[UPDATED] Joey Mills Issues Statement Regarding Cancellation Of Book Tour: “Keith Miller Canceled The Tour Due To Kyle Ross”
[image via BoyCulture]
This post is being continuously updated below.
Following the abrupt cancellation last night of his nationwide book tour for Electric Soul, performer Joey Mills has just released a statement to (at least partially) explain why the tour—which had been set to continue this weekend in Los Angeles, followed by stops in Chicago and St. Louis—was canceled.
In his statement (read below in full), Mills apologizes to fans, thanks author Tayor Saracen and Cameron Parks, and says the tour was canceled by Helix and 13 Red Media owner Keith Miller “due to a private issue with Kyle Ross.” This seems to only present more questions, and Str8UpGayPorn has reached to Mills and Ross for clarification.
It appears that Mills and Ross had some sort of falling out, and while Ross tweeted Mills earlier this week after the NYC book signing, Mills is no longer following Ross on Twitter:
Joey Mills has confirmed to Str8UpGayPorn that he is not following Kyle Ross on Twitter, and he revealed that Ross became hostile with Mills this week after Mills texted Ross about Electric Soul’s high book sales, with Ross calling Mills a “fake ass bitch.” As you’ll recall, Ross was the subject of Saracen’s previous book for 13 Red Media, Twink.
And, Kyle Ross has just tweeted the below response:
Here’s Joey Mills’ statement in full, which points out that while the signing this weekend is canceled, he’ll be hosting his own signing along with a party on Saturday night at Radiant Space in West Hollywood, and he’ll be having a meet and greet (also hosted on his own) in St. Louis:
I regret to say the book tour for Electric Soul by Taylor Saracen, in conjunction with 13 Red Media, has been cancelled. Sadly, Keith Miller (owner of Helix Studios and financier of 13 Red Media) chose to cancel the tour due to a private issue with Kyle Ross (an employee of Helix Studios).
First, I would like to thank Taylor, as well as Cameron Parks for organizing the New York signing event at the Strand Book Store. It exceeded my wildest dreams. Taylor has tried her best to save this tour but was unsuccessful. Other than her support she was not a part of the cancellation but will sadly reap the consequences.
I do apologize for this inconvenience, but I am trying my best to make sure I can still visit most of the destinations listed for the tour.
I know there are a lot of fans, friends and family planning to attend the book signings in Santa Monica, Chicago and especially my hometown of St. Louis. Since the tour has been cancelled on such short notice, I’ve decided I will be personally hosting my launch party this Saturday March 2nd from 9p-Midnight at Radiant Space in West Hollywood, CA.
For those planning to travel to St. Louis for the signing on Sunday March 24th, I will be arranging a meet and greet event for the same day and look forward to signing your books at that time. I am also looking forward to showing everyone around the city.
The book store signings in Santa Monica, Chicago and St. Louis will in fact be cancelled; however, this Saturday’s party in LA will go on.
At this point in time, my fans are my top priority and will continue to be. I’m hoping that despite these changes I can still satisfy my fans and I will do everything in my power to do so.
Whatever the reason for the cancellation, it’s extremely bizarre that Helix/13 Red Media/Keith Miller have issued no statement or explanation whatsoever alerting customers about the cancellation of their own events promoting their own product (which they’ve been advertising and organizing for months to people around the world), and it was Mills—who is not an employee of Helix or 13 Red—who had to do damage control with this statement. This post will be updated if there are further developments.
UPDATE:
Kyle Ross has issued the below statement addressing the text message exchange with Joey Mills regarding book sales, and his own explanation for why the tour was canceled. Ross says that Mills was “trashing the leadership at 13 Red Media,” and that “the company will not be funding rogue Joey’s book tour.” If there was “leadership trashing” on the part of Mills, it would had to have been done in private, as Mills had made no public statements about 13 Red Media, other than promotion of the book tour. Here’s Ross’s statement in full:
Joey mentioned to me via text his Strand book store success and I congratulated him sincerely. Moments later I realized that he had blocked me on Twitter (he also blocked Helix Studios and all other main Helix employees). I sent him a text asking about the block and accused him of being fake. The conversation quickly went south. We did have some drama but in the grand scheme, our conversation did not effect the outcome. The reason for the tour cancellation is that Joey has been consistently trashing the leadership at 13 Red Media whilst the company has been funding his expensive book tour. The company will not be funding rogue Joey’s book tour when we can’t even tag him in a tweet. It was not an easy decision but when you lay a steaming pile of shit in the hand that feeds you, it would be moronic for us to continue paying for it. Keith reached out to Joey multiple times to try and find a workable solution to which Joey only continued to trash talk Keith directly and after multiple attempts, no agreement could be made. I wish Joey well in future endeavors.
