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Neil Young On Ticketmaster Fee Controversies: ‘The Old Days Are Gone’

Musician was responding to furor over the Cure's tour on-sale last week
Neil Young
(Credit: Gus Stewart / Contributor)

With Ticketmaster taking another round of public beating over issues involving the Cure’s North American tour on-sale last week, Neil Young has weighed in on the controversy in a post on his Neil Young Archives site.

Young wrote, “TICKETMASTER FEES at 30%. It’s over. The old days are gone. I get letters blaming me for $3,000.00 tickets for a benefit I am doing. That money does not go to me or the benefit. Artists have to worry about ripped off fans blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers. CONCERT TOURS are no longer fun. CONCERT TOURS not what they were. -ny”

The post then included the text of an article about the Cure on-sales, during which fans were shocked to find that Ticketmaster fees were in some cases as much or more than the cost of a single ticket.

In recent months, Young has hinted he will no longer tour, although he attributed the decision largely to the COVID-19 pandemic rather than Ticketmaster. He returned to the stage last month to play two songs at a British Columbia rally for the United for Old Growth forest protection movement, and will also perform at the Light Up the Blues benefit (hosted by longtime bandmate Stephen Stills) on April 22 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. A week later, Young will take part in Willie Nelson‘s 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl over the weekend of April 29-30.

Young and the current members of Crazy Horse will release All Roads Lead Home under the moniker Molina, Talbot, Lofgren & Young on March 31 through NYA Records/Reprise, and on April 14, Young will mine his archives for forth High Flyin’, chronicling a 1977 run of shows with short-lived band the Ducks, and Somewhere Under the Rainbow, taped live at the Rainbow Theater in London on Nov. 5, 1973.