According to blabbermouth.net, during an interview withThe Jeremy White Show, Megadeth‘s Dave Mustaine discussed the realities of post-pandemic touring, which includes increased travel expenses for gas, tour buses, hotels and flight costs.
Also the host asked Mustaine how much more expensive it is for Megadeth to be touring these days.
“Oh, it’s pretty expensive. I think it’s about 45 thousand dollars a day for us just to sit still. I think — it might be 52. But that’s just sitting still; that’s not doing a show. Show days are more expensive… [That’s] salaries, hotel rooms, insurance — everything. The buses, the bus drivers, the trucks, the truck drivers. Yeah, a lot of stuff.”
During the interview Mustaine also touched on Avenged Sevenfold‘s M. Shadows’s comments about how the busing on the band’s upcoming tour will cost two million dollars more than it did prior to the pandemic.
“I think that might be ’cause his band takes out more buses. For example, we take two. I’m sure that they probably take more than that. And I think because they’re so successful that there could be — I’m not saying this — but there could be certain people that would be more willing to give them an incentive to use their company because of what great promotion it would be to have those guys using a bus company.”
Mustaine adds: “If I had a brand new bus and I wanted to get popular, bands like Avenged would be a great band for promoting your company. So you would think charging these guys two million bucks, man, they would either have to have a lot of buses or he’s talking about a long time. Buses are generally between five to 10 thousand dollars a week. Cause that includes fuel and the driver and his hotel. Sometimes you have to do double drives in Europe; you have to do that.”
Financial issues are continuing to wreak havoc on the touring industry, with the economics of the business simply not adding up. Acts of all sizes are canceling or postponing shows, with several claiming that it was “not sustainable” for them to go ahead with the tours. For many midsized acts, ticket sales are not even enough to cover their overheads.
Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado
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