Staind Guitarist Mike Mushok Claims He “Never Once Received a Royalty” for Past Albums

Say what you will about nu-metal and bands like Staind, but they were absolutely fucking massive back in the early 2000s (and some still are). It was impossible not to turn on the radio and hear something like “Outside” or “It’s Been A While”, so it was easy to think the band members were incredibly rich.

However, that may not have been the case — at least not from royalties disbursed by the record company. During a recent interview with The KiddChris Show on the WEBN radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, Staind guitarist Mike Mushok revealed that he experienced a similar situation to that of Chevelle frontman Pete Loeffler, who said back in 2021 that his band hadn’t made any money from record sales.

Mushok revealed that he also never received any royalties from the millions of albums Staind sold over the years.

“Listen, I’ve sold I don’t know how many millions of records, and I’ve never once received a royalty from the record company after — whatever — 20, whatever, 25 years. We still owe them money. We haven’t been on the label since — I don’t know — 2011 was the last record we put out on Atlantic, and we still owe them money. And listen, I’m not gonna lie — they gave us large advances, and that’s why [we still owe them money]. But seriously, they have to be paid off. But anyways, I think it’s estimated, I think we’re saying, like, another three years it’ll be paid off and I’ll actually start making royalties on our records.”

If true, that shit sounds like it should be illegal at the very least. But apparently it’s not. Mushok said eventually the band will get full rights to their own music, but it’s going to take a while.

“Yeah. So supposedly after 35 years, the masters are supposed to revert back to you. But I was talking to our attorney about that, and he said that no label ever lets you do that. They try to buy you out and give you money so they can continue to own the masters — unless you fight them.”