Jared Leto recalls how Thirty Seconds To Mars were “millions of dollars in debt”
Jared Leto has looked back at the financial struggles Thirty Seconds To Mars faced in the early days of their career, and explained that there was a point where they were “millions of dollars in debt”.
Leto, as well as being a Hollywood actor known for his roles in Suicide Squad, Dallas Buyers Club, American Psycho and more, is also the frontman of US rock group Thirty Seconds To Mars alongside his brother Shannon. In a new interview, however, he recalled the struggles the band faced shortly after sharing their first album.
The dispute came around their breakthrough album, ‘A Beautiful Lie’, which arrived in 2005 and first put the band on the map. Despite selling nearly 3million copies of the debut album, a row with their record label left them facing huge debt.
“We sold millions of copies, and then we found out not only were we not going to be paid a single cent, we were millions of dollars in debt,” Leto recalled on Australia’s Kyle and Jackie O Show, looking back at their early days.
“We disputed. They sued us for $30million for breach of contract and then we made a film about it. So anyway, we went through that crazy bit of our lives and it’s nice to be on the other side.”
The film Leto alluded to is the 2012 movie ‘Artifact’, which chronicled today’s music industry and followed the $30million breach of contract lawsuit between the band and EMI. The suit was raised against the musicians in 2008, when they failed to deliver a third album from their give-album deal and disputed with the label over royalties.
It received its premiere at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, and at the time Leto spoke openly about how the clash impacted the members. “We had a very real possibility of owing a corporation $30million dollars, of having our music and our album tied up in the courts and never seeing the light of day and our careers and our dreams shattered,” he told Rolling Stone at the time.
“I can’t get into the specifics of the deal, but this isn’t about making a bunch of money. That day is done and over in recorded music.” Thirty Seconds To Mars settled the lawsuit and went on to sign a new deal with Virgin Records.
Elsewhere in the Kyle and Jackie O Show interview, Leto went on to explain how he still finds it tough to make money as a musician due to countless external factors and rising costs. “You make money on the road and these days it’s pretty tough because of inflation,” he said. “I would do it for free. It is a beautiful thing to be out there.”
The interview comes following Thirty Seconds To Mars kicking off their seventh world tour earlier this year, which celebrates the release of their latest album, 2023’s ‘It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day’.
Jared Leto announced the tour – which is the band’s first in over five years – back in November 2023, when he turned heads by climbing up the Empire State Building to celebrate the announcement. It wasn’t the first time that Leto had surprised fans with his climbing skills, back in June last year the singer and actor surprised passers by in Germany after he was spotted scaling the wall of a hotel without a harness.
Since the dates kicked off in South America, the band have since been over to the UK and Europe over the summer, and surprised fans at the Glasgow show by unintentionally bringing a member of Jedward onto the stage.
The post Jared Leto recalls how Thirty Seconds To Mars were “millions of dollars in debt” appeared first on NME.
Liberty Dunworth
NME
