CSNY Concertgoer Claims Assault

A Vietnam veteran who claims he was beaten unconscious backstage at a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre has filed a negligence suit against the band and Live Nation.

Donald Remensnyder of West Palm Beach, Fla., also sued four “John Doe” security staffers whom he claims beat him “savagely” during the August 8th concert, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He alleges the security measures led to a broken femur.

According to the suit, Remensnyder couldn’t contain himself during the peace-themed concert and walked onstage, grabbed a microphone and yelled “End the war!” the Sentinel reported.

Four men dragged him from the stage, kicked and beat him, and left him unconscious, the suit reportedly states.

“It seemed like the thing to do at the time,” Remensnyder, who occasionally suffers from flashbacks, told the paper. “I got up and said my piece, but evidently that wasn’t the thing to do.”

Remensnyder, a heavy equipment mechanic, said his problem wasn’t that he had to get off the stage, but the way the situation was handled.

“Usually, you get ejected from the theatre,” he told the Sentinel. “In this case somebody was mad or took too many steroids and blindsided me.”

Doctors reportedly told him he would be out of work for about six months.

Live Nation spokesman John Vlautin told Pollstar the company – which manages the amphitheatre – hasn’t seen the suit and could not comment.

Remensnyder seeks a jury trial and damages in excess of $15,000 – the amount needed to have the case heard in Circuit Court, the Sentinel said.