Even Avenged Sevenfold is feeling the pinch of post-pandemic touring costs, with M. Shadows admitting that “it’s incredibly hard” for the band to make money from touring now.
In a new interview with Bradley Hall on his YouTube channel, the Avenged Sevenfold frontman—real name Matthew Sanders—took Hall on a Deepdive into the realities of post-pandemic touring.
“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,” he explained. “More trucks, more drivers, more gasoline, more travel. And we’ve already seen a lot of bands cancelling tours.”
That’s just the beginning of it, Sanders forewarned.
“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,” he said. “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.’”
He explained how difficult touring is for bands on all levels right now, adding that there is also a big turndown in sales making it “almost impossible” for bands to tour successfully.
“People have been blown out by ticket prices, because of the touring, because of the inflation, so every single thing stacks on top,” he said. “And then you’ve got people that are very upset about what ticket prices are, which I get. It’s kind of crazy to go see a couple of bands and it’s gonna cost you five, six hundred bucks, or if it’s country artists, it’s a thousand dollars if it’s Taylor Swift, it’s $3,200, or whatever it is.”
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There was an additional argument, he added, of people not understanding how ticket pricing worked, as well.
“There’s inflation, there’s higher costs, it’s much harder to get around, and if you think about every aspect of a touring band’s life, it’s making it increasingly impossible,” he said. “And you’ve gotta think, if there’s not gonna be CDs coming into the record label, there’s no tour support. They’re not making that kind of money anymore. So you’ve got this whole situation that is kind of dire, when you, when you think about it that way. That’s why you’ve gotta kind of pick and choose what you’re doing.”
It wasn’t that long ago Sanders was discussing the possibility of releasing NFT concert tickets, as a way to keep up with current fan trends.
So far, the band has only confirmed 2025 tour dates for Europe in June, but Australian fans are hoping for a return Down Under some time this year.
You can watch the full interview with Bradley Hall below:
