The Calling singer Alex Band has been the victim of a kidnapping and violent attack.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning (August 18) in the city of Lapeer, Michigan. Band was in Lapeer to perform at a music festival on Saturday night and is said to have left his hotel room to walk to a local convenience store at 3am when a van pulled up alongside him and he was snatched inside.
The 32-year-old singer was then dumped on train tracks nearby, where his bandmates found him some time later, badly beaten up. Band suffered “a fractured lower spine, 15 stitches to lower chin, three broken teeth and is bruised on his side and stomach from the baton beating,” his publicist said Monday.
Speaking to CNN, the singer denied speculation that the attack was either fake or drug related after some sources speculated that the timing of the attack, on the same day the band made their comeback, was more than just coincidence. “This just happened to me. I didn’t kidnap myself, or beat the crap out of myself. So the whole hoax thing is honestly kind of disgusting to even think about, or hear,” Band said.
“Alex was grabbed by his shirt and hit from behind and lost his footing,” Band’s publicist Brad Taylor said. “He was beaten with a police baton with a gun pointed to his face demanding Band’s ‘Hollywood money.’ After Band fought back, he was cornered in the van with gun to his face.”
Band adds, “At this point, I was crying, I’ll admit it, I was scared, and I was pleading for my life, but then it occurred to me. I was like, ‘You know, I just found like a couple of weeks ago that I’m going to be a dad,'” After disclosing this information to his kidnapper, Band claims the men, “kicked me out of the car onto the train tracks, and that’s when I hit the tracks and I fractured the bone in my lower spine, and I was unconscious and they left.”
The Lapeer City Police Department has since told TMZ that the suspects are two men who were driving a blue mini-van. The police have also disclosed that Band is claiming he was robbed during the alleged attack, though it’s not known what was stolen. “The victim reported being assaulted, robbed and dropped off on another street [before he] was transported to the local hospital emergency department by another band member, was treated and released,” a police spokesperson said.
Band announced just four days ago (August 15) that he had reformed The Calling after an eight-year hiatus with a new line-up. The 2013 incarnation of the band played its first gig on Friday night (August 16) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Calling are best known for their 2001 hit ‘Wherever You Will Go’.