Jared Leto has responded to the lawsuit and additional rumors surrounding his band, 30 Seconds To Mars on the band’s official MySpace page.

“Despite rumors to the contrary, 30 Seconds to Mars is NOT calling it quits. We are incredibly happy, healthy and very much together here, in Los Angeles, recording our new record”, states Leto.

Currently in a bitter battle with the band’s record label, Virgin/EMI, the band is being sued for $30 million for failure to deliver three albums in the allotted time required by their contract.

Setting the record straight about the lawsuit, Leto goes on to say, “We had been signed to our record contract for 9 years. Basically, under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than 7 years.”

“This is widely known by all the record companies and has been for years. In fact, so aware of it are they that they desperately try to make deals outside of California whenever possible. It is a law that protects people from lengthy, unfair, career-spanning contracts. This law also gave us the legal right to explore other possible opportunities.”

“Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for 'quitting'. We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.”

“We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won't go into here (we'd rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal.”

The band’s latest effort, ‘A Beautiful Lie’, was released in 2005.

(by Victoria Tsigonis)