Rod Wave recently made headlines when a touring company alleged in a new lawsuit that he owed them $27 million due to an unfinished tour.
In a new conversation with the Joe Budden Podcast, the Last Lap artist spoke at length about his issues with touring and ticketing companies and ticket resellers.
“The tour ticket shit so crazy because I could tell the people, ‘Hey, I want to sell this ticket for $55, $85.’ They could do whatever the fuck they want to do with it—motherfucker gone be 300,” Rod said at around the 31:45 minute mark. “I want this shit to be affordable for people,” he added, “I can't control that.”
He says that companies that set ticket prices and ticket resellers are “with the bullshit.”
“That why I'm taking this step to gain as much control over this side of my career as I can,” he continued. “Like on the touring side ‘cause I built this shit up from the ground. I remember going to Oakland, California with 80 people at my concert in 2018, 2019. To fast forward—18,000.
“I built this shit up from the ground. So I can't just put this shit in your hands, man, and let you do it. You don't give a fuck about these people. You ain't never even heard my song. You just want to make the money. You see the numbers, right? You don't give a fuck. You putting random ass people on my tour ‘cause the numbers they doing and this shit don't even make sense.”
In September, a few weeks before the $27 million lawsuit surfaced, Rod revealed that he was launching his own touring company called Mainstay Touring to bypass some of the issues he’s had in the past.
When Budden asked if these companies looked at Rod’s touring company as him “waging a war,” Rod said he understood why they sued him.
“That why when you start doing shit like this, a lawsuit…the consumer may say, ‘Oh damn, that's a L,’ or ‘That's a bad thing,’ but to me, I understand it,” he explained. “They better sue.”
“It better be a war. It should be a war. You talking about $30 and $40 and $50 million at a time that these folks taking home. So, yeah, it should be a war. It better be. It ain't right if it ain't one.”
“I come from war. Think about war every day, all day, on every level. Ain't never been scared to go to war with nobody. It is what it is. Ain't nothing I can't stand up on,” he continued. “That's just how the shit work. But we learned that even what I come from, like my background, the hand I was dealt, like you got to go to war sometime. So even in business shit, got to go to war sometime. But I ain't did nothing wrong.”
He ended by saying that these companies "don't give a fuck about my fans."
In early October, Grizzly Touring accused Rod of owing over $27 million after he didn’t complete his Last Lap Tour. Grizzly said they agreed to guarantee Rod $40,250,000 to perform 35 shows, half of which were paid upfront. In the suit, the company said they were owed for the “unearned and unrecouped advances” made to Rod and his Hit House Entertainment company.
Grizzly said Rod only played 26 of the 35 shows. However, he later claimed that outstanding shows were either rescheduled or canceled due to “poor scheduling and routing” on Grizzly’s part. Grizzly pushed back, arguing that these shows were affected by production issues over which they had no control.
More recently, he accused Grizzly of forcing him into indentured servitude.
Rod discussed his Mainstay Touring company with Billboard, telling the publication that his most recent tour “had to get taken down because of the routing,” which was why he wanted to be “more hands-on” with the touring side of his work.