Article - Billboard - 311 Brawls(altercation) With Scott Stapp In Baltimore

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edited December 2005 in Other Music
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001612951

311 Brawls With Scott Stapp In Baltimore

December 01, 2005, 4:30 PM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
311 has taken to the message board on its official Web site to clarify reports of an altercation that took place last week between three group members and former Creed frontman Scott Stapp. The apparent fight happened on Thanksgiving in a lounge at Baltimore's Harbor Court Hotel.

According to the post, 311's Chad Sexton, SA Martinez and P-Nut were watching a basketball game in the lounge when Stapp came into the room. “He appeared intoxicated,” the post says. “He drank a shot at the bar and then threw his shot glass, smashing it on the bar. He was acting belligerent and got into an argument with patrons sitting at the bar.”

The band says Stapp proceeded to sit down next to Martinez and make “a disrespectful and crude remark” to his wife. When Sexton asked Stapp to leave, Stapp punched him, according to the post.

“Scott was looking for a fight -- and that's what he got,” the group says. “A fight ensued. Soon the police arrived and everyone was restrained and questioned, and Scott was ultimately asked to leave the hotel."

According to a 311 spokesperson, Martinez fractured a knuckle in the fight, but performed the next evening in Baltimore with his hand in a cast. The group is in Detroit tonight (Dec. 1) to play Detroit radio station CIMX's “The Night 89X Stole Christmas” show along with Fall Out Boy, Alien Ant Farm, Our Lady Peace and Coheed & Cambria, among others.


At deadline, a representative for Stapp had not responded to a request for comment. Asked to clarify details of the incident, a manager on duty at the Harbor Court Hotel told Billboard.com, “I don't have any idea what you guys are talking about.”
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
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  • http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/8901746/scottstapp?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1&rnd=1133477254250&has-player=false

    Scott Stapp and 311 Brawl
    Former Creed frontman gets in tussle with L.A. rockers in Baltimore

    At Baltimore's Harbor Court Hotel on Thanksgiving night, members of Los Angeles rockers 311, on a day off from their national tour, got into a fist fight with former Creed frontman Scott Stapp, in town to promote his solo debut, The Great Divide. 311 singer S.A. Martinez suffered a fractured knuckle as a result of the brawl, which the band says Stapp started.
    "We had just finished dinner and were at the hotel bar to watch the Lakers game when Scott Stapp walked in being very loud and obnoxious," Martinez tells Rolling Stone. "In fact, one of the first things he said was that he loved to fight. So he started doing shots and breaking the glass on the bar, almost hitting one of our crew guys. My wife and I moved to a table and eventually Scott made his way over and sat down. He was looking for attention. Even before that, he had wadded up a napkin that he lobbed in our direction. It was pathetic, and we tried to ignore him, but it was impossible. Then he made a pretty disrespectful comment to my wife, which I'd rather not repeat, but in no uncertain terms, the word 'fuck' was used. That's when [drummer] Chad [Sexton] walked over."

    "I had run into Scott that day," says Sexton. "We have some things in common, like the same producer, and we chatted for a few minutes. So knowing we got along earlier, I kindly asked him not to disrespect anybody and reminded him that we're all friends. That's when he sucker-punched me -- hit me right in the face."

    "When Scott punched Chad," adds Martinez, "in the follow-through, he hit my wife so then I threw my punch. I think the last time I got into a fight was in the third grade, but it was an instant reaction on my part. [311 bassist] P-Nut also came over and he got sucked into it, opening up a scar on his right arm from a recent surgery. Scott went down, and his girl came over and sat on him to get him to stop, but he got up, enraged, still wanting to fight. After about five minutes, hotel security finally broke it up and kicked him out. Honestly, the hotel was really at fault for not kicking him out when he threw the first shot glass."

    Later that night, Martinez went to a local hospital to treat what's called a "boxer's fracture." His right hand is now in a cast, but he was able to perform the following day in Baltimore. "It was different, because I'm used to holding the mike in that hand," he says. "Thankfully, I can still bust a move."

    Ironically, before the situation escalated, Stapp had told the members of 311 that he was a fan, according to Martinez. "He was telling us how he'd been to a show of ours in Florida, where he got up on stage, and that he was so thankful that we didn't kick him off," says the singer. "He was saying, 'You had no idea that you guys being so cool to me would inspire me to start a band, and for me to sell 30 million records, win a Grammy, VMAs, Billboard Awards . . .' He just went on and on, like some drunk guy who wouldn't shut the fuck up, while we just wanted to watch the game."

    In the end, 311 insist they were acting in self-defense and, according to Sexton, have gone public as a response to rumors to "tell what really happened that so there's no misinformation out there . . . We're very positive people. We've preached positivity on every record we've made. We don't have altercations like this ever. And we even wish Scott well."

    For Stapp, this is not the first such incident. In April of 2001, while a member of Creed, he was involved in a bar brawl in St. Augustine, Florida. Witnesses told Rolling Stone at the time that Stapp threw a punch at a man who had taunted him.

    When contacted by Rolling Stone, Stapp's representative had no comment on the Baltimore altercation. And according to the Baltimore police department, no charges have been filed.
    Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
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