Leaving Money On The Table

Music Row in 2020 is a confusing place. The Music Row I’ve watched the last 40 years always seemed hungry and ready to make a buck. Getting into the merchandise selling business was just one place where Garth Brooks and Brooks &Dunn showed the rest how much money they were leaving on the table.

The new frontier is a retread of the past ... the drive-in! Go research everything about Alan Jackson’s sold out, oversold, overflowing show in Fairhope, AL on June 13th.

It sounded kind of desperate. The day before the show it was an empty pasture with some football lime markings for the soon to be car paths. Twenty-four hours later the pasture was full with thousands of entertainment-starved people. You have got to find the pictures.

There were 2,300 cars (and over 2,000 at his drive-in show the previous night in Cullman, AL) and more than 12,000 folks between the two shows. There were lines for the merchandise and lines for the bathroom. It was $99 a ticket, with some costing more and a few less.

It’s not the box office Alan might have gotten a few years ago, but it was way into the six figures. It was not perfect, and some tweaking will be needed, but the basic idea seems sound.

Not every town sells concert tickets. Some towns like Fairhope don’t ever have AJ-level concerts. This one was the right time, right place. The weather almost screwed things up, but that is always the wild card.

Garth Brooks is going to use actual drive-ins for his June 27th show. Luke Bryan did those Farm Tour shows for 11 years, so there is a blueprint for these things. Are all the acts so rich and sophisticated that no one is trying to find another way than the old, “can’t do right now” way?

This year has shown everyone that everything is not same. Who knows when it will be. With that said, I drove down Nashville’s Broadway in front of Kid Rock’s bar. In front, there were people in a tractor all jammed in together. I also saw thousands in Destin, FL jammed together last weekend. For some it is the same old way. But better back the game with new ideas.

The right car or truck sure beats standing in a line. Drunks aren’t spilling stuff on your shoe and some dude isn’t blocking your vision shooting the concert with an iPad.

It’s got to work financially but all those people in Fairhope sure looked like money in the bank!

You stars need to demand more from your agents finding you work. Or maybe the stars are too wealthy. Either way, there is money ready for the right entertainers doing something fun and safe.

Alan Jackson singing real Country under the stars, then back to reality: social unrest, political correctness, hurt feelings and the mysterious Coronavirus. We need an escape now more than ever. Country music is alive and well. A few creative minds need to be ready to work hard and be the feel-good potion for 2020.

Summer starts this weekend … someone save it!