Shannon Leto

### Family

Jared Leto (brother), Constance Leto (mother), Carl Leto (step father), Anthony L. Bryant (Biological father; decreased)

### Occupation

Musician, actor, songwriter, record producer, photographer, businessman

### Affiliation

Universal, Virgin, EMI, Immortal

**Shannon Leto** (born March 9, 1970) is an American musician, actor and songwriter best known as the drummer of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. He co-founded the group in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, with his younger brother Jared. Their debut album, *30 Seconds to Mars* (2002), was released to positive reviews but only to limited success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of their second album *A Beautiful Lie* (2005). Their following releases, *This Is War* (2009) and *Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams* (2013), received further critical and commercial success. As of September 2014, the band has sold over 15 million albums worldwide.

Leto has worked on several side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Antoine Becks, a recording with the short-lived supergroup The Wondergirls, and performing on occasional dates with Street Drum Corps. His creative contribution to music has received praise from musicians and critics. He is noted for his dynamic drumming style and his energetic live performances.

As an actor, Leto found a minor role on the television series *My So-Called Life*, in which his brother starred in. He later appeared in the films *Prefontaine* (1997), *Sol Goode* (2001), and *Highway* (2002).

## Early Life

Shannon Leto was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, to Constance Leto (née Metrejon). His mother has Cajun ancestry. "Leto" is a stepfather's surname. His parents divorced when he was a child, and he and his younger brother Jared lived with their mother and their maternal grandparents William Lee Metrejon and Ruby Russell. His father remarried and committed suicide when Shannon was ten. Leto moved frequently with his family from his native Louisiana to different cities around the country. He has two younger half-brothers from his father's second marriage.

Constance joined the hippie movement and encouraged her sons to get involved in the arts. Leto became interested in percussions from the moment he and his brother started playing music together at early age, and his models were artists of many different mediums. "I come from a pretty artistic family," he explained, "There were canvases and paint everywhere, instruments, and all sorts of stuff. It just kind of made sense. I started playing on pots and pans at a very early age, so I just kind of flowed into it. It was just a natural progression." He received his first drum kit when he was ten years old and began teaching himself, developing his own style.

Leto has described his adolescence as a troubled time, in which he used drugs and dropped out of school. He said, "I was in a mess, I felt I didn't belong anywhere", calling himself as an "outsider" who hated conformity and rules, and "took any opportunity to break them." Ultimately, Jared helped him recover from drugs.

## Music Career

Leto formed the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars in 1998 in Los Angeles, California with his brother Jared. Their debut album had been in the works for a couple of years and was recorded in rural Wyoming during 2001 and early 2002. Their work led to a number of record labels being interested in signing Thirty Seconds to Mars, which eventually signed to Immortal Records. The band worked with producers Bob Ezrin and Brian Virtue on their debut album *30 Seconds to Mars*, which was released on August 27, 2002 in the United States through Immortal and Virgin. It reached number 107 on the US *Billboard* 200 and number one on the US Top Heatseekers. Upon its release, *30 Seconds to Mars* was met with mostly positive reviews; music critic Megan O'Toole felt that the band has "managed to carve out a unique niche for themselves in the rock realm." The album was a slow-burning success, and eventually sold two million copies worldwide as of March 2011.

It took two years to record their next release *A Beautiful Lie*, with the band traveling to four different continents to accommodate Jared Leto's acting career. *A Beautiful Lie* was released on August 30, 2005 in the United States. It has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has reached platinum and gold status in several countries, with a sales total of over four million. The band heavily toured in support of the album and played at several major festivals, including Roskilde, Pinkpop, Rock am Ring, and Download.

In August 2008, during the recording process of the band's third studio album, Thirty Seconds to Mars attempted to sign with a new label, prompting EMI (the parent label of Virgin), to file a $30 million breach of contract lawsuit. After nearly a year of legal battles, the band announced on April 28, 2009, that the suit had been settled following a defence based on the De Havilland Law. Thirty Seconds to Mars then signed a new contract with EMI and released their third album *This Is War* in December 2009 to critical acclaim.

*This Is War* reached the top ten of several national album charts and earned numerous music awards. The band began their Into the Wild Tour in February 2010 and was among the hardest-working touring artists of the year. In December 2011, they entered the *Guinness World Records* for most live shows during a single album cycle, with 300 shows. In September 2012, Leto released a remixed version of "Night of the Hunter", a track featured on *This Is War*. The musician explained that he wanted to "reinvent" the song, to "shed a different light on it by bringing a dance element to it."

Thirty Seconds to Mars released their fourth album, *Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams*, in May 2013 through Universal. It received generally positive reviews and reached the top ten in more than fifteen countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. The band promoted the album by embarking on their Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams Tour and the Carnivores Tour, co-headlining with Linkin Park. In April 2014, Thirty Seconds to Mars announced that they have parted from Virgin Records after tumultuous years with the label.