The promoter of Rod Wave’s Last Lap tour is suing the R&B singer and rapper for allegedly holding onto $27 million worth of advances despite refusing to finish the 35-date trek.
Rod (Rodarius Marcell Green) faced the claims in a Monday (Sept. 29) federal court lawsuit from Grizzly Touring, a joint live events venture between AG Entertainment, Mammoth Touring and CTS Eventim. Grizzly partnered with Rod last year for a North American arena tour supporting his October 2024 album Last Lap, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
The Last Lap tour was supposed to include 35 shows, and Grizzly allegedly advanced Rod $57 million to cover expenses like travel, lodging and production costs. But according to the lawsuit, Rod only completed 26 performances that earned $30 million against the guarantee, leaving $27 million in advances that he now won’t repay.
“Artist refuses to pay Grizzly a single penny of the more than $27 million he owes, and was required to pay in the first instance, and has instead chosen to spend his advance on private jets and lavish second homes,” wrote Grizzly’s lawyers from the firm Weil Gotshal & Manges.
Grizzly alleges that many Last Lap shows had to be canceled because Rod upped the scale of his tour production without warning, requiring more time to put up and take down his arena sets and making it impossible to play shows back-to-back as originally scheduled.
But the lawsuit says Rod is now unfairly blaming these canceled dates on Grizzly, citing a September Billboard interview in which the singer said his promoter messed up routing for the tour. Rod also said in the Billboard interview that he plans to launch a new tour through his own company, Mainstay Touring, in late 2025 — a breach of the exclusivity clause in his contract with Grizzly, per the lawsuit.
Grizzly now wants a court order forcing Rod to repay his $27 million advance, plus additional financial damages for breach of contract. The promoter is also asking for an injunction blocking Rod from embarking on a self-promoted tour without Grizzly’s involvement.
“As a result of artist’s actions, Grizzly has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm, including harm to its goodwill and business reputation,” reads the complaint. “Artist’s actions are a clear breach of Grizzly’s exclusive right to promote and market artist’s shows, which are uniquely popular.”
Reps for Rod did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday (Oct. 1). But the lawsuit attaches a Sept. 18 letter in which Rod’s attorney, David Rose of Pryor Cashman, denied that the singer breached any agreements with Grizzly.
Rose writes in this letter that the canceled Last Lap shows were “solely attributable” to Grizzly’s own errors, including “onerous and inexplicable routing and booking decisions” and failures to properly ship Rod’s touring equipment.
“As a result of Grizzly’s manifest breaches, the agreement and any exclusivity provisions contained in it are no longer in effect,” wrote Rose.
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