NASHVILLE COMES ALIVE IN 2022

By Holly Gleason

AEG/Messina Touring Group founder Louis Messina wrapped up Eric Church’s sold-out U.S. Bank Stadium date with Morgan Wallen—and briefly escaped to Montauk before diving back in. “I’ve got Shawn Mendes in rehearsals in Philly, The Lumineers in New York City for two nights and Kenny Chesney sold out at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday. It’s been a crazy summer.”

Live Nation’s Head of Country Touring Brian O’Connell echoes the sentiment. Bouncing from Luke Combs stadium shows to Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean or Brooks & Dunn, as well as Miranda Lambert with Little Big Town’s just wrapped tour, plus a handful of festivals, he’s barely had time to catch his breath—or surf behind power boats on Old Hickory Lake.

“Business is good,” according to O’Connell. “We’re coming out of the indoor legs and heading outdoors for amphitheaters and festivals. And we’ve reached the end of tickets being held, so country is proving even with all the traffic—and there is a lot of traffic—the fans want to go to country shows.

“The unicorns of the last 30 years who’ve always done big business are solid. The A++ new guys—the Combses, the Wallens—are huge. People know what they’re gonna get, whether it’s high-octane rocking music or a band they saw as a baby act that’s grown up. That tribalism is significant.”

“It’s kind of crazy,” Messina affirms. “On the Live 75 in Pollstar last week, #1 was Ed Sheeran, #2 was Kenny, #3 was Eric Church and #4 was The Lumineers—and we’re all having a blast.

“All the good acts are doing fabulous [business]. I worry a bit about too many shows at the same time. But like always, the strong will survive. Look at Kenny: He’s putting up numbers like never before. He had 55,000 in Pittsburgh, then his biggest night in Philadelphia with 55,000-plus. People really want quality shows, and everyone I talk to out here, they agree legit arena-level headliners are doing great.”

Chesney may have decided to postpone for two years over concerns about local COVID regulations impacting capacity, but all those concerns seem to be gone. Whether they’re playing stadium shows or festivals, the business is almost unprecedented for the big headliners.

“Tortuga just had its biggest year ever,” O’Connell points out. “It’s the experience and the philosophy of making the festival something more.”

“We ask the fan for three days of their lives, so we need to deliver an experience even more than a concert,” he adds. “If there are 52 Saturday nights in a year, maybe a festival gives you a couple more. For me, it’s not just ‘put up some fencing in a field.’ Whether it’s Tortuga, Faster Horses, Watershed, Tidal Wave or Seven Peaks with Dierks Bentley, there’s a theme, a vibe, a way the acts hang together. We want each one to have a specific personality and feel—for the artists as well as the fans. For artists playing, we make it pretty free range backstage, so there’s no one to meet—just a space for them to see each other and catch up.

“For the fans, it’s thinking not just ‘What do they need?’—hydrating stations, bathrooms, shade—but ‘What would they like?’ At Tortuga, we built an actual beach bar called the Shipwreck Lounge with a thatched roof for people who wanted to sit down, have a drink and take a break.”

Festivals are especially effective, Messina concurs, for sowing the future. “The good ones—the Stagecoaches and Tortugas—are a great showcase for young artists, or artists trying to get to the next level. Just look at Brian, and Stagecoach’s Paul Tollett and Stacie Vee, who had this idea; what they’re all doing is a whole other energy for country and Americana. When you align [a festival] with the right talent, it’s more than the show or the acts; it’s a place where people make friends, and artists actually emerge or are discovered by the fans.”

That middle level may not be a concern, but both men are aware that developing the next wave of hard-ticket sellers is critical. While press releases scream “headlining tour,” that often means clubs or the tiniest venues—and the numbers would never justify such a proclamation 10 years ago.

Messina, who has Little Big Town in festivals and large fairs this summer and fall, recognizes it’s an extension of the artist-development process. “My whole team believes what we do now is only a foundation for what we’re going to do in the future,” he emphasizes. “We have lots of young people, but the McMahons [EVP Marketing Kate and tour-logistics/numbers EVP Rome] have been with me for 25 years, and for every one of us, it’s about where we’ll be with these acts in three, five, even 10 years.

“We have meetings with Old Dominion on a regular basis, looking at what they need to do to keep growing. On Kenny’s tour, they’re outselling everyone else 2-to-1 on merch, and we’re moving them into bigger and bigger opportunities without getting ahead of ourselves.”

For O’Connell, whose Brooks & Dunn-led Neon Circus cavalcades spun off headliners Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts and more, investing the time to a grow an artist is part of it. When Lambert co-headlined arenas with Aldean, O’Connell recognized her major hard-ticket potential—in a business where female artists typically struggle—and her commitment to her musical vision.

“Miranda’s in a whole different stratosphere right now,” he explains. “Beyond winning the most Academy of Country Music Awards, or all the Album of the Year wins, she uses those 17, 18 years of major live-performing experience and she goes out there laser-focused to win. She knows who she’s playing to, so when she walks on that stage, she’s going to give those people twice what they paid for. That’s her mission.

“The first three letters in ‘artist’ are ‘a-r-t,’ and she’s done that. The #1s are great, but that’s not what drives her; the albums do. When she takes the stage, fans, male and female, know all the songs. She’s still in her 30s, and you know you’re looking at a first-round Hall of Famer.”

His success with Lambert has somewhat quelled the conventional fear of female headliners. With Maren Morris kicking off her Humble Quest Tour at Raleigh, N.C.’s Red Hat Amphitheater, O’Connell muses, “She’s another authentic artist who will continue to grow and build, because the touring strategy isn’t to run up the mountain for the money, but to walk up, let the music bring the people and build something that will last.”

Messina sees those fundamentals as part of it. “If you give people what they want, they’re coming—whether it’s a fair or a festival, a stadium or an arena. Know your artist and their audience. Fairs and those kinds of old-school festivals that’ve been around still deliver a lot of bang for your buck, for the artist and the fan. Blake Shelton plays ’em, Little Big Town too. There’s a lot of passion in those fans. The guys like Bob Romeo and his team, all those promoters are still very much a part of this.”

As for the future, O’Connell muses, 2023 “looks really big, but there’s a little more room to maneuver. Some of what’s coming’s really big, too; there’s going to be a lot more stadium traffic. This year, Luke Combs is doing a couple; Morgan’s doing one. Just wait.”

“And George Strait, who sold out Arrowhead Stadium with Chris Stapleton six months in advance, is still doing eight-to-10 shows. I’ve got The Lumineers in Wrigley Field and Coors Field in Denver. I tell people, ‘Tell me your dreams, and let me outdream you.’”

“I think you’ll see more big artists touring every other year,” he adds. “There will always be people who grind on the amphitheaters to pay the bills every year, but there’s only 13 weeks between Memorial and Labor Day. I’m doing way more shows inside. This year we were sold out at Madison Square Garden a bunch of times.

“Brian and I talk on a regular basis,” Messina says. “We’re crisscrossing the country, out where the talent is. You start to realize we’ve been doing this a long time, and it’s a lot about understanding the artists, the fans and the marketplace.”

“One thing I’ve taken away from the last year and a half,” O’Connell expands, “is that our people have really missed the live experience. The hot topic for me right now is the price of gas: From the person buying a ticket down front or on the grass or in the last row in the arena to the guys driving those trucks and buses, that’s going to become a factor.

“I’m not an economist. I don’t know the future, but conventional wisdom is: Something at some point’s going to suffer. The price of gas is shocking, but when does it kick in? Or is this where people go for refuge? I don’t know, but my shows with inventory are closing strong—really strong.”