Etta James has been sued by a guitarist who claims he was hired for the whole of the soul star's recent year-long tour, but then soon dropped.
James' tour kicked off in March 2008, though early on James fell ill and a number of gigs were cancelled as a result.
Musician Leo Nocentelli says he had a verbal commitment from the singer that he would be employed on the whole tour but that he wasn't informed when gigs were cancelled due to the singer's ill health, and was then dropped completely when the tour resumed.
According to TMZ.com, he alleges that once he realised the tour had resumed he contacted the singer's people to ask whether he still had a job, and was told that he "should have figured it out" by now. He's suing for £33,000 for breach of contract.