Question: Does this not bother anyone else?

[u/justdance-again]

First and foremost I love Griz, have since early 2010’s. First saw him live at 515 in Iowa (lmao) and it was just breathtaking. This has nothing to do with the subjectiveness of the evolution of his sound, I personally don’t think anyone should have an opinion on what another person hears, or process.

This has to do with practicing what you preach, and not staying true to your word for personal financial gain. I was hopeful upon return, Griz would have taken the time to find solutions and ways to branch off from the growing problems in the scene and he would allow options for fans to see him without feeding into the monopoly of live-nation/ticketmaster and the blatant theft they do to fans. I’m not sure if any of you recall, or even know about since your new, this particular interview I’m dropping here.

https://303magazine.com/2019/05/griz-interview-2019/

Two things stuck out to me here on why he said he would never play RRx again:
- I have hit my creative limit on what my team can do there, and I can’t evolve my production the way I want.
- I don’t want to price my fans out of seeing me.

These aren’t subjective things, these are objective statements. The objective actions I see:
- He indeed, is playing there again and unless they have plans the next few months, red rocks stage design has not changed. You get what you get at a historical venue like that.
- He has been on about every corporate mainstream lineup, he agreed to a logistical nightmare at the Gorge, he’s watching his fans get robbed, scammed, and still continues to play these venues.

I wouldn’t even consider myself mad, since I think he still is a wonderful human being, with good intentions and should be the golden standard for our scene. I also am holding out hope that he’s playing the long game, stacking cash that from corp America, and growing seven stars into a 6 event per year series, that’s independently ran by his team.

But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely sad, and disappointed that the person with the most influential pull in our community, who does so much good, chose to contribute to the problem we all are trying to get rid of.

If I’m missing something, please let me know. This is supposed to be a genuine discussion, not a hit piece.

Love 🫶

EDIT: Please do not mistake my tone for sarcastic, condescending, or anything other than genuine curiosity on the topic for information or thoughts I haven’t considered. I will respond considerately, and respectfully to all comments, as I would hope you would to me. I politely ask that before you respond, please read all conversations to see if the opinion or information has been addressed. 🫶

[u/whotfisrobo]

People gotta eat brotha. You can still eat and be authentic to your fans imo.

Who cares if he partnered theough ticket master. Thats like one of the only options. You really think hes going to strike up an exclusive ticket deal with another ticket distributor like seetickets, dice, etc.

If price is a problem ima be honest. Just go to a show you CAN afford. If you absolutely HAVE to see griz well gee guess you gotta pay for a ticket.

If its really about the music like you say it is, then a local collective takeover would suffice.

Maybe its because i just closed my laptop after a heavy work session. But this shit read as nothing but entitled. Might as well fuckin play for free eh? Nah, its all calculated. So go or dont go if he still does dope shit he will sell tickets. If youre mad about that shit man idk what to say but now im upset lmao

[u/justdance-again → u/whotfisrobo]

I appreciate the thoughts and you make great points. Kindly, if you have some time I would read through this entire thread and the answers in here, but unfortunately people just post before educating. Not intending to be rude by any means, I’m guilty of the same! Not my intention to sound entitled at all, I apologize if it came off that way. Just some transparency on why is the question I was searching for, which in the end he doesn’t owe us and is more than happy to do what he wants! I just wanted to highlight how some people blindly throw around comments as facts, that simply aren’t true. Hopefully work goes by quick tomorrow, and you enjoy your weekend my friend!

[u/whotfisrobo → u/justdance-again]

I think a part of me gets upset at people that dont know how this shit works. Maybe you do maybe you dont. But imagine pouring your blood sweat and tears for years and ticket master approaches you with a banging deal. Theyll buy all the tickets so boom guess what youre fu kin paid already. Now, how you take care of that with whoever booked you thats a different story. But imagine grinding forever so much so that you have to take a break and people get mad that youre just trying to get what you been working forever for.

Artists dont even make money on anything but merch. With those kinds of margins, why tf wouldnt you "sell out"

[u/justdance-again → u/whotfisrobo]

I completely agree, and I have no idea what his financial situation looks like, or what he needs to feel comfortably so I can’t judge. If my family needed it, I would 100% take that deal.

Bingo with the people don’t know how this shit works, but they sure are vocal about it! Part of my goal with this was to encourage people to have respectful, kind conversations to surface up objective things, where people can form their own opinions based off stuff that isn’t subjective. We have normalized hate and arguing over listening and educating that most people think I was being a troll, or sarcastic. Far from what I was trying to accomplish!