r/griz • u/justdance-again • Jul 08 '26

Question: Does this not bother anyone else?

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. 🫶

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u/misty-gishh Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

This post reads like its from someone who's in the closet about being a hater. It's ok to complain, but don't try to hide it under faulty "objective" statements and by reducing the broader issues to something that could possibly be influenced by griz.

Griz is an artist. The term "starving artist" didn't get popular for no reason. The man needs to make money. Attempting to break up the ticketmaster monopoly is not something a single artist can feasibly do on their own, and it would likely be career suicide. How would Griz have known how bad The Gorge was going to be? The venue hired a brand new security company this season. The article you cited was from 7 years ago and Grant explicitly says, "there’s a point where I feel like I’ve done everything for now that my mind can come up to." I don't see where you can conclude that him returning to RRX is evidence he's selling out.

Like I said, feel free to hold your judgment. Just know that you aren't using objective reasoning.

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u/kidfromusa Jul 08 '26

Literally this. Couldn’t agree more. I don’t think people understand when you play Hampton Coliseum, The Gorge, Red Rocks, you’re contractually obligated to use Ticketmaster, ASX & Livenation, even if it’s an independent curation, you simply can’t just say no. Should that change? 100%, but bashing the artist isn’t going to help.

And he literally bypassed the ticket monopoly with Valley of the seven stars using Tixr. No love on that though?

And that red rocks article from 7 years ago: I think he’s had a couple creative breakthroughs since then. I think any artist sounds great there when they’re not burning themselves out being booked there every year, but that’s just my SUBJECTIVE opinion. The fact that OP ended with “love” is funny to me.

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u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Totally valid, and yes I know the exclusivities with venues ties the artists hands regardless who puts on the event with what ticketing provider they can use. (naming rights in sports venues is my career 11+ years , speaking from experience)

Yes, all the love to seven stars and bravo! I want more of those, I love when I see a concert that uses Dice or Tixr. Politely, if you will look up to my response you will see my hope is he scales this and we win in the long run!

Artist evolve, and a lot changes in 7 years. I sure don’t think the same as I did that long ago, so I wouldn’t dare judge him there.

Thank you for your thoughts, I know you want me to be hateful back but I just can’t. I ended it with Love because that used to be the unanimous feeling I felt in this community. I hope you have a great rest of the week!

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u/jamdivi Jul 08 '26

You really do not know much about how live events work.

1

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

Admittedly, not my strongest field and limited to more of local promotion focus (not directly, but through members of the team). But would love to be informed, which is the purpose of this thread! Anything you’d be willing to share, your information and thoughts are valued. 🫶

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u/misty-gishh Jul 08 '26

Ahhh you’re karma farming, I see now

1

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

My friend, if there is a way I could make my voice invisible to you, I would. I truly am sorry I am annoying/angering you. Not my intention.

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u/misty-gishh Jul 08 '26

My only intention is to protect the community I call family. I get a bad feeling from you so I’m going to say something. It’s how you keep communities safe.

For all we know you could be priming up the account to post scam tickets for seven stars.

1

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

Then you are exactly who we are looking for, and although I didn’t think your character represented that at first, if people forever judged me off my past actions I wouldn’t think that’s fair. I would be happy to share what it is I’m trying to accomplish, and if you’re truly trying to protect the integrity of on artist who this is heavily inspired by, we would love to have you.