[Dallastroke9]

Ex-Creed singer Stapp, 311 in fight

Friday, December 2, 2005; Posted: 5:43 p.m. EST (22:43 GMT)

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- Former Creed lead singer Scott Stapp and members of the band 311 were involved in a fight on Thanksgiving in the lounge of a luxury hotel, according to hotel security staff and 311 members.

311 were in Baltimore for a weekend concert when several members ran into Stapp earlier that day, band drummer Chad Sexton told The Associated Press. Both Stapp and 311 have the same producer, and Sexton said there were no problems during the first meeting.

But Stapp later came into the Harbor Court Hotel bar while Sexton and bandmates SA Martinez and P-Nut were watching basketball on television. He stepped in front of the screen and said, "311, I am ready to fight," according to Sexton.

Sexton said the band tried to defuse the situation, and Stapp went to the bar to drink. Later, he made "inappropriate" comments to Martinez's wife, and was confrontational with Sexton.

"All of a sudden, he clocked me in the left side of my face," Sexton said. "Then a huge fight broke out."

During the melee, Martinez broke a finger and later went to the hospital to have a cast put on his hand. Security guards eventually broke up the brawl. Police were called, but no arrests were made, according to hotel security.

"It was an unfortunate incident," Sexton said. "We are not brawlers."

Beth Keifetz, vice president of publicity at Stapp's label, Wind-up Records, wouldn't comment on the reports of a fight.

But Jonathan Jordan, director of security at the hotel, said the incident was captured on security cameras. He said Stapp was "attacked" by several members of 311 and that it took two security guards to break up the fight.

"It was definitely started by 311," Jordan said.

Officer Troy Harris, spokesman for the Baltimore Police, said the department didn't have any record of officers responding to the hotel.

Stapp, who won a Grammy Award with Creed in 2000 for the song "With Arms Wide Open," has launched a solo career. He recently released his debut album, "The Great Divide."

311 has released more than a dozen albums since forming in 1988. The band's hit songs include the chart-topping "Down."

Source: CNN.COM

[DebbieH]

Yeah, I read that last week. I always thought Scott was an Ass and this just confirms it. Best thing that ever happened to Creed was him leaving. Alter Bridge is awesome and their new singer is great.

[DebbieH]

Look who's in the news again.....Some things never change!

For Scott Stapp, the honeymoon was over before it even began.

Hours after the former Creed frontman tied the knot with beauty queen Jaclyn Nesheiwat in Miami on Friday, the rocker was rung up for public intoxication in Los Angeles.

Stapp, en route to his Hawaiian honeymoon, was stopped from boarding a plane at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday after airline personnel deemed the rocker "antagonistic" and "boisterous."

A spokesman for the airport police, Lieutenant Tyrone Stallings, said the rocker was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in a public place and taken to the Van Nuys station for processing.

According to TMZ.com, which first reported the incident, Stapp demanded a blood-alcohol test at the station, where he registered a 0.18--twice the legal limit.

Stapp, 32, eventually was freed and ordered to report for arraignment on Mar. 8.

There was no immediate comment from his publicist on the arrest--or the nuptials.

What we do know is the singer married Nesheiwat, a 25-year-old former Miss New York 2004, on Friday.

People magazine reported the couple swapped vows at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, a European-inspired estate on the city's Biscayne Bay.

Nesheiwat donned a Vera Wang bridal number and walked down a 65-foot-long rose-petal-covered aisle. Stapp's seven-year-old son, Jagger, served as best man, per People.

It was the first trip down the aisle for Nesheiwat and the second for Stapp. He was previously married to Hillaree Burns for 16 months before divorcing in 1999. Stapp retained sole custody of their only child, Jagger.

They met in January 2005, at a fundraising gala for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in New York and got engaged late last year. Stapp issued a press release last month touting the engagement and announcing that Nesheiwat had taken a position as director of public affairs for the Scott Stapp Foundation, an organization aimed at promoting healthy parent-child relationships.

For his part, Stapp definitely has a handle on unhealthy relationships. Aside from his tempestuous first marriage, Stapp's sobriety-challenged behavior led to the collapse of Creed in 2004 and a well publicized bar fight between the singer and members of 311 last Thanksgiving.

On the 311 Website, drummer Chad Sexton claimed an allegedly intoxicated Stapp made a "disrespectful and crude remark" to a band mate's wife, then "sucker-punched" Sexton.

Stapp admitted to Rolling Stone that he entered rehab shortly after the fight. He also said that he was so disgusted by his booze and pill habit that he nearly killed himself following Creed's disastrous 2003 Weathered tour. (The tour, which turned out to be the band's last, was capped by a lawsuit filed by a group of Chicago fans who demanded their money back because Stapp "was so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable to sing the lyrics of a single Creed song.").

Stapp's debut solo album, The Great Divide, was released in November to little fanfare and even fewer sales--it opened at number 19 with 94,000 copies, a far cry from his dominating days with Creed, which sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.

Regardless, Stapp will be cutting short his already truncated honeymoon to hit the road once more. He kicks of a club tour Feb. 23 in his hometown of Orlando. The trek wraps up Mar. 18 in Phoenix.