Do ya think I’m guilty? Stewart must pay

Singer was unable to perform due to throat surgery

Interviews, performances

Singing monk to quit metal band
Nov. 13: 63-year-old Italian monk "Brother Metal," is quitting as singer of a popular heavy metal band after he says the devil has turned him into too much of a celebrity. Msnbc's David Shuster reports.

Tim McGraw: 'Katrina really hit close to home'

Train performs ‘Hey Soul Sister’

A look at intimate moments with jazz artists

2009 CMA Awards: Taylor Swift: ‘It felt like a dream’

updated 6:23 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2005

LAS VEGAS - A federal jury decided Wednesday that Rod Stewart should pay a Las Vegas casino $2 million plus interest for a canceled show in December 2000.

The seven-member panel found that Stewart should not have kept an advance he was paid for the New Year’s weekend show that he said he was unable to perform at the Rio hotel-casino because of throat surgery several months earlier.

One of his lawyers, Kerry Garvis Wright, said outside U.S. District Court that the 60-year-old singer will appeal.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Steve Morris, a lawyer for the Las Vegas casino and parent company Harrah’s Entertainment, said he was “delighted and relieved” by the verdict.

Jury foreman Stevan Jorgensen, 56, said the case boiled down to a misunderstanding of the contract between the British rocker and the casino.

“We felt it was only fair,” he said, “that if Mr. Stewart didn’t perform the concert that he should give the money back.”

Slideshow
Celebrity sightings
Lindsay Lohan steps into the light for an event in West Hollywood, Eva Longoria is honored by Latino organization, Kelly Osbourne is on time and more.
more photos
The jury deliberated about three hours Wednesday after nearly two weeks of testimony in the civil breach-of-contract lawsuit.

Stewart was paid $2 million in advance in January 2000 for the December 2000 show.

He and his doctors testified he was later diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had two tumors surgically removed in May 2000. One was cancerous, one was benign.

Stewart, who was not in the courtroom Wednesday, said that he didn’t fully recover his trademark raspy voice in time for the Las Vegas show.

He did recover in time to begin a world concert tour in June 2001, and estimated he has performed 150 shows since. But he said Harrah’s would not let him reschedule the December 2000 show.

Harrah’s chief executive Gary Loveman testified that a makeup show on any other date could not provide the same monetary benefit to the casino as a show on New Year’s weekend.

The interest on the $2 million was not determined.