Jake upped his drinking and his drugs, and then fell in the worst possible way when on stage in Japan eight months after Jonny’s death.
It was the band’s first show since Jonny’s death. Jake was wrecked. He could barely talk, let alone sing. When the crowd got antsy at the poor show, he berated them. When they heckled, he unbuttoned his jeans and urinated on the stage.
He was arrested for public indecency.
I saw the clips of the show after it happened. It burned my heart to watch.
He was so far from the Jake I had seen over the years in the press, and even further from the Jake I remembered and once loved.
He was lost to grief, trying to bury it with drugs and drink. And for that one moment he lost control.
It could have ruined his career.
Luckily for him it didn’t. If anything, it only catapulted his status higher and the world’s obsession with him further.
He is the ultimate bad boy of rock.
Jake was fined for his behaviour in Japan and thrown out of the country. Soon afterwards he went into rehab.
He’s spent four months in rehab and has been out for the last four weeks, and is still maintaining a low profile.
But I know that’s soon to change, hence the interview, as the band has the album, which Jake and Jonny wrote together, to release and promote.
For a while there was a worry among the fans that the band wouldn’t go on when Jonny died, but from the press release that TMS put out a month ago, shortly after Jake got out of rehab, they said the band was Jonny's life and love, and that this album, his last and now his legacy, was his best to date. And also that if they didn’t put the album out, Jonny would more than likely come back to kick their asses for quitting now.
And this is not me being cynical, I just understand the music business, and well … basically the band is what keeps the music label riding high, and you see Jake owns the label that TMS are signed to; if it’s possible to sign the band you are in.
But basically, if the label falls because the band quits, then that’s an awful lot of people out of work.
When TMS first started out they were signed to a small label, ‘Rally Records’, but as the band rapidly grew, becoming one of the fastest growing bands ever and breaking sales records worldwide, basically becoming a phenomena, Jake grew too. And him and the guys soon outgrew the small label they were signed to.
It’s well documented that Jake is a shrewd businessman for his young age, and a serious professional, barring his drug and alcohol addiction, and the pissing on the crowd incident. It's also widely reported that he is notoriously difficult to work with.
Apparently, he was once quoted in the press as saying, ‘When you’re the best like I am, and give only the best, why is it so wrong to expect the same in return.’
That, I can believe. Because that reminds me a lot of the Jake I knew. Never one to mince his words or hold back from sharing his thoughts.
So when the band felt they were too big for Rally anymore, they walked away from the label, buying themselves out of their contract.
The figure has never been reported. But I’m in no doubt they could have afforded it.
Jake is rumoured to be worth around $300 million and growing, they say he earned $90 million in the last year alone.
So when they left Rally, Jake and Jonny set up ‘TMS Records’ together, put the band onto the label and have been signing other growing bands and musicians to the label ever since.
Well, until Jonny died that is.
When Jonny died his half of the label naturally went to his parents. It was reported that Jake bought them out, as per their wishes, because it was too painful for them to have any involvement with the label after losing Jonny.
So now Jake runs TMS alone. And even in rehab, he had maintained running it from what I’ve heard in the business news.
But even with Jake’s combination of music and business talent, it is sadly not what he spends most of his time in the news for.
Pissing on the stage in Japan aside, Jake was already tabloid fodder for his drinking, partying, and women. He works hard, and plays harder. He goes through women like most people go through loose change. He has dated some of the most beautiful women in the world. Actresses, models, singers, the list goes on and on.
More recently, he’s been quiet on that front, obviously from being in rehab. But now he’s back, clean and ready to reclaim his place in the news, and the charts.
Maybe that’s how Vicky got the interview.
Jake will be keen to show he’s back and means business. If anything, surprisingly, Jake and TMS’s popularity has increased since the Japan incident.
The fans love his outlandish behaviour. Men want to be him, woman want to screw him … most wanting to be the one to tame the untameable Jake Wethers.
All Jake did that night in Japan was immortalise himself as the rock god people always believe him capable to be, putting him among the ranks at the young age of twenty-six.
It’s crazy, he left the UK when he was fourteen and then four years later the band was signed, and they were hitting the big time when he was twenty.
Such a fast rise. And I wonder, if he can achieve what he has in only eight years in the music industry, just imagine what he’ll be able to do in twenty.
But all of this aside, ignoring all the gloss and the money, all I see when I look at pictures of him is my old best friend, Jake Wethers. The guy I used to have movie and pizza night with. The guy who helped me bury Fudge, my pet rabbit when he died. And sat with me holding my hand all day while I cried over his loss.