Founding Mushroomhead Singer Sues Former Bandmate

Mushroomhead are considered pioneers in modern metal, and the masked Cleveland band has had a lengthy and fairly successful career. The band, however, has experienced numerous lineup changes over the years, most notably losing founding singer Jeff Hatrix in 2018.

According to Cleveland.com , Hatrix is suing the band’s drummer/producer Steve “Skinny” Felton seeking at least $3.5 million over unpaid royalties.

“Most of the performing arts copyright registrations were registered as Stephen Felton being the copyright claimant,” the lawsuit reads. “And, although on many songs Hatrix was given proper credit for his participation in creating said works, there seems to be no record of mechanical royalty payments stemming from these performing arts registrations.”

“Felton’s actions … became more nefarious, including the doctoring of publishing splits giving Skinny (Felton) double pay under 2 names ‘Tenafly Viper’ and just plain ‘Steve Felton’, along with 30% going to him under ‘unknown publicist’ and ‘unknown writer’,” according to the lawsuit. “In fact, most of the publishing splits seem to have disappeared as plaintiff has not received any mechanical royalties to speak of for several years at least.”

“Although the money coming increased, plaintiff was apparently receiving pennies on the dollar,” the lawsuit said. “Hatrix was paid an ‘allowance’ $1,200 per week per, per tour. In fact, plaintiff was paid almost nothing beyond this and is due his publishing and other, royalties, income from touring, sales and royalties from film media, along with loss from other sources of income to be determined.”