30 Seconds To Mars were “millions of dollars in debt” after their breakthrough album.
The group – which features Jared Leto and his brother Shannon – were almost $3 million in debut following a row with their record label, despite selling three million copies of their 2005 LP ‘A Beautiful Lie’.
Speaking on Australia’s ‘Kyle and Jackie O Show’, the 52-year-old actor and musician said: “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.
“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.”
Jared admitted making money in music has become “pretty tough”.
He explained: “Nah, you make money on the road and these days it’s pretty tough because of inflation.”
However, he insisted he will always keep making music, regardless of the financial implications.
He added: “I would do it for free. It is a beautiful thing to be out there.”
Jared detailed his bands legal battles with EMI in 2012 documentary ‘Artifact’, as the ‘From Yesterday’ rockers were sued for failing to deliver a third album in their five-album deal.
At the film’s premiere at that year’s Toronto Film Festival, he told Rolling Stone magazine: “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 an our dreams shattered.”
The group settled the lawsuit and signed a new deal with EMI’s Virgin Records.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, he said at the time: “I can’t get into specifics of the deal, but this isn’t about making a bunch of money. That day is done and over in recorded music.”