A popular country music performer is suing two former business partners to collect on a loan made by a now-shuttered Georgia bank to a group that included him.

Tracy L. Byrd filed his complaint Jan. 25 in Davidson County Circuit Court, accusing former business partners and record producers Joe Carter and Michael Taliaferro of not paying nearly $200,000 on a promissory note the pair had personally guaranteed. These loans were made to all three men under the Vidor Boys LLC moniker by Atlanta-based Rockbridge Commercial Bank in August 2007. Regulators closed Rockbridge in December 2009.

James Bryan Lewis, an attorney with the Jackson Kweller McKinney Warden Lewis & Hayes law firm in Nashville, is representing Byrd. Lewis was not available for comment midday Thursday.

It’s unclear how Byrd came to his plaintiff status given his prior borrower role complicated by the fact that Byrd had also personally guaranteed the notes with the others. But here is a brief summary of the events leading up to the lawsuit:

In early August 2007, Byrd, Carter and Taliaferro personally guaranteed two notes made by Rockbridge. One note was for a principal amount of $150,000 and the other for $25,000. Payments were never made.

On Dec. 18, 2009, Rockbridge was closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The following October, the two loans were assigned to Sandton Capital Partners LLC and Linksfield Fund LP, two funds that either were already in the business of purchasing and processing distressed bank assets or were created to specifically handle these Rockbridge loans. It’s unclear which fund owned which note but that fact is moot. Byrd acquired the loans from those funds the same day. The complaint states that Byrd has met all of his contractual obligations relating to this transaction. What that means is unclear, especially because the notes’ principal balances have not changed.

The complaint states that “Vidor Boys, LLC defaulted by failing to make payments due under the notes and lacked assets to satisfy the amounts due. Vidor Boys, LLC is no longer in existence.”

What is clear by the complaint is Byrd’s seeking $182,667.59 in payment, which includes the original $150,000 plus all the accrued interest from the date the loans were made.

Byrd, 45, now lives in Beaumont, Texas. He was signed to MCA Nashville Records in 1993. His first single was “Holdin’ Heaven”, which topped the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. According to Wikipedia, Byrd has charted more than 30 hit singles, including 11 top ten hits, during his career.