If You Can Fly On An Airline

Tom Cruise went to a movie theatre in London this week. Thousands took commercial aviation flights all over the world. Private schools in Nashville are full speed ahead like any other “normal” year. But it is not any other normal year.

The business has somewhat adapted to the Zoom songwriting session, promo press tour and Zoom in late night show TV appearance.

Meanwhile, a vehicle parade is happening soon in downtown Nashville to get attention for the live event workers. They need more unemployment assistance. The “Keep The Show Rolling” caravan hopes to push politicians to move on this.

There is no question that the entertainment industry has been slammed especially hard by the virus, but is everything being done to get the customers back in the store? Is everything being done to keep the show rolling?

A public health emergency exists, but society is rolling along on some level. It is functioning with social distancing, masks, temperature checks and, soon, rapid testing. Five minute results at approximately $5 a pop.

With all that strictly enforced is the big worry getting sued? What is the problem?

The Opry? The upcoming award shows? Playing to dead space with no live audience? If you were strict like the SEC Football schools are going to be, could you not fill these rooms with 25% capacity? For network budget award shows, could you not get a group to be a select audience, tested and cleared in advance?

The Country Music Hall of Fame is reopening. That’s positive forward movement. So what is holding back everything else? The virtual has gotten too easy, hasn’t it? Getting a safe audience would be a pain in the a**.

Kelly Clarkson is doing some kind of virtual audience for her talk show. There has to be a way to overcome these empty rooms. It’s dull, boring and lifeless for a performer to get no reaction to what they do.

How can all these people fly in a metal American Airlines or Southwest tin can every day at 30,000 feet? Thousands protest in the streets. There are so many exceptions to the lockdown rules. The MTV Music Awards performers didn’t even have to obey NYC quarantine rules.

Exceptions. There has to be a way somewhere between a packed stadium (that would seem insane) and playing to an empty theater.

This is how it’s going to be until next spring or summer? Staying home and playing with the kids is great, but daddy and mommy need to get back to work!

Jason Aldean, Corona Beer and Live Nation doing a live Twitter concert Friday night (8/28). Are people that excited at this point to see a concert on their phone? Maybe. It’s better than nothing.

The drive-in shows just can’t make the gross that makes them attractive. The ones at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium recently worked well, but no one seems to be excited enough about playing to cars to keep doing them. There has to be a way to bring the energy back to music.

People must be safe. Live music must be compelling. School teaching on Zoom is sterile. I know, I’m doing it. We’re staying safe as much as we can be. Spreading disease is not cool. Expecting to self-police seems unrealistic. We invented flight, the atom bomb and Pepsi. There has to be a way to do live music safely.

The goal is to be safe and make money. There has to be a way.

Summer is almost over. One size does not seem to fit all. Moving 18-wheelers filled with gear and safely setting things up may be impossible right now. Renting out empty tour buses to rich fans is thinking outside the box, but also an act of desperation.

Look at 2021’s calendar. Really? All these tours going out and, boom, it’s just like this never happened? What if the summer of 2021 looks like it does right now? That is possible. Meanwhile Broadway must figure out how to come back, and the same goes for live music events.

When will we feel comfortable in a theatre with people sneezing and coughing? No time soon for many.

Please, smart, crafty, Ivy League people, solve the puzzle! Live music must find a way to unpark the trucks and get fans in the seats and stars on the stage. Zooming is not living!