Why GLAY’s Members Have Stayed Close for 30 Years After Overcoming Breakup and Struggles

The disbandment was decided in 1999.

On November 8, the popular four-member band GLAY held the first concert of their 30th anniversary arena tour at Osaka-jo Hall. The tour, promoting their 17th album Back To The Pops released in October, will travel to 8 cities across Japan with 15 concerts, drawing an expected 150,000 people.

To promote the memorial year tour, lead vocalist TERU (53) and guitarist and leader TAKURO (53) have been energetically appearing in the media, where their strong camaraderie has been revealed.

On October 7, TAKURO appeared in a video posted on the YouTube channel of the comedy duo New York. In the video, TAKURO revealed, “Today I’m going to TERU’s mother-in-law’s birthday party,” showing the band’s close relationships, including family ties. He also mentioned that at the time of their debut, they had proposed “one car for the band members” to always be together, but due to the logistics of the schedule, “I was the first to be picked up in the morning, and the last to be dropped off,” leading to the use of two cars, a tradition that has continued for 30 years. Interestingly, the car pairs change depending on the destination.

However, TAKURO also revealed that there was actually a “disbandment crisis” in 1999 during a VTR appearance on the TV Asahi program EIGHT-JAM on November 3.

In 1999, GLAY achieved major success with Winter, Again, winning the Japan Record Award and Japan Cable Radio Award, but TAKURO reflected that the band was exhausted at that time. He revealed that there was a conflict between the members who wanted to purely focus on music and the management side, and by New Year’s Eve 1999, “the disbandment had been decided.

However, during a New Year’s gathering with the four members at home, when TAKURO asked TERU, “What are you going to do, TERU?” TERU responded, “I still want to sing, so I’ll make a solo album.”

But since TERU recruited TAKURO, bassist JIRO (52), and guitarist HISASHI (52) for his solo activities, TAKURO realized, “Wait, this is GLAY!” and laughed, amusing the studio audience.

 

The fight that won the rights

“All four members moved from Hakodate, Hokkaido, to Tokyo and experienced hardship before growing into one of Japan’s most iconic bands. While many popular bands face rumors of discord and conflicts among members, GLAY is still said to be the band with the best relationships, as they continue to drink together.

This strong bond is partly due to overcoming the disbandment crisis in 1999, but also because the members won a fight to secure their rights by standing united,” said an industry insider.

GLAY started with their hit HOWEVER (1997) and in the late ’90s, they continuously produced million-selling hits. In the same year, their first best-of album REVIEW – BEST OF GLAY sold 4.8 million copies, solidifying their status as one of Japan’s leading bands. Surprisingly, however, their financial situation at the time was tough.

“Without support from their record company, they had to fund outdoor concerts and faced complicated copyright issues, which meant the members didn’t earn as much as expected. In 2001, a certain music publisher with whom GLAY had a joint publishing contract with their former agency, Unlimited Records (U Co.), fought over copyright royalties in court, and U Co. won. However, this didn’t improve the members’ treatment, and as U Co. began to neglect royalty payments, in May 2005, the members filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court to demand payment for unpaid royalties.

In October 2009, the Tokyo District Court ruled that “the copyright to songs after November 2005 belongs to GLAY,” and ordered U Co. to pay 670 million yen in royalties to GLAY, bringing the matter to a close,” explained the source.

Having shared hardships since their debut and deepened their bonds after overcoming crises such as the disbandment threat and copyright struggles, GLAY members will likely continue to run together toward their 35th and 40th anniversaries.

 

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