Quote:
Originally Posted by Basil C. Thurston III
Bumblefoot began to have substance control issues while on the never-ending CD tour, and he has walked away from GNR to save his life. Don't think he'll be back, he sounded pretty resigned to that in an interview with Eddie Trunk earlier this year.
And of course it's about the money- every tour is about the money- this is the only way these guys make coin in the age of digital ripoffs. The band doesn't set the price of tickets, only the gig- the promoters are the ones who set ticket levels, so blame them, not Axl & Co. Rumor is they are asking for a million per show at the stadium level. So say they play the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, seating capacity 92,000 as is, add in another three thousand infield seats at minimum. So if you sold 95000 tickets at $10 a pop, that pays the band. Throw in all the costs to produce and promote the show, charge $30 a ticket, you still come out ahead. And I'm willing to bet they sell a corporate sponsorship to eat the costs of the production, like the Stones do..so keep that in mind when marveling at the ticket prices- it's not always the band behind the massive mark-up....I don't know if I would pay those prices. Perhaps if there was a pretty special double bill or opening act. But I saw GNR during their heyday, and they were nothing special live, IMO, pretty sloppy sounding back then....and Axl's voice has had 25 years to age, I saw the new GNR version 2 years ago and it was rough in spots to my ears...
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The problem is that they're charging way above a simple $50-$60 ticket, which would easily turn a profit a couple times over with that many seats. I know veteran acts charge out the ass all the time, but $250 and up is just inexcusable, especially for a band that only has one great album, a semi-decent double album, a covers album that nobody asked for, and a "comeback" record that took fifteen years to record.
Any other band would have faded in popularity with such little material and band infighting that these guys have, and yet people are still willing to throw hundreds of their hard-earned money at these guys who haven't recorded anything together in over twenty years. How they're still relevant in any sense is mind boggling.
Appetite was a damn fine record and seeing most of that lineup again would be pretty cool, but too much time has passed for me for it to be worth it, not to mention the ridiculous ticket prices.