For two days, one side of a story dominated dance music's timeline. Now Pete Tong has given his.
Sitting down with Pete Tong DJ Academy CEO Alex Tripi, Tong walked through his version of the events behind the "Missing" remix, the track at the centre of a public dispute with John Summit. Our students asked for a straight answer. This is Tong giving one, calmly and on the record.
You can watch the full conversation here.
What John Summit said
On 8 July, John Summit posted on X that Tong had promised to release Summit's "Missing" remix with him, then released a version with Franky Rizardo instead, accusing Tong of contributing little to the production. Summit shared screenshots of private conversations about an orchestral version and made clear his issue was with Tong, not Rizardo.
Rizardo later withdrew his own version from release, saying he was "not taking sides." Tong had stayed quiet. Until this interview, the timeline had been told almost entirely through Summit's posts.
What Pete Tong says happened
In Tong's telling, there was never a single promised release, but several possible versions of a classic track, which he describes as normal practice. He says he opened conversations with both artists about recreating "Missing" for the Ibiza Classics winter tour, after checking that Everything But The Girl were happy and had no remix plans of their own.
According to Tong, his team sent John's management a written proposal on 13 May that laid out the Franky Rizardo version from the start, with a roughly six-week release window and John's version planned for later in the summer. He says John's side acknowledged the email on 23 May but explained they had not yet been able to discuss it with John, and that follow-ups, including one on 17 June, went unanswered.
Tong says he never received John's session files and carried on with the Rizardo version, which he describes as built around recreating the original parts rather than John's work. Tong says he heard from Summit directly only days ago, after the Rizardo announcement, and called the message a tough read. These are Tong's characterisations of private exchanges. We are documenting his account, not adjudicating whose version is complete.
What Pete told the students
Asked what he wanted students to take from it, Tong's answer was practical, not defensive.
Collaboration is still worth it, he said, but the moment you are in a room with other artists, everyone needs to be clear on what they are doing, and it needs to be in writing, especially once managers and labels are involved. And if a problem comes up, pick up the phone.
It is the same discipline the Academy teaches about turning pro: the unglamorous structure most tutorials skip. If you want the built-out version of that, it runs through everything we do at the Academy.
Watch the full conversation.
Watch it, hear Tong out in his own words, and draw your own conclusion. Then keep the conversation going with us on Instagram: tell us how you handle collaborations, the deals that worked and the ones that didn't.
