Jake E Lee is watching his words over last week's tour dramas – because there's a chance the disagreement could go to court.
His latest band Red Dragon Cartel became embroiled in a “Spinal Tap moment” argument with agent Denise Dale, leading to the cancellation of a show shortly before doors were to open, and throwing their other UK appearances into doubt.
They found another agent and salvaged the rest of their visit across the Atlantic, and they’ll play at Download today as planned.
Lee tells TeamRock Radio: “I’m not sure what I can say because someone wants to bring this to litigation.
“The booking agent was trying to hurt us, but who you’re really hurting is the fans. She tried to punish us for personal reasons. We managed to salvage the shows and Download – she tried to stop us from doing that too.
“It’s really petty. I’ve been doing this 30 years and I’ve never seen this level of childishness in the business. I can’t really believe it’s happening. But thankfully we’ve been able to make do.”
The week’s drama led some fans to fear the guitarist wouldn’t return to the UK, in the light of previous comments that he’d shut down the band if he stopped enjoying it. But describing himself as “Jake Easy Lee,” he reports: “I would love to come back. I love doing Europe; I love doing Japan; America is… okay – but I’d love to come back and do more shows.”
He adds: “We’ll be using a different booking agent from now on.”
