The post-pandemic music industry has been a rough ride, even for established artists. Case in point: California metalcore stalwarts Avenged Sevenfold recently revealed how “incredibly hard” it’s been to make money off of touring over the past few years.
In a new interview with Bradley Hall, vocalist M. Shadows – real name Matt Sanders – explained that increased travel expenses have made touring much more expensive post-pandemic.
“It’s really crazy, because when you get to our kind of level, everybody on the crew is ‘A list’ and they’re all being pulled in different directions, so they all make high-end amounts of money,” Shadows said. “More trucks, more drivers, more gasoline, more travel. And we’ve already seen a lot of bands canceling tours. You’re gonna see a lot more. ‘Cause I know where we’re at. I know what we make. And I know that it’s incredibly hard for us even.”
“Unless you can really put something together that keeps you in one city, and not a lot of movement, and keeps you in places where you can play multiple nights somewhere, you really are doing some of these things,” Shadows continued. “Like, for instance, a big reason we’re going to all these different countries is because we can go to the same countries and make very little to no money, or we can go to new countries and make very little to no money. And so the idea has been, ‘Let’s go build the band out.’”
Later on in the interview, Shadows added, “So, yeah, it’s one of those things where, again, going back to touring, touring is very hard right now for bands. It’s almost impossible. And you’re also having a big downturn in ticket sales right now.
“People have been blown out by ticket prices, because of the touring, because of the inflation, so every single thing stacks on top,” Shadows continued. “And then you’ve got people that are very upset about what ticket prices are, which I get.”
Check out the full interview above.
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