Complaint Review: Jon Anothony Holtz / Warhead Records

I must say it is really hard to know where to start. I met Jon Holtz back in 1992 when he was starting to get his label off the ground. I worked for a record retail and distribution company. So we had some of the same interests and saw ways we could help each other get ahead. I was young and nieve and all his lies seemed fair to me at the time. Jon said he could help me record a first class demo for $6,000. This would be for the studio time, his production and studio musicians. We went to Signal Sound studios in Allentown PA. We recorded the demos and returned to Tennessee. Months later i was contacted by the lawyers of Signal Sound demanding payment. Jon had keep the money and not finished paying the studio. Claiming that Pete, the owner owed him money from another project. But it was I who had to appear in court and settle the matter on my own. If not for my youth and Jon's smooth talking this would have been a big red flag.

 I helped him secure distribution and investment money from Select O Hits out of Memphis Tennessee in 1994. My hard work in putting the deals together led to a deal and $500,000 in financing for the label. Myself along with other artist signed deals with the label that year. Little did I know that a year before signing Jon had filed copyrights on my music as shown here,

Type of Work:
Sound Recording and Music
Registration Number / Date:
SRu000278573 / 1993-09-13
Title:
Requiem for a generation : vol. 1 / Deist Requiem.
Description:
Sound cassette.
Copyright Claimant:

© ? War Head Records

Date of Creation: 1993

Authorship on Application:

music, performance, words: W*******, 1973- (employer for hire), Jon Anthony Holtz, 1965- (War Head Records, pseud.)

Variant title:

Requiem for a generation : vol. 1

Martin Atkins was hired to produce the finished product. Mr Atkins nor I have ever seem one penny of sales of the CD that is over 10,000 units.

During this time Jon took a recording i had of Roy Mercer prank calls. He mastered it and filed copyrights and released it on CD. I recorded  a dance song of this CD call "Huh, I'll whoop your a*s" . This was release as a single and on the CD with sales of over 50,000 units. I have not been paid anything. Emails to Mr. Holtz about this are returned with lies and cursing. The real Roy Mercer who made the tape would later sue Mr. Holtz for a piece of the profits.
This seems to be a pattern with him as I don't think he has ever paid any royalities to any artist ever.

My band went on a tour in 1995 to support our CD. We returned to Tennessee and found ourselves looking for a new drummer. This led us relocate to Virginia Beach where Mr. Holtz promised in writing to provide rent while we worked on our next CD. I have the documents to prove this, but Jon Holtz or Warhead Records never paid a dime.

We signed with new management and did not accept the option for a 2nd CD on Warhead as it was plain to see they were in breach of contract and it did not make sense to continue with them.
We them continued playing shows and recording our new CD "Hate Songs from the Heart" on our own with our own money. Jon had not provided any money and had no rights to this work yet without knowing any of the song titles or a recording of them he filed another copyright on the CD title alone. So now there are 2 copyright filings ,one by us and one by him as shown below. lucky ours was filed 4 days before his.

Type of Work:
Sound Recording and Music
Registration Number / Date:
SRu000388549 / 1998-04-03
Title:

Hate songs from the heart : vol. no. 1.
Description:
Sound cassette.
Copyright Claimant:
© ? on words, music, performance & recording; Warhead Records, Inc.
(employer for hire of W*********, a.k.a. Deist Requiem &
Kyzer Kooper, pseud.)
Date of Creation:
1997
Copyright Note:
C.O. correspondence.

OUR FILING FOR OUR WORK:

Type of Work:
Music
Registration Number / Date:
SRu000384379 / 1998-03-31
Title:
Hate songs from the heart / Deist Requiem.
Description:
Compact disc.
Notes:
Collection.
Copyright Claimant:

© J*** C********
Date of Creation:
1998
Authorship on Application:
words and music: W***** C*****, 1973-; music: B**** P*****,
1977-, L**** M******, 1978-, & J*** C*******, 1971-.

I have many more stories of how Jon Holtz has done business with other artist but it is not my place to tell their stories. I remember thinking because we were friends and business partners that he would never do these type of things to my. That was misguided and wrong. i hope this will be a warning to anyone who is even thinking of doing business with this person as I can see he just repeated the same things over and over with other artists. I also find it funny that Jon still uses this picture of him and Gene Simmons on his site. Who took the picture....that's right, me. I hope this helps everyone out from making the bad mistake of dealing with this man and his company. In almost 20 years I have never known him to be honest about anything.
Take care