Ridiculous Reasons Fans Sued Their Favorite Musicians

Musicians and their fans have a symbiotic relationship. In many ways, both rely on each other for support of some kind. But every so often fans turn against musicians. It could be something as simple as booing the band, while in some extreme cases, lawyers get involved. When it comes to lawsuits, fans have taken legal action against their favorite musicians for some fairly frivolous reasons.

Sometimes musicians have bad days like the rest of us. But on more than one occasion, miffed fans have filed lawsuits over things like a particularly bad performance (as in the case of Creed) or a failure to live up to fans' expectations (which happened to Tool). Then there have been some particularly oddball suits, including one against Justin Bieber for hearing loss due to his screaming fans. There was also the time a woman going by the name Billie Jean Jackson who sued the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, for $1 billion, claiming she was his secret wife.

Creed, formed in Tallahassee, Florida in 1994, has always had their haters — they were once voted the worst band of the 1990s. That didn't stop them from selling millions of records and concert tickets, but in 2003, four fans sued Creed for a particularly bad performance near Chicago. The concertgoers, Philip and Linda Berenz and Wendy and Chad Costino, filed a $2 million lawsuit alleging that lead singer Scott Stapp was so "intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable to sing the lyrics of a single Creed song" during the show in December 2002, per MTV News. He also appeared to pass out, kept leaving the stage, and rolled around on the ground, the suit alleged. For his part, Stapp denied he was intoxicated during the concert.

The band apologized for the bad performance in an email to their fans, citing their rigorous touring schedule as the reason for Stapp's behavior. As reported by MTV News, they said that the fans should "take solace" in knowing they had witnessed the "most unique of all Creed shows." Even so, the band fought the lawsuit, and an Illinois judge dismissed it a few months later.

In 2012, an Oregon woman sued pop star Justin Bieber, his record company, a promoter, and the owners of a concert venue after attending a Bieber show in Portland two years earlier with her daughter. Stacy Wilson Betts alleged she'd sustained permanent hearing loss in both ears, but not because of the music being too loud. It was apparently the screaming of the pop star's fans, called Bieliebers, who caused the damage. She was asking for $9.2 million. 

During the show, Bieber flew over the crowd in a heart-shaped gondola. According to the suit (via NBC), this allegedly caused "a wave-like effect of screaming by pointing into various sections of the arena, then enticed the crowd into a frenzy of screams by continuously waving his arms in a quick and upward motion." She dropped the case five months later, not because she believed it lacked merit but because she didn't have a lawyer.  

In March 2025, the progressive metal band Tool held its Tool in the Sand music festival in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with the promise of two unique sets. But fans were more than a little disappointed when there was some overlap in the band's set lists — four songs, to be exact. During Tool's second show on March 8, the second night of the three-day festival that included 10 other bands, some fans booed Tool when they repeated "Fear Inoculum," "Rosetta Stoned," "Pneuma," and "Jambi." To add insult to injury, after the festival, a group of fans headed by Stas Rusek, a lawyer from Georgia (and Tool fan), began making plans to file a class-action lawsuit. 

Some fans spent as much as $7,700 to see the band perform during the all-inclusive event and felt they hadn't gotten what they paid for. Just days later, Rusek began trolling for other disgruntled fans to join his potential suit, which he has yet to file. By March 13, the potential suit already included at least 100 others who felt Tool had engaged in false advertising.

Michael Jackson's massive 1983 hit single "Billie Jean" helped propel his album "Thriller" to the highest heights, selling more than 40 million copies by the end of the 1980s. The song is about groupie culture and false paternity allegations that Jackson and his brothers had experienced while in the Jackson 5. The song includes the lines: "Billie Jean is not my lover / She's just a girl who claims that I am the one / But the kid is not my son." Jackson, in his book "Moonwalk: A Memoir," claimed there was never a real Billie Jean. "The girl in the song is a composite of people we've been plagued by over the years," he wrote.

Then in 1987, a woman using the name Billie Jean Jackson filed a paternity suit claiming the King of Pop was her three kids' pop. She asked for $150 million in child support. The woman, born Lavon Powlis, lost the suit, but that didn't stop her from continuing to lawyer up. In 2008, she sued Jackson for $1 billion, claiming they were married and that Jackson's youngest son, known as Blanket, was hers. The enormous amount of money was supposedly for child support. This suit was also thrown out. In the meantime, she'd been arrested several times for trespassing at Jackson's Neverland Ranch. The woman pursued Jackson even after his untimely death in 2009, seeking custody of Jackson's child. It seems that a spurned fan can go from adulation to legal action in a short time.