Rod Wave is about to drop a new album soon led by his new single "Leavin," but his rollout for it is going to be pretty complicated. Billboard reports that he launched a countersuit against the promoter who sued him for $27 million last month, alleging that the rapper hasn't returned his advance money.
More specifically, this was for the "Last Lap" tour at the end of last year whose delays stretched into 2025, and Grizzly Touring claims that Rod must work with them in the future due to their contract. However, Sunday's (October 12) counter-filing claims that Grizzly is trying to force him to work with them again despite the massive tour issues that led to cancellations and rescheduled concerts.
Furthermore, the scrapped "Blaming Jesus" collaborator argued that the promoter's work made it "logistically impossible" to fulfill the tour as scheduled due to production issues and routing problems. Therefore, he wants a judge to let him self-promote his upcoming headlining "The Redemption Experience" tour, a new trek for this new album. In order to do this, the judge would have to make the Grizzly Touring contract null.
"Grizzly is not entitled to this improperly requested specific performance or equivalent injunctive relief, which effectively amounts to an indentured servitude," the Florida artist's lawyer James Sammataro reportedly stated. "Defendants have lost confidence in Grizzly as their tour promoter and no longer wish to perform services for Grizzly or receive Grizzly’s services."
Rod Wave Tour
On the other hand, Grizzly Touring thinks the cancellation of many of Rod Wave's tour dates violated their contract, for which he must reimburse $27 million in advances. He argues that Grizzly was the one to breach the contract due to their "unilateral, onerous and inexplicable routing and booking decisions," entitling him to the advance money.
"Rod Wave frequently learned only at the last minute that [they] rescheduled [a show], often only after seeing tickets for these rescheduled shows available online," the countersuit claims. "Only 12 of the 35 scheduled [shows] occurred at the date and venue originally announced."
Rod seeks financial compensation for the cancelations and reputational harm. We will see what happens with his next tour.
