You heard it here first... Justifide was asked to leave the Scream Tour last night, and the rock trio lays the blame squarely on the shoulders of tour headliners Grits, and its management. According to comments made by band member Jason at the group's website (www.justifide.com), here's what happened:

Yesterday we drove 8 hours to Defiance,OH, unloaded, sound checked, set up our merch table, and hung out with some people outside before the doors opened for the show. Our road manager then got a phone call from the Grits manager telling us that the Grits guys were sitting at the hotel and would not show up unless we agreed to not be by our merch table while the show was going on, and also that we were to be playing last of all the groups. We of course refused (this manager had no right to make any demands of us)! We then got a call from Jeff Roberts who is running the show and making ALL final decisions. After he found out that we would not compromise on these 2 issues, (we have signed a conract and neither of these rules were in writing or even brought to our attention until about 7 shows into the tour, which is completely unacceptable), he then made the call and told the tour manager to tell us to get all of our stuff off the stage and leave the venue. We did so. I felt that I HAD to uncomfortably address the crowd (there was quite a few people there that came for us) and I told them that we weren't playing the show and if they needed to, despite what the rules were at the venue, it was their right to get their money back. No one associated with Justifide tried to persuade or TOLD people to go get their money back...we left the decision up to each individual, and still supported the other bands on the tour. We then packed up as fast as we could (of course their was tons of people that were talking to us wanting to know what was going on as well as getting our autographs before we left) but still, the security people at the show came up to us and said they were sent to hurry us up, and that the cops were going to be called if we didn't leave ASAP.

Meanwhile, CMCentral contacted Jeff Roberts for his side of the story, to which Roberts responded that "Yes, there definitely is another side to this story," and that he was preparing a written statement that would be sent out to us shortly.

CMCentral will publish the Jeff Roberts & Associates statement as soon as we receive it. Stay tuned.

Special thanks to CMCentral reader Eileen P. for the scoop.