Post Malone is still struggling to sell tickets to his upcoming tour. The 30-year-old country music crossover artist quietly replaced Jelly Roll with BigXThaPlug for his stop in Nashville.
I would imagine the swap stems from a simple scheduling conflict or something of that nature, but it has yet to be explained.
The lack of explanation leaves room for country music conjecture. Could this singular swap eventually lead to Jelly Roll coming off of the bill all together? We’ll see. Something has to change.
Jelly Roll out, BigXThaPlug in.
Post Malone was originally set to embark on his ‘BIG ASS Stadium Tour Part 2’ on Wednesday, May 13. He was going to play El Paso, Waco, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Tampa, and Oxford in the month of May and the first weekend of June. Those shows have since been canceled.
Posty claimed the decision stemmed from his desire to finish his new album before the tour. That might be true! However, it also stemmed from a bad case of “Blue Dot Fever.” He wasn’t selling tickets.
College football and NFL stadiums all over the country sat 75% empty with just a few weeks until the first concert. A new album will presumably help to generate buzz for live shows so it was an easy excuse…
The tour will now begin in Charlotte on June 9. Posty will then make stops in Toronto, Hartford, Cleveland, Nashville, Fayetteville, Kansas City, Ames, Missoula, Edmonton and Salt Lake City before he heads out to China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea and Japan. The tour is scheduled to end in Austin on Oct. 24. We’ll see if any of these dates don’t survive.
Jelly Roll is providing direct support for all of the North America dates with Carter Faith as the opener. Except for one! Post Malone quietly swapped Jelly Roll for BigXThePlug at his Nashville stop.
He did not explain why. This is not BigXThaPlug “in addition to” Jelly Roll it is “in place of.”
Post Malone isn’t selling tickets.
If we’re being real here, the change is likely explained by a scheduling conflict or something that is not that deep. That doesn’t make it any less interesting of a case study.
Post Malone is still struggling to sell tickets. That might be understated. It’s really bad.
Here is a look at the tour opener in Charlotte on June 9:
This is Indianapolis on June 12:
Hartford might be even worse.
Cleveland is slightly better, but still not good.
You get the idea. Post Malone’s BIG ASS Stadium Tour Part 2 is in trouble. And most of the stops after the ones listed above are in even worse shape. Thousands of tickets are still available.
Perhaps Nashville will be the barometer? Maybe Nissan Stadium is the guinea pig?
I am wondering if Posty’s people are swapping Jelly Roll for BigXThaPlug to see if the latter will be an increased draw over the former, with plans to also make the switch for other dates if tickets start to sell. I only wonder this because of the lack of explanation. It would be one thing if Post Malone or Jelly Roll released a statement to apologize for the confusion. But they didn’t.
The silence leaves the door open for speculation. Is this an experiment? Probably not… but maybe?
There are going to be a large amount of middle-aged women in Tennessee who are upset by the replacement. They want to see Jelly Roll. I’ve already seen a few comments on Facebook.
However, the middle-aged women aren’t selling tickets… So I wonder if Post Malone (and his team) are trying to pivot toward a more youthful crowd to sell tickets and Nashville is the first test. #StayWoke