桃太郎

Following Randy Rhoads might have been the hardest job in rock. Bernie Tormé and Brad Gillis had already tried. Then 26-year-old Jake E. Lee walked onstage at the 1983 US Festival, before he'd recorded a note with Ozzy, and tore through Randy's "Over the Mountain" in front of a crowd reported at about 375,000.

Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil bought Mick Mars' quarter of Mötley Crüe for $505,737 in January, on an arbitrator's order. The same ruling made Mars hand back $750,030, so the band's founding guitarist ended up owing them $244,293. His last tour, with Def Leppard, grossed $173.5 million. He played it on a fusing spine. In the video below, Mars says his spine is "almost a solid bone now." Asked about the case, he says: "When it's all done and said, you'll know." Mars owned 25% of the band's companies. In October 2022 ankylosing spondylitis took him off the road, though he stayed in the band. Court papers say the other 3 offered him 5% of the 2023 tour and nothing after, then 7.5%. He sued in April 2023. The arbitrator ruled he gave up touring money when he stopped touring. The $750,030 was an advance for 69 shows he never played. The case for Sixx, Lee and Neil: their lawyers say Mars wanted that no-tour, no-pay rule in the band's 2008 agreement. He also swore Sixx's bass was pre-recorded, then admitted under oath it wasn't. If you own part of a business you work in, check what your share pays the day you stop working. Mars signed the rule that decided his. So did Sixx, Lee and Neil just follow their own rule, or send a bill to the sick founder who says he carried them for years? I post one famous deal like this every day, with who got paid, who got played, and the numbers that never made the poster.