Late last year, Jered Threatin made headlines worldwide when he set up a UK and European tour for his band Threatin, only to have a few people show up at each gig. Now, he has lost a lawsuit brought against him by the musicians who didn’t realize what they were getting into when they agreed to join his band.
Here’s a quick recap of the story we covered late last year: In November, reports started to come out of Europe when the American rock band Threatin played to empty venues on their “Breaking the World” tour. It soon became apparent that Threatin had falsely inflated their Facebook and YouTube pages to make it seem like they had a big following, duping venue owners in Europe into booking the band. Soon video would emerge of Threatin playing to empty clubs, and ultimately, the musicians who Jered hired as his backing band started to tell their stories of how they were duped, as well,.
Jered finally broke his silence in an interview with Rolling Stone, claiming it was a “publicity stunt”, and delivering statements like, “A happy story lasts a day, but a tragedy is going to last a lifetime.”
Now, MetalSucks has discovered that two of the musicians hired for his backing band on the tour recently sued Jered (whose real name is Jered Eames) and his wife/manager, Kelsey, and won. Guitarist Joe Prunera and drummer Dane Davis, who both quit the band once they realized the hoax, brought the lawsuit to recover travel and living expenses, as well as lost wages.
Prunera was awarded $10,000, plus $250 in court fees, while Davis was awarded $3,975.29, as the result of a default judgment when Jered and his wife failed to show up to court. Moreover, Davis’ mother was awarded $4,035.66 after she claimed she flew from the United States to Ireland to see her son play, and had to pay for her son’s flight back home once the tour fell apart.
MetalSucks has revealed several more details, which you can read up on here.
In the meantime, Jered is not giving up hope on his rock ‘n’ roll dream, recently advertising for a guitarist to join him on a new tour of the United Kingdom this November. Among the requirements, “You cannot: live with your mother, have more than one lazy eye … be a vegan … have ever said ‘lol’ outloud … be whiter than me.”
So, if you missed Threatin during their first UK tour — and it appears everyone did — here’s your chance to not see them again.