Dave Mustaine: Complaining About Ticket Prices is “Unfair” Because Touring is Just Expensive
For roughly four decades, Dave Mustaine has been part of a major touring thrash metal band, so the dude’s put some significant miles down over the years. To say he knows a thing or two about how touring used to be versus how it is today would be an understatement. So given today’s rising costs for fucking everything under the sun — especially when it comes to tours — he thinks you should just accept that ticket prices are going to go up.
During a recent interview with The SDR Show, Mustaine laid it all out, stating that as consumers, fans have to realize that the band also has to make money on tour. And when you consider that he admitted that even off days on tour cost Megadeth roughly $50,000, that all has to come from somewhere — hence, raising ticket prices.
“What happens is — you have each individual, and whether they’re working or not working, they get paid on a per-day basis… So you have whoever is out on the road.”
“For us, it’s a lot of people we have a light man, a sound man, a monitor man. And then you go on to the deck. We’ve got a bunch of people up there. You’ve got a drum tech, guitar tech, and bass and guitar tech, another monitor guy.”
“And then, there’s people backstage, there’s the drivers, the bus drivers, the truck drivers, the caterers, all that stuff. And then there’s all the hotels, all the money to get the hotel rooms for all these people. And then you got to feed them.
“So the cost just keeps going up and up and up. And a lot of people look at the ticket price, and they think, ‘Man, I’m not paying 75 bucks to go see these guys.’ And it’s unfair to say that.”
“Even if you had a choice in the matter, it’s kind of what it is nowadays if you want to go see a live band. Because you just can’t get from point A to point B anymore without spending a lot of money.”
We’ve seen plenty instances of the financial reality of touring force bands to cancel their plans or end up losing money in the long run, which sucks in both scenarios. That $50,000 per off day figure is just an estimate for one of the bigger legacy bands out there. Imagine that kind of cost proportionately brought to smaller, younger bands that may not be drawing as many fans as Megadeth.
As it stands, Megadeth already have some tour dates lined up for 2024, so if you want to spend a little extra and catch ’em live, you can do so at any of the dates listed below.
Crush The World Tour 2024
Sat April 6 Lima, Peru Arena 1 [Tickets]
Tu April 9 Santiago, Chile Movistar Arena [Tickets]
Thu April 11 Montevideo, Uruguay Arena Antel [Tickets]
Sat April 13 Buenos Aires, Argentina Movistar Arena [Tickets]
Tue April 16 Asuncion, Paraguay Jockey Club [Tickets]
Thu April 18 São Paulo, Brazil Espaco Unimed [Tickets]
Sun April 21 Bogota, Colombia Movistar Arena [Tickets]
Tue April 23 San Salvador, El Salvador Complejo Cuscatlan [Tickets]
Thu April 25 Ciudad de México, México Arena Ciudad de México [Tickets]
Sat April 27 Monterrey, México Arena Monterrey [Tickets]
