[Locke.]

The lead singer from American rock band The Calling was abducted and beaten yesterday, and apparently only spared death after telling his captors he was about to become a father.

Alex Band performed with the LA-based group on Saturday night at Lapeer Days festival in Lapeer, Michigan, 50 miles north of Detroit.

In the early hours of the next morning, he was attacked from behind outside a store and forced into a minivan by two men, who beat and robbed him.

The singer - best known for 2001 hit "Wherever You Will Go" - was beaten with a baton and had a gun put to his face while an attacker demanded his "Hollywood money," the band said in a statement.

According to that statement, he told his assailants he was soon to be a father, to which one responded "We don't kill fathers," before dropping him off at a railroad crossing.

Band acknowledged having past substance abuse problems, but denied what he said were rumours that the abduction report was either drug-related or faked.

He said: "I take my rehabilitation very seriously. I was near death due to this unbelievable situation, and the rumours are categorically false."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...n-8775845.html

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