Three Stadium Weekend

The Country music tour machine is running full blast this weekend ... It's rather impressive to see Kenny Chesney at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Jason Aldean at the Atlanta Braves stadium and Luke Bryan at Target Field in Minneapolis. And Nashville-based Taylor Swift playing three back-to-back nights at MetLife Stadium across the river from the Big Apple. Close to 30 million overall. From those shows? To say the least, the money water faucet on Music Row is turned up pretty high.

If you did a head count this weekend on Lower Broadway at those Country-themed honky-tonks, added the various other tours in major markets, it is very impressive.

Country Thunder in Wisconsin and Jamboree in the Hills in Ohio are providing multiple nights of work; and Sugarland is playing Sugarland, TX 7/21. The album sales may be weak, but the concert ticket business is huge.

Did everyone see the Forbes 100 highest-paid entertainers list? I personally don't believe all those figures but if they are close to being right, $50-plus million for Luke Bryan is a lot of money for a year.

One the radio people guessed and Blake usually came up as the predicted highest paid. He can't work many dates due to The Voice, but the Voice is a many-million-a-season gig.

Forbes listing Garth and Kenny in the top 100 should surprise no one. Booze is sure making a contribution to the bank accounts of many Country stars. Kenny's Blue Chair Rum might be doing really well.

Booze and touring is where the money seems to be. Taylor Swift is only at #21. Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern make more.

Loretta Lynn shot a music video this week at her Hurricane Mills Tennessee estate ... 86 years old and doing a music video. Is she something or what?

It is a hot and humid Summer in the Southern part of the U.S.A. The crews working those huge shows are really earning their money. The "glamorous" business of touring that features 20-hour days at times is hard work. Job shadowing would be like Marine boot camp for most.

Even if you go on the road with one of the big shows, it remains crazy how they tear it down and put it up again every day... So many trucks, boxes and things that break or just crap out.

A huge salute to the unsung heroes of Nashville's music business ... the drivers, the crews and all the behind-the-scenes folks making those stadium box office figures shine. Behind every millionaire, a whole bunch of thousandaires.

Who said the circus wasn't running anymore....circus is there just the elephants and tigers are gone. Willie is off this weekend..but he will be back on stage next weekend... Country music has a very deep bench!