Country star Zach Bryan has vowed to keep ticket costs low for his 2023 tour. That same day, he dropped a surprise live album pointedly titled “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live at Red Rocks).” The album was recorded while he was headlining at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks in November, during an unexpected blizzard.
The title is taken from a tweet Bryan posted on November 15th where he called out Ticketmaster’s shenanigans. “I’m fully aware of the Ticketmaster and Live Nation relationship,” he posted. “All my decisions — moving forward — will reflect this and until there is a serious change in the system all my homies will continue to hate Ticketmaster.” He also said this would be his last statement on the matter.
Though this new album means he didn’t really keep his word on that one.
But he is keeping his word about trying to combat skyrocketing ticket prices. Currently, Bryan is the highest profile artist waging a war against the monopolistic Ticketmaster. Or at least since the 90s when Pearl Jam also butted heads with the company over similar issues. In Bryan’s December 25th tweet, he explains he “met kids at my shows who have paid upwards of four hundred bucks to be there and I’m done with it.” As a response, he will be performing a limited number of headlining shows in 2023, where he has done all he can to keep ticket prices low. All to prove to people “tickets don’t have to cost $450 to see a good and honest show.”
“I believe working class people should still be able to afford tickets to show,” Bryan continued. “I am so so tired of people saying things can’t be done about this massive issue while huge monopolies sit there stealing money from working class people. Also, to any songwriter trying to make ‘relatable music for the working class man or woman’ (they) should pride themself on fighting for the people who listen to the words they’re singing.”
While he didn’t name names, most think this is directed at Bruce Springsteen, since Springsteen allowed Ticketmaster to employ its “platinum” pricing system for his concerts. This system means the cost of certain tickets adjusts to match the perceived market value. All in an attempt for Ticketmaster to claim some of the markup fees resellers would get in the secondary market. This caused some of his tickets to jump to thousands of dollars apiece. When the singer finally spoke out about it, he defend his choice and believes it is a fair system. For an artist who markets himself to the working class, making his tickets impossible for them to buy seems counterproductive. Making Brayn’s call out of the idea pretty pointed and obvious.
And if there was somehow still some doubt as to how serious an issue Bryan thinks this is, well he even brought it up to former president Barack Obama. When Obama tweeted his end-of-year playlist Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” was at number 4. So he responded back with this:
Bryan is really out here pulling in anyone he can to help with the issue and we are definitely here for it. Keep fighting the good fight man. Check out his new album on Spotify:
