This is heartbreaking

SRH founder Kevin Zinger started connecting with the action-sports crowd in 1991 by selling T-shirts and caps at local shows by Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, Pennywise, NOFX, 311, and Korn. This Saturday’s SRH Fest at the House of Blues features some of the artists he has worked with over the years.

SRH is still pumping out merch, but Zinger admits that his Carlsbad-based company is not as big as it once was. It now employs 7 employees, down from a peak of 18.

Zinger started managing bands in 1995, beginning with Orange County’s “hip-hop punks” the Kottonmouth Kings. That led to his partnering with KMK frontman Brad “Daddy X” Xavier in the Suburban Noize (aka Sub Noize) record label founded by Xavier. Its 20-plus artists include Hed PE, Unwritten Law, Sen Dog, Mower, and Mickey Avalon. Most of Sub Noize’s recent signings have focused on hip-hop. Zinger moved Sub Noize and his Regime Management to Burbank in 2001.

A notable no-show at Saturday’s event is Kottonmouth Kings. Early last year KMK’s Xavier started posting interviews where he decried Zinger for firing him from Sub Noize. Zinger says Xavier is still a part-owner of Sub Noize but admits Xavier is no longer involved in operating Sub Noize. In the interviews and printed statements available online, Xavier claimed that Zinger promised him a cut in SRH, that Zinger put Kottonmouth trademarks in his own name, that Zinger is withholding KMK royalties due from Sub Noize, and that Zinger slept with Xavier’s wife.

The ugly feud made it to the TMZ website last month when a Xavier filed a $15-million lawsuit against Zinger/SRH.

Zinger says all artist royalties have been paid, that all Kottonmouth trademarks are currently registered to KMK, and that Xavier has no right to claim SRH ownership. “I just wish Brad would come in and have a conversation with me. This is heartbreaking. He was one of my best friends. I used to care for his daughter. He is now claiming [ownership] to everything under the sun. He claimed I forced them to wear SRH clothes...and, by the way, I never slept with his wife.”

Attempts to reach Xavier were not successful.

The SRH Fest, featuring Unwritten Law, Mickey Avalon, Sprung Monkey, Mad Child, the Expansion Team, and others, is this Saturday, May 3, at the House of Blues.