| Tabitha's Secret began with five members: Rob Thomas on lead vocals, Brian Yale on bass, Paul Doucette on drums, and John Goff and Jay Stanley on guitars. They didn't have an album or a record deal, they were mostly just playing gigs and getting radio time. They were a beginning Orlando band, young and inexperienced, but anyone could see they had a lot of talent. And someone did. Matt Serletic, the producer for Collective Soul, heard TS play. He decided to sign them for his record label, The Antlantic Group (Lava, Atlantic, Melisma). But for some reason, the guitarists of TS didn't like the deal. Rob, the lead singer, wanted to sign. Brian and Paul wanted to sign too. And so Matt Serletic offered to sign Rob, Paul and Brian, and leave the guitarists behind. This didn't make for an easy descision, but Rob, Paul and Brian signed with Atlantic. Jay Stanley and John Goff no longer had a band. But TS wasn't over. When Rob, Brian and Paul, along with their two new guitarists, released a CD containing a song the five orginal members of Tabitha's Secret had created (3am), Stanley and Goff sued. They claimed Matchbox20 was using their music, and they wanted a cut of the royalties. Whether or not MB20 WAS using TS' music is not so cut and dried. They had a right to the lyrics, Rob had written them. They had a right to the basic melody which Rob had also written. And they had a right to the drum and bass parts which had been written by Paul and Brian. The guitar parts that had been worked out by Stanley and Goff were another story. That was their creation. However, whether or not MB20 used that should've been the real matter in dispute. Cuz after all, Matchbox20's guitarists were musicians too. Given the same song to work with, they could easily have written their own guitar parts (which would've sounded similar, this was, after all, the same song). There is nothing that says Matchbox20 took a look at TS' version of the song and copied the guitar part from that. In any case, Stanley and Goff sued. They also released a CD of Tabitha's Secrets's previously recorded songs, which has become available in a lot of music stores. And that is the story of TS so far |
