The pandemic has disrupted the normalcy in lives of people across the whole world. It certainly has hugely affected the music industry. Many tours have been called off and the schedules have been drastically altered. Thus, the bands a suffered major blow in terms of revenue.
Recently, The Who’s Pete Townshend spoke to Rolling Stone and said that rock touring acts on the road and planning tours like Pearl Jam, Tool, Foo Fighters, and The Rolling Stones take on major financial risk in the virus age.
Pete Townshend opens up on the matter
During the interview it was noted that Elton John and the Rolling Stones were forced to create a traveling bubble. He was asked if he is taking a similar course of action. He stated that the insurers are directing them to create the bubble so they don’t have to pay out during the pandemic. Here is what he said:
“We have no choice, unfortunately. The insurers are the ones making these dictates. This is not the Rolling Stones or Elton John [making these calls]. This is the insurers. They are insisting that they won’t payout if you cancel because of Covid. That’s the first thing. And secondly, if they do payout, they only pay out 85 percent. And thirdly, they up their charges from 2.5 percent to 5 percent and now to 8 percent of the gross income on a tour. It’s absolutely brutal.”
Speaking about Pearl Jam, the band’s frontman Eddie Vedder recently revealed that Pearl Jam has already started working on their new album with producer and The Earthling member Andrew Watt. The beloved frontman has already had a busy 2022 as Vedder has released a brand new solo album entitled ‘Earthling’ which was just released and hit shelves on February 11, 2022. Earthling is Vedder’s third solo record and his latest since 2011’s Ukulele Songs
