From: Charlie Brusco
Subject: RE: Kevin Lyman Speaks The Truth
To: Bob Lefsetz
Cc: Tommy Shaw, James Young, Phil Carson, Stewart Young, Rod Essig, Rob Light, Danny Zelisko, Larry Vallon, Ryan Young, Taki Pappas, Mark Campana

Bob… I continually hear you talk about acts charging too much and ticket prices being too high and you lumped the Styx, Foreigner, Kansas tour into that guilt by association in this rant of yours. If you ask Live Nation (they have about 20 of our 36 dates) or any of the independent promoters doing dates on this package you will find their are three very happy participants in the tour. The tour is priced reasonably by today’s standards so the promoter, the artists and the fans are all winning. The show has high production values with a 70′ video screen and great sound and lights. Probably more hit songs played in one night than any other tour on the road and from the faces we see f the fans some very happy fans everywhere we go. The business is not all about sellouts and premium tickets it can also be about fair deals for everyone. By the way this is the 11th year in a row of Styx doing over 100 shows a year and millions of dollars in tickets and merch sales so someone out there must like what we are doing. Nothing wrong with offering fans two for one deals every once and a while.

Charlie

From: Phil Carson
Subject: RE: Kevin Lyman Speaks The Truth
To: Bob Lefsetz
Cc: Tommy Shaw, James Young, Charlie Brusco, Stewart Young, Rod Essig, Rob Light, Danny Zelisko, Larry Vallon, Ryan Young, Taki Pappas, Mark Campana

Good words Charlie!

Bob, we wanted to give the fans a great show at an affordable price. We offered tickets for $15 or less in pretty well every market right from the onsale date. You might find that worthy of mention.

You could always ask one of the twelve thousand or so people who saw the bands last night in Billings, or anyone from the sold out crowd for tonight in Red Rocks what they think.

Best,

Phil Carson

From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: RE: Kevin Lyman Speaks The Truth
To: Phil Carson
Cc: Tommy Shaw, James Young, Charlie Brusco, Stewart Young, Rod Essig, Rob Light, Danny Zelisko, Larry Vallon, Ryan Young, Taki Pappas, Mark Campana

Oh come on guys, the bottom line is you gave tickets away for free.
And that’s got nothing to do with the quality of the music, but it does speak to demand.  And that’s all I commented on.
You can stop the spin.

From: Charlie Brusco
Subject: RE: Kevin Lyman Speaks The Truth
To: Bob Lefsetz
Cc: Tommy Shaw, James Young, Phil Carson, Stewart Young, Rod Essig, Rob Light, Danny Zelisko, Larry Vallon, Ryan Young, Taki Pappas, Mark Campana

Bob…no one said we didn’t do 2 for 1’s I said the the acts, The promoters and the fans were all happy…good business. The only one who is bitching is you and frankly no one really gives a fuck what you think. Lets see if you are still around and doing business 35 years from now …good Luck.

Charlie

From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: RE: Kevin Lyman Speaks The Truth
To: Charlie Brusco
Cc: Tommy Shaw, James Young, Phil Carson, Stewart Young, Rod Essig, Rob Light, Danny Zelisko, Larry Vallon, Ryan Young, Taki Pappas, Mark Campana

Wow, you’re showing your true colors.  Won’t serve you well as a manager…  I’m just reciting facts and you want to reinterpret them like a politician to make a point that’s got nothing to do with what i said.

Didn’t comment a single word on these acts’ music, or what a good time the fans had.  Just that you gave away tickets for free, not 1/2 price (although people did have to pay service fees!)

Does a nice guy like Tommy Shaw know you deal with people this way?

From: Charlie Brusco
Subject: RE: Kevin Lyman Speaks The Truth
To: Bob Lefsetz

Bob… You are making it sound like the only tours that are successful are sellouts. I think shows that average 6000 people a night and are suceesful for the artists, promoter and the fans are successful especially when we try to do it at an affordable price to the promoter and the fans alike. Come out and see a show and see why people like tour. Lots of bang for the buck and you would be surprised at the demo of the crowds…it is all ages. It is a tough summer but we are still trying to entertain people..someone has to.

Charlie

_____________________________________________

P.S. While I’ve got your attention, read this story:

Lilith Tour fans upset over 2-for-1 deal

Country Throwdown Cancels Four Shows Citing Low Ticket Sales

There are multiple stories here:

1. The shit has finally hit the fan in the touring world.  From big to little, from the Eagles to Country Throwdown, from has-beens like Bizkit to Top Forty artists like Christina Aguilera, cancelled shows and tours have become de rigueur instead of the exception.  And then there are those dates where the show still goes on, but you can get in free, with oldsters like Foreigner, Styx and Kansas, and even Bon Jovi is offering two for one

Bon Jovi 2 for 1 Offer

The newspaper tells us the economy is improving.  Shit, Apple sales are through the roof.  But people just don’t want to go to the show.  Not to see these acts at these prices.

2. Kevin Lyman is trying to do something new, and good.  He’s trying to build something as opposed to developing new ways to rip off the public, with gold circles, meet and greets, mortgaging your future to go to a show.  But the public is so jaded, has been ripped off so many times, that they’re not about to take a chance, they don’t want to experiment.  Their idea of experimentation is signing up for a new social network.  To go to a gig, to endure the Ticketmaster process and its bogus additional fees, to actually show up and find long lines for the bathroom and overpriced food…the product must be really damn good.  And the only product that good is old stuff, and people aren’t necessarily eager to see that in droves either.  With radio calcified and MTV dead, promoters now have to build acts, and that’s what Lyman is trying to do.

3. He may go on too long, but he’s speaking the truth in this video!  Lyman is reaching out to those affected, giving them special privileges if they come to another gig.  Isn’t that amazing in a business that keeps on delivering less?

We’re all in it together.  Lyman expresses this.  There’s no subterfuge, just reality.  He’s imploring his audience to help him, to stick with him.  And the only way you achieve this is by establishing trust, which comes from the truth.

4. Major labels build flashes in the pan, acts can’t make much money selling recordings, it’s supposedly all about the touring but now that’s faltering?  The labels are paying for years of rip-offs, people feel justified in stealing, after paying twenty bucks for crappy CDs with only one good hit.  Argue all you want, but file-traders have no guilt.  And now the same thing has happened in the touring sphere.  After years of abuse, people are crying NO MAS!  They’ve seen all the acts.  And the ones they haven’t, they don’t want to take a chance on.  There’s plenty of blame to go around, but I’m not blaming Kevin Lyman, he’s trying to solve the problem.  But it’s tough doing something new.  He needs our support.  Hell, at least the people on this tour CAN ACTUALLY PLAY!

This could be the best thing to happen to Kanye West since glow in the dark glasses.

Ever since Natalie Maines went on record regarding George Bush, musical acts have been afraid to take a stand.  And this is funny, since the willingness to stand up for what they believed in was the key to artists’ success in the sixties, the era when music went from sideshow to main event.  The biggest act in the business, the Beatles, flirted with drug use, challenged listeners and John Lennon even went on record to say the band was bigger than Jesus.

Which they were.

And they were also damn good.  Which is why they got so much attention and people followed them.

But people have stopped following musical acts.  Heroes are found in other endeavors, sports, television, movies…  Musical acts aren’t leaders, they’re followers.  You think you’re helping your career, but you’re just one more brick in the wall between people and music, if you’ve got no edges, no one can relate to you.

And now we’ve got Zach de la Rocha imploring musicians to boycott Arizona.  You should get on this bandwagon quick, take a stand, before everyone else does and signing up looks safe and is ultimately meaningless.

This is music’s power.  There are music fans throughout Arizona.  Zach and his pack are mobilizing them, drawing attention to the abhorrent, and probably unconstitutional, Arizona law.  Not worrying that some of their fans may support it.  If you can’t challenge your fans, if you’re not willing to expand their brains, stimulate thought, then you’re not a artist, but an entertainer. And entertainers are a dime a dozen, constantly angling for new gigs, their careers always teetering.

You can get a bunch of musicians to stand up for Haiti, Nashville flood relief, even cancer.  But what if there are two sides to an issue?  Are you willing to stand up for your beliefs?

I’m not saying to join The Sound Strike if you’re for the law.  Then again, you might want to reconsider your position, because your viewpoint might be outed to your detriment.  But if this is where your heart lies, if you believe injustice is imminent, then I implore you to sign up.  The boycott of all those gigs in Sun City, the cage-rattling by musicians helped bring down apartheid in South Africa.  It brought awareness, of an issue many were unfamiliar with previously, just like many outside of Arizona don’t realize how heinous this law is.

No color is better than another.  We’re all immigrants.  It’s time to leave your prejudices at the door.  Zach de la Rocha has a Mexican-American father.  Are you gonna hate him, think of him as a second-class citizen because of his heritage?  It’s the oldsters who are set in their ways, youngsters are much more open, and they can rally around youth leaders, who are traditionally musicians.

Then again, who’s gonna follow Ke$sha?  Or Miley Cyrus?  What do they stand for, partying in the U.S.A?  Well, we all want the freedom to party, each and every one of us.  And Zach’s pack is willing to take a stand, to enforce this right.

Mr. de la Rocha has a long history of political activism.  But when I think of taking a stand, I don’t think of Joe Satriani, but he put his name on the line.  As did Massive Attack.  And the aforementioned Kanye West.  This is a good start.  But we need you.  Young and old.  Everyone from Justin Bieber to Don Henley.  Anybody who has ever worked in Arizona.  If you think everyone who came to see you is legal…  If you think you’re not a beneficiary of immigrant labor…  If you don’t think that this crack in the edifice of the right to human freedom can ultimately impact your ability to self-express as an artist, you’re sorely mistaken.

Yes, music is all about freedom.  Didn’t Steppenwolf implore us to get our motors runnin’, to get out on the highway?

I’m not saying illegal immigration is not an important issue, that it does not need to be addressed, but this Arizona law is the wrong damn way.  Fill up my inbox.  Berate me.  But I reach many more people than you do.  And I reach a tiny fraction of the souls Zach’s and his pack do.  That’s the power of music.  Use it not only to your own benefit, but everybody’s.

The Sound Strike

People just don’t care.

Every day I get e-mail castigating me that I’ve pissed on someone’s favorite act, or haven’t given enough coverage to another. I don’t doubt that you like these acts, but what fascinates me is most people don’t.  Music is now niche.  Kind of like knitting or needlepoint, but a bit bigger.  

Maybe we’ll spread the analogy to sports.  Music is tennis.  Gargantuan decades ago, most people just don’t care today. Billie Jean King, Jimmy Connors, even McEnroe…  Today we’ve got Federer and Nadal and I can’t tell them apart and might turn on a match once a year, whereas I used to watch religiously.  But now there are few stars.  Few personalities.  And on the men’s side, the game has become so damn fast as to be something completely different, the same way music veered off into hip-hop and divadom and most people stopped caring.  Sure, some people cared, but relatively few, otherwise Mariah Carey would be selling out arenas every night, and she’s not, and a rapper other than Jay-Z could do 20,000 a night too.

Or maybe we should look at golf.  There’s one superstar, Tiger Woods, getting the whole nation golf-crazy, but if he’s not playing, viewership drops dramatically.  Sure, Phil Mickelson is a great golfer, but only golf devotees care about him, the average citizen might know his name and nothing more.

We’re under the illusion that music is king, that it drives the culture, but it’s not.  Music has become the sideshow.  Even on "American Idol"…does anybody expect Lee DeWyze to make it?  We’re interested in the comings and goings of Simon Cowell, not the contestants.  Sure, music is featured on the show, OLD MUSIC!

And many people will go to hear old music live.  But fewer each year at higher prices.  After you’ve heard that famous act do its hits live, do you really need to go back?  And the old acts are truly in it for the money, they’ve got no dignity, otherwise, why would they be shilling on TV, appearing on "American Idol"…I’m stunned they didn’t lobby for a crawl with a link to tickets. Then again, everybody knows you go to ticketmaster.com for an experience you endure, but hate.

This business will not be vital again until there’s a stable of stars, hopefully a plethora that people follow and want to see. And it would be great if they had something to say, if they were three-dimensional.  GaGa is a start.  Sure, she’s got train-wreck value, but people believe there’s substance underneath, and it’s not what you think, it’s what they think.  Then, who else?

Everybody else lives and dies on the hit single.  If Christina Aguilera had fans, she’d be able to sell tickets without airplay.  But she needs hits to get bodies into seats.  In the old days, bands could tour without hits whatsoever.  But that was back when music drove the culture, when you knew the players like sports team members, when you had to go to the show, when you were addicted to the radio.

The radio.  And then MTV.  They centralized focus.  They delivered a platform for star-building.  Someone left of center could get exposure and make it.  Like Culture Club.  MTV broke Boy George big, radio followed.  But FM radio built Hendrix and Cream, the music was so exciting you listened every night.  Because everyone was different, everyone was testing limits, everybody wasn’t the same.  And if you don’t think everybody’s the same today, try listening to Top Forty radio.

So where do we go from here?

Attention without substance is worthless.  In other words, if you shoot someone, we’ll all know your name, but soon we’ll be on to the next headline.

The audience demands universality, something mainstream.  And mainstream does not mean compromised, it means quality! Something so good that it cannot be denied!  Do you really think people care about a black/Asian golfer?  Of course not, what drew people to Tiger was his ability, his greatness!  So you’ve got a band that you like, are they so good that you can drag almost anybody to see them and they’ll like them too?  If not, they’re niche.

But, like I said, the whole business is niche.  Labels believe if file-trading is stopped, an impossibility, sales will go up dramatically.  I doubt it.  People don’t care about music that much, they’re satisfied with free YouTube play.  And certainly most people don’t care about the individual acts purveyed…how do we get them to care?

It would be great if there were a Website, like Yahoo or Amazon or Google, actually more like the Huffington Post, to focus attention and build acts.  But the site builders are only interested in money, not music, and therefore they focus on advertising, everything but the consumer experience.  MySpace had a music focus, but its user interface sucked, still, how come every year there’s a new Net phenomenon, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and there’s never one solely music based?  Ever think about that?

The new Spotify is great, the social-networking elements trump iTunes, playlist sharing with instant listening ability is so cool…but it still doesn’t solve the problem that we’re lacking hit acts.

I don’t want a world of endless niches.  It’s incomprehensible.

And the public doesn’t want one either.  Which is why sales are so damn bad.  It’s not like they just invented a new file-trading technique.  No, most people can live without the music that’s being sold.

You solve the problem the way you always have, with hit music.  And the public doesn’t believe today’s music is full of hits. Their opinion, not yours.  If you’re happy in your private little backwater, salivating in front of the stage before your favorite niche act, fine.  But you’re not, because you keep telling everybody they should like your act too.

But most people are never going to like the Hold Steady, the National or the Black Keys.  Never gonna happen.  And the fact that you’re a big fan and react to my point by going ballistic and e-mailing me does not solve the problem.  I like "The Deadliest Catch", shouldn’t you?  No, that’s too mainstream…  I like A&E’s "Intervention"…shouldn’t you?  No, that’s pretty successful too.  You can watch either of them even if you’ve never fished or never been addicted, because they’ve got underlying human elements that appeal to all.  That’s the way music used to be.  And it’s not that way now.