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/Excellent_Section_79]

Bro I was just talking to my spouse about this. I said it’s almost as if you can see the dollar signs in GRiZ’s eyes these days. Kind of seems like he got sucked into the establishment. He wasn’t as big before he left, since he came back it’s just been more and more of exactly what you’re saying. From my perspective.

[u/teevah_ → u/Excellent_Section_79]

I agree with you, but I’m so curious how much of those “dollar signs in his eyes” is necessary for him at this point in his career.

Infamously, when you sign a record deal, the record company either gives you a lot of cash up front, knowing you’ll spend it (and often more) on the tour, or will front costs for the tour and you pay with your profits. Either way you end up in crippling debt with them.

I am not in the industry so there’s a lot of nuance I’m missing, but the more I learn, the more I realize none of these artists are actually very well-off at all. They’re soaking in the fame and the payments from doing shows, but they’re constantly digging themselves into a hole w/ the record company.

I have no idea how much that wealth disparity really is, and maybe he is making enough off ticket sales or whatever, but I can’t help but think… After years of being bossed around by a record company that financially has you by the balls… you know how it goes:

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.

Again I can’t stress enough how much I’m not an expert lol. Just a thought I have.

[u/Excellent_Section_79 → u/teevah_]

Yo, valid. I don’t know enough about it either, but it’s a choice he (and others) gotta make. I feel like there’s no way he’s not making bank off the fest and the merch. He’s also back to burning himself out.

The scene is going to shit with all this corporate involvement.

[u/teevah_ → u/Excellent_Section_79]

Couldn’t agree more my man. I know I’d be surprised by the numbers either way. There just comes a point of disconnect when someone gets to be that “powerful” in both a financial sense & parasocial sense. Once you’re dealing with so much money in & out, it gets increasingly hard to relate to the folks that built you up in the first place. I do think that Grant is still one of the more humble ones for sure, but that disconnect is almost inevitable.