Oliver Anthony CANCELS Cotton Eyed Joe performance after learning Knoxville venue was charging $200 meet-and-greets and $90 for basic seats: ‘My gigs will never cost more than $25!’
Country music sensation Oliver Anthony has canceled a performance at a Knoxville venue after learning the Tennessee venue was charging fans $200 to meet him.
Anthony rose to fame after his YouTube version of The Rich Men North of Richmond went viral last month.
Since then, he has been in such demand that venues, especially in the South, are scrambling to book him.
He was scheduled to play Cotton Eyed Joe in Knoxville on September 27, but said he lost “his mistake” because of ticket prices, which were $90 for general admission and $200 for meet-and-greets.
Furious, he told fans not to buy them.
Country music sensation Oliver Anthony has canceled a performance at a Knoxville venue after fans were charged $200 to meet him
The Rich Men North of Richmond singer was due to play Cotton Eyed Joe on September 27 but said he lost ‘my s***’ over ticket prices and told fans not to buy them
Anthony said he put his friend, a full-time plumber, in charge of booking the show and agreed to do the gig without asking what the ticket prices were.
He pulled over to the side of the road when he found out how much the venue was charging to tell fans not to buy it.
“My adrenaline is pumping, I’m pissed right now,” the singer said in a video on Instagram.
“Don’t buy Cotton Eyed Joe tickets for $99 each and definitely don’t buy VIP passes for whatever damn price they are.
‘Don’t pay $100 for a ticket with horses***. If we have to cancel the venue and play somewhere else, we will.
“I didn’t agree with it and I don’t want you to, so please don’t.”
In the caption, he added that his shows should ideally never cost more than $25 and said that of the four shows he has done so far, two have been free.
Anthony later released a statement confirming that the show had now been cancelled.
“Ultimately, it is my fault for not being more directly involved with the locations that reached out,” he wrote.
‘My plate is full and I have handed over the responsibility to someone else to help me with booking. I’m not pointing fingers at Cotton Eyed Joe, I don’t know where the miscommunication occurred. I’m just angry when I see those prices.’
He added, “We will find another place in the Knoxville area that can arrange $25 tickets and free meet and greet.” I will do everything I can to get your tickets refunded from my own budget if that is not possible. This will never happen again.
‘Thanks for your patience. I’m still learning how this all works.’
He took to social media on Monday to tell his fans that the show had been canceled due to the unacceptable prices
The singer made history as the first debut artist to go straight to No. 1 on the Billboard charts with his country anthem Rich Men North of Richmond
Cotton Eyed Joe’s owner retaliated by saying ticket prices were never discussed when the contract was signed.
He felt offended by Anthony’s post.
‘We negotiated a price, but we were never told how much we should sell the tickets for. There was never any mention of charging for meet and greets,” Chuck Ward said WHAT.
‘We talked about the price. I sent him a contract. Everything was set in stone, black and white and when we put the tickets up for sale we were at 500 tickets which we sold in about four hours.”
He negotiated a deal for $120,000, including production, security, staff, hotel rooms and catering.
‘We have calculated it. We set our ticket prices so that we could break even at approximately 1,200 to 1,300 tickets,” Ward said.
“Don’t make money, take the risk of having 1,500 here. God forbid something happens. We are liable.’
He relied on bar sales to make a profit that night, but later canceled the show of his own accord.
Ward added, “He should have picked up the phone and said, ‘Hey, your prices are too expensive. Let’s renegotiate the deal where you can lower your ticket price.’
Anthony will now perform at the Knoxville Convention Center on September 29 following the ticket price dispute.
Anthony will now perform at the Knoxville Convention Center on September 29 following the ticket price dispute
The singer’s overnight success was fueled by the blue-collar ballad in which he speaks out against working “overtime for a damn wage” and calls out politicians for only caring about “minors on a island somewhere’.
Anthony’s country song comes ahead of offers from Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift
The singer’s overnight success was fueled by the blue-collar ballad in which he rails against working “overtime for terrible wages” and calls out politicians for only caring about “minors on an island somewhere’.
He recently made history as the first debut artist to go straight to No. 1 on the Billboard charts with his country song Rich Men North of Richmond.
The factory worker from Farmville, Virginia, beat the Beatles and Elvis after his self-penned song attacking politicians attracted 17.5 million streams and 147,000 downloads upon release.
His success has attracted the attention of industry figures including country producer John Rich and rapper Gucci Mane, but Anthony claims he has turned down recording contracts worth up to $8 million.
Anthony, who releases his music without the help of a record label, earns an estimated $40,000 a day.
DailyMail.com has contacted Ward and Anthony for comment.