In 2025, Tooth & Nail Records released a box set of five albums on vinyl (Wish For Eden – Pet the Fish, Focused – Bow, Starflyer 59 – She’s the Queen EP, Blender head – Prime Candidate for a Burnout, and The Blamed – Frail). The back cover of Wish for Eden’s album still has Knott listed as Executive Producer. Additionally, the book that came with the box set mentioned Knott’s involvement with and influence on the early years of the label.

From the Wish for Eden: Rob Walker / Brandon Ebel Reconnect: 6-11-24 essay, conducted by Jeremy Alan Gould of The Rumors Are True podcast and Jason Zeimet of Unoriginal Vinyl, edited by Dustin Gardy and Jazon Zeimet:

“ROB (WALKER): I remember you would take me out to lunch and it was a Frontline meeting, but we would talk about what you were thinking about. And then we had a meeting at Marie Callender’s off of Yorba Linda. Mike Knott was supposedly doing Tooth and Nail. And I’m like, “Mike Knott, what are you doing here, man?” And that’s when we had the same manager as Mortal, telling us, “Gotta get on the road. You gotta get a loan. You gotta get this. You gotta get on the road.” And we don’t even have a record done yet, you know? And I didn’t know this, you told me later, but you’re feeding Mike Knott the money under the table. Mike Knott is talking to us about the deal, and it was like a slapstick or something.

BRANDON (EBEL): I guess it’s not an ultra-forthright way of starting a label. Though I will say I never lied. I just never told you all the information, but I never flat out lied. Basically, what happened is I tried to start Tooth and Nail first with Frontline. They wouldn’t do it. Then I tried to start it with the radio guy at Frontline, Tony Shore, and this guy Mark Atkinson who went on to break DC Talk and was at Forefront Records. They ended up not wanting to quit their jobs and take the risk. So then I thought, “Alright. I have the money. I wanna sign Wish for Eden, Focused, Starflyer, Plankeye. I had a list of the four groups I wanted to try to sign. I just wasn’t 100% sure they were gonna take me seriously. So I went to Mike Knott and said, “Can I pay you $2,000 to go to the first meetings with me, and you can be the president of Tooth and Nail for four months? And after that, you can quit, and then everyone will be so pumped. There’s a successor.” And I signed everybody to a one album deal, so cry me a river, you got your record made and it’s coming out. And then if you don’t like me, you can just leave. Right? But where it all kinda got zany was Mike Knott quit after 10 days of working with me because I called him 50 times a day. Back then we didn’t have cell phones so I had to page him, call him, go over to his house. “Dude. Dude. I need you to go meet with Focused’s manager and stuff.” And he goes, “Brandon. I can’t keep up with you.” So when we first met with Rob, I’m doing a lot of the talking. And it’s super confusing. And then I’m the one going by The Green Room every day and Mike Knott is nowhere to be found. When I went to The Green Room and told you guys Mike’s not gonna be the president anymore, but I’m the owner, you guys were not even remotely bombed. You’re like, “well, that makes more sense because you’re the only one who comes by or does anything.” So that was good because I was a little nervous. They’re halfway recording the album and I come in like, “can we have a quick meeting? Hear me out: Mike is stepping down.” Rob was so cool about it. He just wanted the record to get made. I remember you guys saying, “well, are we gonna be able to finish the record? Yeah? Perfect.”

ROB: I just I found out about it later, of course, but I always thought there was something fishy about that meeting. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but when we found out what was really going on, it was exciting because you wanted to do the same thing we wanted to do. You wanted to make a quality record and take it up a notch. And you were willing to take that risk and do it, and I appreciate that.”

From the Starflyer 59: She’s the Queen essay by Lars Gotrich, NPR:

“Martin and Andrew Larson, SF59’s inaugural lineup, look tough on the inner gatefold on their Moto Guzzi motorcycles. “It was kind of tongue-in-cheek amongst a couple buddies of mine,” Martin says, confirming that the photo was “100 percent” inspired by Michael Knott and his band L.S.U. on the back cover of the 1987 album Shaded Pain.”