The eminent singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen has spoken out in response to recent criticism of his upcoming tour. The musician previously faced backlash after ticket prices for the tour were announced, with prices sometimes ranging as high as $5,000, which many regarded as an absurdly high asking price for a concert.

Previously, Ticketmaster, the website responsible for determining ticket prices for the tour, offered their own response, emphasizing the fact that ticket prices ranging in the thousands were a minority of tickets sold, consisting primarily of Platinum tickets. Most tickets, they argued, ranged from prices between $50 and $400 before added service fees. Ticketmaster is known for their method of automatically pricing tickets in response to their demand, meaning that every price is set in response to how much people will be willing to pay for each unit.

Now, Bruce Springsteen took to an interview with Rolling Stone to make similar points. Consequence of Sound quotes the musician stating that: “What I do is a very simple thing. I tell my guys, ‘Go out and see what everybody else is doing. Let’s charge a little less.’ That’s generally the directions. They go out and set it it out. For the past 49 years or however long we’ve been playing, we’ve pretty much been out there under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans.”

Springsteen explains that, in this tour, he decided to sell tickets at market value: “This time I told them, ‘Hey, we’re 73 years old. The guys are there. I want to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.’ So that’s what happened. That’s what they did.”

The musician goes on to argue that the ” bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable. They’re in that affordable range. We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway. The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money. I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’”

He goes on to note that anyone who is upset is free to get a refund: “It created an opportunity for that to occur. And so at that point, we went for it. I know it was unpopular with some fans. But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.”

Bruce Springsteen’s tour with the E Street Band is set to kick off in Spring 2023 with a show on April 5. On November 11, Springsteen released his 21st studio album, Only The Strong Survive.