Impact 50: Irving Azoff on Weathering The Storm

IA: It was shaping up as the biggest year of our history, by far. Harry (Styles), Eagles, everybody was working, tickets were sold. I always tell the acts at that point, “my work’s done, my vacation is coming out on the road and enjoying.” Our work was done for the year, we were all sold out and ready to go. Then the shit hit the fan. It was going to be our best year, and now it’s a disaster, just like everybody else.

We’re doing everything from trying to put out records to making videos — with restrictions – to trying to record in recording studios for the ones not recording at home — with restrictions; we’re trying to be responsible. We did the New Jersey telethon [Jersey 4 Jersey], we have a lot of acts doing that type of stuff. We’ve been busy moving all the tours, some are cancelling, some are postponing, so you’re fighting for dates next year – and we don’t even know if we’re going to be able to play next year. I laugh and say, “I’m not very good at setting and routing tours, I need a lot of practice,” so we’re re-routing tours and all that stuff. 

We’ve been saying that no industry has been harder hit than has the live entertainment industry, is there recognition of that at the Federal level, in your opinion, as compared to relief for the airlines, hotels, and other industries? 

You guys reported that the British government just came up with 1.5 billion pounds specifically earmarked for live, the arts, and here we got a little bit of PPP money for some crews. We got nothing. They don’t care about the arts here, they don’t care about us. 

I tell everybody, first, no matter how old you are, this virus is still too wild and unpredictable, and if you’re gonna get it, you don’t want to get it now, you want to get it later. Do what you can to follow the rules and keep your family and everybody safe. Second, be as generous as you can to your employees and your crews and your people, and if you’re really in trouble, let us know and we’ll try to figure out a way to help you.

I will say I was disappointed to see the big layoffs at AEG, which I think go a lot deeper. The owner of that company (Philip Anschutz) is one of the richest men in the world, what’s he saving, $10-$20 million by laying off all these people? In the big picture, I didn’t understand that. 

I’m not a principal, I’m an advisor, there’s four of us old guy advisors, and it will be public here pretty quickly what their plans are. If they need some advice they call and ask for it, but I know that it’s going to emerge soon. I’m absolutely supportive of their efforts. Everybody’s got to step up, whether you’re a streaming service or a record label, you gotta step up.

That show was from what I call the first tour with the new configuration, with Deacon [Frey] and Vince [Gill]. We shot the three nights at the Forum (Sept. 12, 14, 15, 2018) and, as you can tell, it’s high-quality, hi-def, 14 4k cameras, the whole thing, and we did our best. We’ve been sitting on it, wanting to do something rather than just give it to a streaming service that wanted to own it into perpetuity, and if you do the research, live stuff doesn’t do that well anyway. So, because our fans are a little old-school anyway, we thought we’d do the traditional route, we made a deal with Rhino, our longtime home, for a DVD and audio version of it, and we’re taking pre-orders. We had to reschedule the Eagles [2020] tour for 2021 (begins Sept. 16 in Denver), and hopefully we’ll add more. People hadn’t had any live music for three months, and we were all sitting around watching ESPN on Sunday nights, we all thought it was cool as hell. We watched “The Last Dance” and then the two weeks of “30 For 30” for Lance Armstrong, and then they had Sosa-McGwire running. So we thought, it’s the Forum, it’s the Eagles, wouldn’t it be cool to be on ESPN? 

So, just on a lark, Karim [Karmi] in my office called up his buddies at ESPN and said, ‘Hey, here’s an off the wall idea,” and they went crazy, we went crazy. Then [ESPN announcer] Chris Berman, who’s a longtime friend of Glenn [Frey] and Joe [Walsh] and the band’s, got involved, it happened very quickly, and it was wildly successful. We sold a whole boatload of tickets to the rescheduled dates, we took a boatload of orders [for the Rhino set], and a lot of people got to see it. It excited us, we had a blast. It just seemed natural to us, and we’re thrilled that the guys at ESPN agreed with us. We were trying to give everybody a Sunday night of touring when they’re stuck at home.

As a realist, look, certainly for the people we represent and our tours, the economics don’t make any sense to go back partially. I read about treatments and vaccines every day, just like everybody else, and I’m hating the spike we’re going through now. This year’s gone. I personally would be very happy to get people back on the road by next summer, and if they’re not on the road by next fall, that’s a disaster, obviously. It’s a disaster either way. I don’t think we’re looking at anything before next summer. It all depends on vaccines and treatment how quickly we get back, and how much long term damage have we really done to the economy. 

And, by the way, the hardship of having to wait until summer is ridiculous, but we’re in jeopardy of losing the summer.

Yeah. I see nothing to convince me that a return the summer of 2021 is good. 

And that’s the right attitude, Ray, that’s what we all gotta do.

There’s not going to be lower capacities for my acts, we’ll stay home. We’re not reducing any capacities.  We’ll stay home until we can reopen. And, by the way, we’re not really good guinea pigs. I don’t want to subject bands to that [risk], we need to know it’s safe. We have to protect the fans and the acts.

We’re not a group of people that gives up. Certainly, in our lives, we haven’t seen something like this, but history shows things will get back to normal at some point. We just have to be prepared to weather the storm until that happens.

This breakout feature is part of Pollstar’s 2020 Impact 50 honoring the executives most impacting the live entertainment industry today.