Fastball Bassist and Family Booted From American Music Awards

Hopefully Fastball's Tony Scalzo will have better luck at the Grammys than he did at the American Music Awards last night.

The Grammy-nominated bassist/vocalist, his wife, and his baby were given tickets to Monday night's show only to be thrown out of the ceremony by a security guard who accused Scalzo of gaining his tickets through fraudulent means.

"It's uncool," Scalzo told MTV News, summarizing the situation from the offices of his record label, Hollywood Records. "Basically, we got treated like we did something illegal. They just didn't believe me."

Scalzo had scored tickets to the event through his publicist, primarily to see Blondie and Elvis Costello, and went with his wife and baby in tow. The family found themselves sitting pretty on Monday night just before the show with seats eight rows back from the stage.

"Awesome, this is going to be great," Scalzo remembers thinking at the time. However, his prediction could not have been further from the truth.

The family was soon approached by a security guard who asked them to move, claiming that the show had placed an age limit on patrons who could sit within range of the camera. When Scalzo asked if his family could view the show from another vantagepoint, the security guard left, summoning another guard.

The second guard asked to see the family's tickets, and then promptly placed them in his pocket according to Scalzo. The guard then lead the family to the Shrine's lobby, where Scalzo says the guard accused them of "misrepresenting themselves" in order to obtain the tickets and told the family they had to leave.

When Scalzo asked if he could call his manager (who was in the building with another client, Shawn Mullins) via cell phone to straighten out the situation, the bassist claims the security guard barked back, "No matter who you call, it's not going to do you any good."

"I belong in those seats. I paid rent on those seats," the bassist said looking back on it Tuesday afternoon. However, Scalzo made no such protest Monday night as he and his wife and daughter left the auditorium, a move that the bassist was having second thoughts about the next day.

"Now, I'm a little regretful that I didn't fight it," Scalzo said looking back on it. "I didn't want to be like, 'Don't you know who I am!'"

Scalzo insists that no matter who he may or may not have been, he shouldn't have gone through what he did.

"Whether you're somebody, or whether your nobody, they shouldn't treat you like that," Scalzo said.

Perhaps things will run a bit more smoothly at next month's Grammy Awards, where the band is nominated for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal as well as Best Long Form Music Video. Scalzo says that someone from the group will be in attendance, though he's not sure if it will be him.

Also on the horizon for Fastball, the band will head off to Japan for a string of dates in February and will then roll on to Australia, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. They hope to play some U.S. shows in the spring, and would like to start work on their follow-up to "All The Pain Money Can Buy" soon thereafter.

As for Scalzo, he has more immediate plans, which include staying in Los Angeles Tuesday night to play a one-off show with his old band, the Goods.