s not legally binding. People agree too and/or sign a lot of things that aren’t actually legally enforceable. 

    And with all lawsuits, especially the nastier they sound and the more damages they demand, there’s always the possibility that the real motive of the plaintiff is to be a big enough nuisance to get an easy money out of court settlement.

  • Karen C

    It’s also possible David wanted to be a solo artist by the time he was on Idol, because he had already released one album as a solo artist, and was getting ready to release another when he went on Idol.   So it might even be that he didn’t want to front a band, since he had done that before with Axium, and he had left to do his solo albums.

  • JJ123

    Shoriagirl: Hasn’t Daughtry lost some of his current band members already because they didn’t like working with him? (don’t know how to quote)

    Joey, the original drummer left the band 2 years ago.  There have been a few versions of what went down but basically Joey wanted to put out his own stuff with a friend’s label and TPTB had lots of rules on him which caused conflict.  Whatever happened back then I know that Chris and his wife recently went to see Joey perform so it seems they’re on good terms now.  The first guitarist that was picked, Jeremy Brady, left the band 3 months after the first album release.  He appeared in the It’s Not Over video.  He left because he said it wasn’t his type of lifestyle and he puts out a different type of music.  Both of their replacements, Brian and Robin are still with the band as are Josh Steely and Josh Paul the original lead guitarist and bass player respectively.

  • Anonymous

    Joey had other issues too, and it seemed like he was having an emotional breakdown on twitter last year, and wanted to get back into the band.

  • Karen C

    I found on youtube the song called Breakdown and song called Conviction and they do have parts of both that are in the Daughtry song Breakdown.  Of course, the real question is what kind of arrangement that he had with AE, if he was the sole songwriter it wouldn’t matter. I’m sure RCA would have looked into this, if I can find it I’m sure they did.

    Here are the links:

    Absent Element- Breakdown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4–2rGezSA&feature=relmfu

    Absent Element- Conviction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BrJt-arK4E&feature=relmfu

    Daughtry – Breakdown- (it is even called Conviction in the title, but it’s Breakdown) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ma4pZUEnSo&feature=related

    Not sure what to make of this. I love Daughtry’s music irregardless, and I do believe he was really the writer of these songs. Hopefully this is settled soon.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/DJ4FPAE2BM4XDCNVQITJSS3S2Q Sue

    James might have a hard time to enter in the rock community when he will start his festivals with lots of bands, tough guys, certain lyrics and instrumentation sounds; the rock-formats don’t play any of his songs I think.

    Stand Up did get Active Rock play and even cracked the Top 40 there. I dunno if Wind-up is gonna send Higher Than Heaven to radio after he debuts it on Idol but it’s a much better song for him to promote on tour than Stand Up or Love Me Bad. As I said elsewhere, new rock artists have to earn airplay by winning over new fans live, and James won’t have much time to visit the stations to promote the single as he’ll be spending a lot of time in his tour bus as many of the venues are miles apart.

    As for the festivals and opening for Buckcherry (who are pretty hardcore), James musicians are all very experienced and James can be pretty creative with his phrasing. They’ve said they are always finding new ways to mix up and interpret the songs, so we’ll see how the songs sound as the move away from the studio and get some miles on them. Plus there are all those unreleased tracks that were recorded during the MOABD sessions (according to James are heavier) as well as the stuff James and the band are currently writing.

    If Wind-up will consider signing James and his backing band as a real band, they need to gel together properly first and opening for a hardcore band like Buckcherry in sleazy dives will equip James to write about stuff rock audiences can relate to.

  • breakdown

    Chris freely admitted from the beginning that he combined the two songs to form Breakdown on the first cd. This is not an issue. Imo, this lawsuit boils down to ownership of the songs and it’s hard for me to believe that RCA wouldn’t have vetted all of this at the time. Like all idol contestants, only Chris is signed to RCA but RCA has approval of the band members.

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