Rock and roll superstar Meat Loaf is allegedly attempting to sue a tribute act - known as To Hell and Back - for $100,000 - because he thinks the ‘online imposter’ is making cashing from his ‘celebrity’.
British Meat Loaf act Dean Torkington has been dressing, singing, covering, and performing as Meat Loaf since 1996, but has run into trouble with the star many a time. It seems Meat Loaf - who even ran a tribute act competition in 2010 called ‘So You Think You Know Meat Loaf’ - doesn’t understand that a tribute act is supposed to be as similar to the act they’re representing as possible, and is pretty pissed that Torkington has been making a career out of it for so long - and in particular, the fact that he owns the www.meatloaf.org domain name.
So despite Torkington clearly being a big fan, and a brilliant impersonator, Meat Loaf has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles, claiming that the Brit had “commercially exploited the internet top-level domain name MeatLoaf.org to capitalize on the artist's celebrity,” meaning he was “liable for substantial damages, including statutory damages of up to $100,000 for your cybersquatting.” So yeah, Meat Loaf is suing one of his biggest fans (probably ex-biggest fan now) and best impersonators... for impersonating him.
“I'm seeing my barrister because there's a legal term that states if he knew about me and has done nothing before he cannot complain later on,” Torkington told MailOnline. “We have not got on for a long time. He said that he wanted my website www.Meatloaf.org. He's never made it easy for me.”
He continued: “Once I paid £400 on VIP tickets to see Meat Loaf at Liverpool Docks. I went backstage and I had him and his manager having a go at me. He said that he wanted to get all the pictures off the side of my van and also he wanted my website address. I told him that he was not having my website but shortly after that his YouTube channel complained about my YouTube videos of my show and I had to take mine down. My webpage has always said that I am a tribute act. I have never tried to say that I am Meat Loaf himself.”
Getting mad and suing people who rip-off your songs or use your songs illegally is one thing, but genuinely trying to take a fan and impersonator to court with the view of getting $100,000 is rather low in our opinion - though we don’t know the complete details.
Let that be a warning to all you tribute acts out there!
What do you think of the case? Is Meat Loaf right, or does he have a ‘Bad Attitude’? Let us know in the comments section below
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