Highlights From Live Nation’s National Concert Week Kickoff

Celebrating summer concerts on a wide basis, Live Nation’s National Concert Week gives fans around the United States the chance get low-cost tickets to major events. Among the 1.5 million tickets available at $20 all-in are shows by the likes of Kevin Hart, The Offspring, Collective Soul, Evanescence, Styx, Counting Crows, Stone Temple Pilots, Paramore, Pentatonix, Poison, Taking Back Sunday, The Cult, 311, LIVE, Zac Brown Band, 3 Doors Down, Collective Soul, O.A.R., and Coheed & Cambria. No matter the genre, you have the opportunity to get these discounted tickets through May 8th.

Live Nation hosted an event at its New York City headquarters last week, which I had the pleasure of attending. Below are some of the highlights from the interviews I conducted with members of various bands in attendance. More on National Concert Week can be found at https://ncw.livenation.com.

What do you remember about the first time you ever played live in New York?

John Driskell Hopkins, Zac Brown Band: It was CBGB’s Gallery for my first time, in the 1990s. We were terrified and excited at the same time. With Zac Brown Band, it was a whole different experience. The first time we played in New York with the Zac Brown Band was on the Rock Bus tour in 2006. We got stuck in Greenwich Village trying to get in and out of where we were playing and we ended up rolling our cases down the street… We got the real New York experience very early on. (laughs) It was thrilling and it was just incredibly hot. There was no air conditioning going on and we were all having a great time having heat stroke at the same time.

Styx has been playing an average of more than 100 concerts per year since 1999. When did you realize that Styx’s success was going to be based on touring and not making albums?

James “JY” Young, Styx: We put out an album of brand new material in 2003. We had done one in 1999 that went nowhere. We had a major label behind the one in 2003 and that went nowhere. The impossibility of getting airplay on the new music… Classic rock radio is basically programmed to play oldies for guys like me. The research shows that a man somewhere between your age and mine, when he hears a song on classic rock radio that he doesn’t know, he’ll either go to the sports station or the news station. That’s what I do. But new music is hard to get played, and the Internet has saved us. It killed the physical business, there’s a lot of great men and women that were part of the physical business that are out of a job. Some A&R guys that turned down my solo material, they’re out of a job, deservingly so. (laughs)

Lawrence Gowan, Styx: There is a paradox with classic rock radio. When we put the new album out last year, we found that all these classic rock radio stations have websites, and they were very enthusiastic to play the video content that came out with the new record. They were very supportive of the fact that we have new music. At the end of last year, there was a magazine where amongst the classic rock fans, it was voted the #1 new classic rock album to come out. We still have faith in classic rock radio, we just have to wait until this album is 25 years old. (laughs) It’ll start getting incredibly-high rotation.

Has been in a Broadway production been everything that you have hoped for?

Kirstin Maldonado, Pentatonix: I’ve loved it. That’s why I started loving music in the first place, I was a musical theater major. That’s what I wanted to do. This show was so amazing, I was really glad to be part of it, just purely because of the message. It’s really important to the fans. The fans that we have too, they’re like, “Thank you for being part of a show that means so, so much.” The message of it is so relevant and continues to be relevant. My character’s really goofy and quirky, so I can go up there and be goofy and it’s been a blast.

Howard Stern was talking about his admiration for you and the song “Heavy” on-air a few weeks ago. Did that feedback get back to you?

Ed Roland, Collective Soul: It did. It’s funny, Howard and I met in a bathroom. I was like, “dude, I’m Ed from Collective Soul.” He introduced himself and he’s like, “Forgive me, but we’re not going to shake hands right now.” (laughs) It’s the most awesome introduction I’ve ever had. I love Howard and I love his free spirit. He’s been a champion of that and he’s been a champion of us.

Do you missing playing drums in concert?

Brad Arnold, 3 Doors Down: I do sometimes. I used to be the drummer when we were a local band. Every now and then we’ll bring out a drum kit and do a double drum solo. Even to just play for a minute is fun. Several years ago, we were coming up to play Fox & Friends and it was Chris, Todd and I, and our other two guys were coming in a couple days later, but their flight got cancelled. We were at dinner the night before and it was like, “I don’t think those guys are gonna make it,” because it was weather-related. I was thinking all big and bad, and I said, “Well, I’ll play.” I hadn’t played the drums in seven or eight years, and there I was playing the drums on national TV. It went off without a hitch.

“Just Like Paradise” is the name of your recent hit song. Was there any influence from David Lee Roth?

Marc Roberge, O.A.R.: “Just Like Paradise” literally had nothing to do with David Lee Roth, and after we released it, I got so many questions on the Internet about it. It made go back and listen it, I probably hadn’t heard it in 20 years. So no, it had nothing to do with it.

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Tags: 3 Doors Down, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, Live Nation, O.A.R., Pentatonix, Styx, Zac Brown Band

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."