With 30 Seconds to Mars: From platinum album to million dollar lawsuit

Jared Leto (52) has once again recalled how he was on the verge of bankruptcy at the height of his band 30 Seconds to Mars’ success. The musician had huge debts to his music label and was eventually sued – while at the same time he was celebrating his big breakthrough with his band’s second album.

Lawsuit for $30 million

Although they sold three million copies of the album “A Beautiful Lie” in 2005, Jared Leto and the band – including his brother and drummer Shannon Leto (54) – did not benefit from the financial success. Instead, they were made aware that they were more than $2.7 million in debt to their record company EMI. “We sold millions of copies and then we found out that not only were we not getting a single cent, but we were millions of dollars in debt,” Leto now recalls the situation. But it got even worse: “They sued us for $30 million for breach of contract.” This consisted of the band not having finished their third album on time.

You can see how the story continued: 30 Seconds to Mars made a documentary called “Artifact” about the legal dispute that took place at the same time as the band was making their third album “This Is War”. Spoiler: The dispute was settled and the band signed a new contract with EMI. Leto apparently doesn’t like to think back to that time. He concluded the topic with the words: “Anyway, we went through that crazy part of our lives and it’s nice to be on the other side.”

Jared Leto: “I would do it for free”

However, it is not easy to earn money as a musician today, Leto points out. The money is made “on tour,” explains the actor and musician. But this is also difficult these days because of inflation. But Leto also said that his performances are not about the money: “I would do it for free. It’s incredibly nice to go out there.”