Rod Stewart's $2million payback

Music

09:30 09 September 2005

Rod Stewart has been ordered to pay a Las Vegas casino $2 million after cancelling a millennium concert while he was recovering from throat cancer.

A jury decided the rock star should not have kept his advance for the New Year's weekend performance at the Rio Hotel Casino.

The husky-voiced singer, who testified in his defence last week, said he was unable to perform that night because he hadn't fully recovered from a throat operation for thyroid cancer several months prior to the show.

He said: "There was nothing there. No strength. I was petrified. I was scared. This was my livelihood."

The 60-year-old singer and his lawyers said they repeatedly offered to reschedule the show over the past five years.

But the Casino, owned by Harrah's Entertainment Inc, countered that it never would have been able to make as much money for a random concert as it would have from his millennium eve show.

Jury foreman Stevan Jorgensen said: "We felt it was only fair that if Mr. Stewart didn't perform the concert he should give the money back."

Stewart's agent, Skip Miller, said the star would appeal.

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