Founding MUSHROOMHEAD Singer JEFFREY HATRIX Sues STEVE 'SKINNY' FELTON Over Unpaid Royalties

According to Cleveland.com, Jeffrey Hatrix, also known as Jeffrey Nothing (born Jeffrey Lewis Hetrick),formerly the haunting voice and co-founder behind Cleveland's pioneering alterna-metal and industrial collective MUSHROOMHEAD, has sued the band's drummer and producer Steve "Skinny" Felton, alleging copyright infringement and failure to pay him royalties that he is owed.

Hatrix, who left MUSHROOMHEAD in 2018, claims in the lawsuit, which has been obtained by BLABBERMOUTH.NET, that he has not received royalties for his music "for several years at least", despite the fact that he wrote or helped write 148 songs during his time with the band.

"Most of the performing arts copyright registrations were registered as Stephen Felton being the copyright claimant," the lawsuit, which was filed on August 12 in federal court in Cleveland, 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."

In the years prior to Hatrix's exit from MUSHROOMHEAD, "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 adds. "[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."

Hatrix's attorney Ronald Stanley told Cleveland.com that Hatrix is seeking at least $3.5 million, but clarified that "we don't know all what he is entitled to yet."

Jeffrey left MUSHROOMHEAD in March 2018, stating: "I am coming to you today with a heavy heart to announce that I am leaving MUSHROOMHEAD. It is a decision that I did not make easily, but one I made for reasons that are best for me as an artist and musician at this juncture in my career." The vocalist went on to thank "the craziest, fucking loyal and amazing fans" for the "once in a lifetime privilege" of performing for them while touring and recording with the group.

A few months later, Hatrix discussed his exit while appearing on the "ADHD" podcast, saying that "my issue was there was only one chief [Steve Felton], and that's not how it started. That really catapulted us all backwards. I feel like we could have done so much more… Things could have all been different and friendly, but I don't believe my former band has that in their vocabulary. I never wanted it like that. It's odd."

He added: "I left the band because I couldn't do it anymore. I stayed for a long time for the fans and it just got to be like, 'Sorry I just can't do it anymore.' I was trying to leave on semi-amicable terms and then that never happened… I got to the point where I didn't even want to go on tour anymore. There was one tour where I felt like I was in need of having every tooth pulled out of my head. The stress was so bad, it felt like that. That ended up not being the case. Once I got home, I was fine. Sometimes a bus can feel like a prison cell or your bunk can feel like a casket or you're doing time or you're not even alive anymore… When it was cool, I liked it. When it became somebody's little game, for lack of a better word, it became very ugly and something I wanted to get out of as soon as I could."

Image courtesy of Zombie Shark Records