IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

The Calling singer Alex Band abducted, beaten in Michigan 

Alex Band after his abduction and beating.
Alex Band after his abduction and beating.Chuck Kim / The Calling via AP

Singer of rock band The Calling, Alex Band, has said he was abducted, robbed and beaten on Sunday morning after a performance at a music festival in Lapeer, Mich., according to MLive.com and other news sources.

Band had appeared at Lapeer Days Festival, held 50 miles north of Detroit, with his group on Saturday but in the early hours of Sunday he says he was attacked outside a store and forced into a minivan by two men. The men then reportedly beat and robbed him, reportedly with a police baton.

He told MLive that he had been waiting on a corner when he heard something drive up behind him. "I was yanked by the back of my shirt into the van and grabbed by my arms," he said. "Then they hit (me) in the face with a nightstick. It went on from there."

He gave them $1,200 he had on him, but they wanted more, assuming he was wealthy. "We want your Hollywood cash!" Band says the men screamed. He offered them his watch and jewelry, but they wouldn't take it.

"'You've got five minutes to pull out the rest of (your) money or I'm going to kill you,'" Band said the robbers told him.

So Band pleaded with them and told them that his girlfriend was pregnant, and he was going to be a father. "My girl is five weeks along, please don't kill me, I've waited all my life to have a person to have a family with," he told them.

That worked, and Band was left on the railroad tracks "in the middle of nowhere with nothing," he said. He started walking back to the hotel and met up with his tour manager, who had gone looking for him. 

An official statement appeared on the band's Facebook page Monday, saying that Band was left with a "fractured lower spine, 15 stitches to lower chin, 3 broken teeth and is bruised on his side and stomach from the baton beating."

"I never thought my unborn child would be my savior," he said in the statement.

The statement also refutes that there's another level to this story, saying, "Despite rumors of this being a drug related situation it is clearly NOT the case and there was NO abuse of alcohol backed by medical examination." 

Band added, "I was near death due to this unbelievable situation and the rumors are categorically false and not a hoax as reported."

The Calling formed in 1999 and released two albums, including its 2001 single "Wherever You Will Go," and went on hiatus in 2005. Band began performing again as The Calling with a new group of musicians; their first show was on Aug. 15. 

"This would not be what we would consider our daily activity of crime," Lapeer City Police Lt. Dave Frisch told MLive. "This would be an unusual event."