It looks like the war of words between Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and the L.A. engineer who claims Lee stole his idea for a drum rollercoaster will be heading to court.

Weeks after Scott King went public with his claims, and demanded that Lee pay him for allegedly poaching his design -- which he says he pitched Lee way back in 1991 -- TMZ reports that he's filed papers in L.A. County Superior Court, where he's asking for $400,000 in damages.

As previously reported, Motley Crue is denying King's claims; the band says King never pitched Lee with his concept, and in any case, the kit Lee ended up having built for their 2011 tour differs from King's design. The crucial difference appears to be that King's concept involved having the drums attached to tracks that ran around the stage, while Lee's actual kit is referred to as a "stationary drum ring."

"Everything to do with this is absolutely wrong," Lee said in a 2011 interview about the kit. "Playing upside down is insane – it's two or three times more difficult than normal. Your feet want to come off the pedals, your arms want to drop. All of your body is fighting gravity. The only time it's comfortable is when you're in the ground position. The rest of the time everything's out of control."

Now Lee can add "legal woes" to the list of complications arising from upside-down drumming. Maybe it's more trouble than it's worth.

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