Jared Leto recalls how Thirty Seconds To Mars were “millions of dollars in debt”

nme.com:

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.