Matt Helms

Detroit Free Press

A Detroit minister is suing the Mildred Gaddis radio show, saying she was wrongly accused of throwing a pot of hot grits on soul singer Al Green at the height of his fame in the 1970s.

The incident made national news when Green's then-girlfriend, Mary Woodson, threw the hot grits on the singer while he was bathing at home in Memphis, Tenn., in October 1974, before using Green's gun to kill herself, according to media reports. The incident played a part in Green largely giving up the R&B superstar lifestyle and devoting himself to gospel music and becoming a Baptist minister after he'd had huge success with hits like "Let's Stay Together," "Take Me to the River" and "Love and Happiness."

Laura Lee, an ordained minister who was also an R&B singer who once dated Green and sang with him, alleges in a suit filed on Tuesday that on the March 9 broadcast of the Gaddis' popular radio show on WCHB-AM (1200), guest Greg Dunmore, a local journalist, said on air that it was Laura Lee "who used to live in Detroit and moved to Chicago was the one who threw grits on Al Green."

Lee's lawsuit claims libel and slander and calls the statement "unfair, untrue and false." It claims Gaddis and Dunmore knew the statement to be false but "intentionally cause the statement to be broadcast on air."

The suit says she has been subjected to ridicule, derision, embarrassment and infamy and has suffered "mental anguish, harm to her ministry and reputation," as well has loss of respect from relatives, peers and others. The suit, which also names the station's parent company Radio One as a defendant, seeks damages in excess of $25,000.

Lee's lawyer, Benjamin Whitfield Jr., declined comment because he said he had yet to serve the defendants with the case. Dunmore referred questions to Radio One. Station officials did not respond to requests for comment.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Green suffered second degree burns and was hospitalized for months after the incident. The report called Woodson a deeply troubled woman who first met Green at a concert in upstate New York and then showed up at his home in Memphis several months later. "She latched onto the charismatic Green and his pop-star lifestyle, and the two became close," EW reports.

Green had ended the relationship with Woodson when the grits incident happened.

Contact Matt Helms: 313-222-1450 or mhelms@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @matthelms.