Jared Leto Recalls Being ‘Millions of Dollars In Debt’ After 30 Seconds to Mars’ Big Break

While speaking to Australian radio show, Kyle and Jackie O, the 53-year-old recalled him and his brother being more than $2.7 million in debt, despite selling three million copies of their second album, “A Beautiful Lie,” in 2005.

“We sold millions of records, and then we found out not only were we not going to be paid a single penny, we were millions of dollars in debt,” he told the hosts. He explained the band was almost left bankrupt because of the debt they owed their record company, EMI.

“We disputed. We left. They sued us for $30 million 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,” he continued.

Host Kyle Sandilands wanted to know more about making money in the music industry, to which Leto explained that it’s not as easy as it looks.

“Nah, you make money on the road and these days it’s pretty tough because of inflation,” Leto said, before adding that he isn’t in the industry for the money.

“I would do it for free. It is a beautiful thing to be out there,” the front man said.

During the interview, Leto alluded to his 2012 film, Artifact, which delved into the $30 million breach of contract lawsuit between the band and EMI.

At the time the film was premiering, Leto told Rolling Stone magazine: “This was a very real lawsuit. It wasn’t just a headline. We had a very real possibility of owing a corporation 30 million 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 band did end up settling the lawsuit and signing a new deal with EMI’s Virgin Records.

Leto also addressed recent photos of him flying economy by other passengers.

“I’ve been on all kind of planes, the nicest, the worst. I flew economy a couple times, recently, middle seat, over the holidays, people grab a picture of you and it goes viral,” he said. “It wasn’t that bad to be honest. You gotta get to where you gotta go.”