Rod Wave Claps Back with Counterclaim in $27M Touring Lawsuit

Photo Credit: Rod Wave for iHeartRadio

Rod Wave fires back at a lawsuit alleging he owes $27 million in advances from the tour he cancelled over scheduling and production issues.

Singer Rod Wave has filed a countersuit against Grizzly Touring—a joint venture between AG Entertainment, Mammoth Touring, and CTS Eventim—claiming the promoter is trying to trap him into working with the company again after scheduling and production issues forced him to cancel half of his tour. The move is the musician’s first response since being sued last month.

Grizzly’s suit claims the rapper and singer is obligated to return $27 million in advances from the Last Lap Tour, and that he’s under contract to continue working with the promoter for future tours.

In his countersuit, Rod claims that Grizzly’s production failures and routing issues made it “logistically impossible” for him to complete the tour. He is seeking a judge to nix his contract with Grizzly so he can continue self-promoting his new headlining tour, The Redemption Experience.

“Grizzly is not entitled to this improperly requested specific performance or equivalent injunctive relief, which effectively amounts to an indentured servitude,” asserts Rod’s attorney, James Sammataro. “Defendants have lost confidence in Grizzly as their tour promoter and no longer wish to perform services for Grizzly or receive Grizzly’s services.”

The matter from which Grizzly’s initial lawsuit sprung centered on Rod’s tour for his Last Lap album, which was released in October last year. The subsequent tour was meant to run from October to December 2024, but numerous shows were postponed through February 2025. In January, Rod announced on his social media channels that he was cancelling the remaining dates.

According to Grizzly’s lawsuit, Rod’s cancellation violated their touring contract, and the singer is now holding onto $27 million in advances for shows no longer taking place. Rod’s attorneys say the musician is entitled to keep this money under his deal with Grizzly—alleging that Grizzly was the one who breached their contract by failing to properly load his touring equipment in and out of venues, and “making unilateral, onerous, and inexplicable routing and booking decisions.”

“Rod Wave frequently learned only at the last minute that a show had been rescheduled, often only after seeing tickets for these rescheduled shows available online,” the countersuit claims. “Only 12 of the 25 scheduled [performances] occurred at the date and venue originally announced.”

Because of the significant production and scheduling problems, Rod claims he “was left with no option but to cancel the remaining tour dates.” His countersuit seeks to have Grizzly pay him financial damages for breach of contract, as well as for the reputational harm he suffered from his “understandably outraged” fans.

Further, Rod is seeking a judge’s blessing to independently promote his new tour, The Redemption Experience, which is set to kick off in December at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. That tour, understandably, is not connected to or affiliated with Grizzly.