$31,400,000

It's a lot of money, and it's an amount I'm most likely never going to see.

Now here's the reason this amount is so important. The following is a letter written by Jared Leto to the fans of the Alternative Rock band, Thirty Seconds To Mars (the Echelon)

"To our Friends and Fans,

Despite rumors to the contrary, 30 Seconds to Mars is NOT calling it quits. We are incredibly happy, healthy and very much together here, in Los Angeles, recording our new record. Besides this ridiculously overblown lawsuit (courtesy of Virgin/EMI), we are having one of the most inspiring, wonderful and exciting times that we've experienced to date. (More on that later...)

Beyond this distraction, we are so incredibly grateful to all of you around the world that have supported us so passionately. We would never consider stopping this just yet. These past few phenomenal years have been beyond imaginable and we owe every single bit of it to you. Thank you all for that!

So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that's what we said too.

A little history...

We had been signed to our record contract for 9 years. Basically, under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than 7 years. This is widely known by all the record companies and has been for years. In fact, so aware of it are they that they desperately try to make deals outside of California whenever possible. It is a law that protects people from lengthy, unfair, career-spanning contracts. This law also gave us the legal right to explore other possible opportunities.

Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for 'quitting'. We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.

We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won't go into here (we'd rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal.

A few things to note...

If you think the fact that we have sold in excess of 2 million records and have never been paid a penny is pretty unbelievable, well, so do we. And the fact that EMI informed us that not only aren't they going to pay us AT ALL but that we are still 1.4 million dollars in debt to them is even crazier. That the next record we make will be used to pay off that old supposed debt just makes you start wondering what is going on. Shouldn't a record company be able to turn a profit from selling that many records? Or, at the very least, break even? We think so.

That, and other issues, like the new regime at EMI firing most of the people we know and love, wanting to place advertisements on our website, EMI owning 100 percent of the masters of our record...forever, and basically having a revolving door of regimes at the company made it easy to not want to continue as is.

As the result of this takeover - and the firing of over 2000 employees - we have lost many of the people that were near and dear to us at Virgin/EMI and crucial to the success of 30 Seconds to Mars. A few of the great ones are still there, but it is hardly the same company we have known. After more than 5 regime changes in 9 years you'd think we would be used to the inconsistency, but the team that took the journey together for A Beautiful Lie was a very very special group of people and it's a huge loss that so many of them are gone. (Quick fact: There is not a single employee at Virgin Records who was working at the company when we signed.)

FYI Virgin/EMI was not required to make this lawsuit public or to list such an egregiously and stupendously large amount of mullah. In fact, they were not required to set any price even close to this. We did not want to take this public, but we felt it best to explain our point of view to you, our friends and fans, in hope that you can better understand our point of view.

We would always do our best to avoid a fight, but sometimes it's important to stand up for what you believe in. We hope that by doing what's right we can help to change things for the better, for ourselves and possibly others.

P.S. We will always remain grateful to the people at Virgin/EMI who were so integral to our success. And we hope that, above all, we can find a resolution to this in as civil and kind a way as possible.

There are certainly more important things out there in the world to spend time and energy on.

To be continued...

Jared Leto
30 Seconds to Mars"

This letter was sent via e-mail to the fans and posted on the band's website, http://www.30secondstomars.com/.

I could comment on the obvious intelligence of the writing, or the polite and caring gesture it was to inform the fans first, but instead, I'd like to concentrate on a few key aspects of what we've been told by Jared Leto:

1) $31,400,000? Where is this money supposed to come from if they've never been paid?
2) They've never been paid!?
3) 30STM's contract has officially - and legally - expired.
4) 5 regime changes in 9 years
5) There's not a single employee at Virgin who was there when 30STM started.

Now for all I know, for all anyone knows, there's more to this than meets the eye. But as far as we can tell, 30STM is well within their rights to want to explore their options.

And it is a testament to the nature of the people who comprise 30STM that, despite the ridiculousness and unfairness of this lawsuit, they did not go straight to the media and ask for help from the fans. In fact, the only reason we know anything about this is because Virgin decided it was going to go public.

In 1992, Jared Leto moved to L.A, CA, in order to pursue a career in music. Once there, he took a few small acting jobs in order to pay the bills. And what does this tell us? Well, I happen to think he's a great actor, a great rockstar and a pretty damned attractive kind of guy. But, given what is known about him and his brother (not a lot, I hasten to add, but then, why should they have to tell us? It's their lives, after all), they've spent their lives making music wherever, whenever and with whatever they can.

I feel it's unfair to work your whole life for something, to get as far as they have done and to enjoy it as much as they do (come on, it's easy to see - they love it), only to have it all threatened by something as incredible as this. And I'm not the only one.

But here's the kicker.

If they asked every fan to send them $10, they'd be able to afford to either just give Virgin the money and be done with it, or fight to some sort of conclusion, which is what 30STM really wants. But they won't, because that's not how they roll.

In a recent interview for MTV news, Jared Leto stated,

"We feel really confidently that that's the right thing to do, is to confront this and not to shy away, not to be scared - to challenge the status quo...Just to reiterate, we've always tried to work things out, we've always been incredibly reasonable, and, you know, I guess sometimes these things end up being about something else than what they should be, and that's just about fairness and equality and doing what's right."

And we feel they're doing the right thing, too. But Jared also stated,

"When you have a thirty million dollar lawsuit, it's a part of our life."

And I for one imagine it must be. To have come so far and to have achieved something they must more than once have thought impossible, only to have it thrown back at them, for reasons that make no sense as far as I can see (damamges? What damages? They've sold millions of records and never been paid!) must be so painful.

Thirty Seconds to Mars did, in fact (as pathetic as it may sound to some), save my life at one point (Hey, if My Chem can do it, why can't 30STM) and it makes me and one hell of a lot of other people really angry that a company so well-known and well-off can have the nerve to basically pull them down because they're not getting what they want.

As Jared himself has said, "it's all about fairness...there's a principle there."

Of course there is with 30STM.

But with Virgin/EMI? Apparently not.

------

This, incidentally, is entirely my opinion (as if you could somehow think otherwise) and has nothing to do with Thirty Seconds to Mars.

------

Provehito in Altum