Tune in Saturday July 19th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

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I don’t know why they don’t just say they are cancelling for poor ticket sales? Since nobody has bought a ticket, nobody will be surprised. The weather excuse is the true embarrassment, not poor sales. I mean, in 2025 who thought Steve Miller would sell any tickets to begin with?

Jake Malloy

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Weather?  Looking at that seating map, it’s blue skies everywhere!!

Eric Howarth

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Did someone actually pay money for this all-time hall of shame junk press release?

Deb Wilker

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Steve Miller = The Pompatus of Lies?

Vince Welsh

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Well all I can say is… Bet you weren’t ready for that!

Tom Clark

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Time for someone to Fly Like an Eagle……

Jeff Pinhey

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He thinks our cash is nothing but trash?

Dennis Pelowski

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Bob, I have my own reason to dislike Steve Miller Band.  I had just turned 20 in 1967 when my band, the Shades Of Dawn, were slated to play at what I believe was the first Love In, (then called Human Be In), at Elysian Park on Easter Sunday March 26, 1967.  (this was before the Griffith Park Love-ins).  My band was backstage waiting for the band before us, the Steve Miller Band, to finish.  Slated to play after us was the Iron Butterfly, relatively unknown at the time.  But because Steve Miller played way past their cutoff time, a guy told us that in order to get back on schedule, they would have to skip us and let the Iron Butterfly play.  So we never got to play!

Sterling Howard, founder/owner
https://www.MusiciansContact.com

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For the first time ever, we took out extra insurance on our biggest outdoor gigs of the summer to ensure we get paid in the event of an extreme weather cancellation. I think the statutory rate is something like 3% of the artist’s net? We added it for 13 of our 30 something summer shows. For a mid-size act like Umphrey’s McGee this deal made sense, offering us some protection and reduced touring anxiety.

Joel Cummins

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Blaming poor sales on unforeseen circumstances is nothing new.  You’ve got your last minute ‘scheduling issues’ when the issue was scheduling into a too large venue.  You’ve got your ‘illness’ when a show passes through a poor selling region.  You’ve got your postponement when the ‘staging ain’t ready’ which is designed to get more press before the tour launch.  You’ve got your ‘serious illness’ when the whole tour needs to be scrapped.  And let’s not forget the Kelly Clarkson ‘I rehearsed too hard.’

It must be hard for a former rock star that can’t get work on a Workday commercial to realize their ‘appeal has become more selective.’

In all seriousness.  The concert industry is a bit overblown.  The hoi polloi is being priced out by ticket cost, parking fees, beer and hassle.  We have to be more selective.  Can’t go to everything like we did in our youth.  I fear The Who may have to cancel – and I’m planning on seeing that one.  Maybe the excuse will the ‘Roger fired another band member.’

Jeffrey Wirtz

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Miller cancelled on us in New Mexico a couple of years ago, too. That was it for me – he was put on my “declining” list after that. This process has only accelerated..

I bought front row tickets for Neil Young at the bowl last year, months in advance. My 28 year old daughter was pretty excited to see him and as for me, somehow after 40 years of being a deep fan, I only saw him once at the Buffalo Springfield reunion. But this was with Crazy Horse. It was about time, and I was happy to pay thousands for our seats.

 

Since we’d be in LA for a few days, I saw that Heart was in town during those days, and the YouTube videos of recent shows were pretty great, so I purchased front row seats for that show as well.

 

Neil cancelled, because of illness. Refunded our money immediately. But now, as you point out, we’ve booked flights, hotels, etc. for LA, so we would do more visiting of our old haunts around town and see Heart.

Heart “postponed”, because of Anne’s treatments. Totally understandable. But now we’re out thousands of dollars we weren’t nearly as excited about spending. Finally, we decided to go to Paris during Heart’s rescheduled shows, so I sold my tickets on StubHub, and someone – who wasn’t watching Anne’s post-treatment performances which were sad to watch, though we all root for her – bought them.

So, after a sunk cost of thousands, we did not see either of these artists.

 

Anne appears to be recovering pretty well – it’s good to see this.

 

But my mental model for these shows is completely different. I will no longer fly anywhere or pay these rates to see these acts. It’s too much hassle, and the diminishing returns of seeing musicians I love perform at a subpar level are no longer interesting.  This process started as they got older in the late 10’s and has sped up. Brian leaving the stage mid-song during “Sail On Sailor”. Graeme Edge walking away from the drums he just sat at while the real drummer played. Justin playing along with a recording of that flamenco-speed acoustic at the beginning of Questions. McCartney’s croaking voice. Pete’s stomach flapping around during his hops, with windmills that don’t include a single strike on the strings.

Again, I sit front-row only at these heritage acts. There are great shows – Fogerty still brings it, ZZ Top was in the pocket (before Dusty died), and so on. Stones right before Charlie left us – well done. Got exactly what I wanted. Same with Frampton. I think 2020 was a turning point. After that, it’s been difficult to book and reliably see an uncanceled show.

I love all these people too much to watch the decline from the front row or deal with the travel logistics of their changes to avoid insurance problems, etc. The era is past. I had a great time for 50 years seeing these people. You had to be there.

Gary Lang

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From: Kenny Lee Lewis

Re: Steve Miller Tour Cancellation

Well I share your letter once and a while on social media when you serve up the jagged pill for weak liberals and cultist conservatives to swallow and I have to defend you all the time to those you offend because of your truth at any cost honesty.

But this time you are wrong you cranky old fart.

You didn’t see Steve Miller hanging over a railing after our first outdoor stadium show opening in the sun for Journey and Def Leopard in Atlanta trying to fend off heat exhaustion. I was really worried about him.

Nest couple outdoor shows the crew had to arrange the stage air coolers with flexible ducts on him as he also wore frozen gel packs on his neck and shoulders. He looked like the Michelin Man! And he still almost passed out.

It’s easy for your snow-skiing ass not to have ever felt this humid senior-killer heat and sit back in your armchair and point your finger and call lies. Shame on you Bob. You don’t know the half of it. This has got nothing to do with poor tickets sales. The man is trying to be smart about his health!

Now when we finally got into some air-conditioned stadiums and arenas with with a lid it greatly improved the situation.

This prompted Steve to seek indoor arena shows only for this year. Unfortunately that didn’t happen for several reasons and he reluctantly signed off to keep doing some outdoor shed shows for the sake of keeping our family employed and giving the fans what they wanted.

This decision did not come lightly. When Covid hit in 2020 Steve was one of the first to pull the plug on his tour before any of the other acts did because he knew the severity of the situation and that the pandemic was going to shut everything down. People complained then as well but then the government got involved and we were all out of work.Steve was right.

The Joker has always relied on instincts and in this case he is rolling that pair of dice again. It’s too frickin hot for an 81 year-old to go out on that stage as temperatures keep breaking records even if you are the closer as the sun sets.

As for his indoor shows that were cancelled on this tour I can’t comment on. I’m sure the logistics of fragmenting the dates and changing routimg and days off layovers would have been a nightmare for production. So he just chose to cancel everything. And there you have it.

Now go pick on someone else you cranky old contrarian.

44 year Steve Miller Bandmember

Kenny Lee Lewis

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From: Kenny Lee Lewis

Re: Steve Miller Tour Cancellation

You need to take beat, think about your rather narcissist position you are taking on this, that is, not taking responsibility and blaming others for your error, and put on the big boy pants and admit you just wanted the clicks on your letter rather than being open-minded to health concerns for this cancellation. Calling Steve Miller a liar and all about the money is going to make you lose respect from your followers rather than temper your self righteous steel. My threads are blowing up supporting my retort to you Bob. You can dig into all the metrics you want about ticket sales. We’ve always down well with walk-ups and last minute buys. But even if sales were down Steve has been concerned about this heat for years . That same Atlanta show I mentioned we had to send our stage manager to the hospital for a mini stroke that day! It’s not just the band it’s the crew as well. The heat is no joke but apparently you are.

You NEGOTIATE!

Which is how we know that CBS canceled the “Late Show” for political reasons.

Let me see now… You take a top producer, a revenue positive show, and you cancel it willy-nilly?

Let’s say income is down. Then like the news outlets, you renegotiate the contracts with the talent, you give them the option of staying at less remuneration. But not here!

And then CBS puts out a press release saying the decision was purely financial. Then why don’t you publish the figures? OF COURSE YOU WON’T, BECAUSE THE SHOW IS MAKING MONEY!

Welcome to Trumpworld, where the truth is irrelevant and you lie with impunity.

And they’re coming for you next.

Just like Trump said he was coming for Rosie O’Donnell.

Does he have the right to? Not under the Constitution, but the Supreme Court has been giving him a green light on so many questionable things.

But you, sitting at home, are you really going to utter or write anti-Trump venom? Colbert can afford to lose his job, can you? You probably have to keep your mouth shut.

Is this another Kaepernick situation?

In a normal world, another network would immediately scarf up Colbert, he’s the ratings victor. But will competitors hold back for fear of pissing off Trump?

And don’t depend on the law to save you, there’s the aforementioned bogus, biased Supreme Court and the lawyers settled with Trump… It ain’t about what is right or wrong, but the MONEY!

Trumpers think they’re immune. But Trump can turn on a dime, suddenly the Epstein files are a Democratic hoax perpetrated on the Republicans. You’re just grist for the mill, you don’t matter, freedom my ass.

In Constitutional law there’s the concept of the chilling effect. Whether a law will cause people not to act, even if the action is legal, for fear of consequences.

It’s a cold winter in America already.

When you have to think twice before you speak up.

What’s next? What other unthinkable domino will fall?

Cut the weather people, undermine FEMA, get rid of the Department of Education…

It ain’t funny.

Good golly, Miss Molly, take a ride with Mitch!

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mitch-ryder/id1316200737?i=1000717685918

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