Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher talks challenges of touring since Covid: “the band is the last person to get paid”

Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher recently appeared on The Break Down With Nath & Johnny, where he discussed at length the challenges of touring since the pandemic upended the live music industry. Artists like Santigold, Anthrax, Metronomy, and Animal Collective have had to cancel and postpone tours in recent years, and Mastodon, Kelliher says, also had to pass on multiple European tours because they wouldn’t have been financially viable – “we were gonna basically break even,” he told The Break Down With Nath & Johnny, as transcribed by Metal Injection.

“On one hand,” Kelliher continued, “we have the biggest production we’ve ever had in our careers, which is great. But trying to pull that off in Europe is much harder. First of all, gas is way more expensive. The lorries, the trucks, they’re smaller, so we’d have to get a few more trucks, double the amount of trucks we have over here. And the drivers are hard to find.”

“Brexit happening,” he added, “where… Usually we rent from the U.K., and the drivers, there were a lot of times we could find the vehicles, but we didn’t have drivers, or vice versa — lots of drivers, but no vehicles. ‘Cause everybody’s back on tour trying to make up that lost money during COVID, and it’s still happening.”

Kelliher called this year’s North American tour with Lamb of God a “huge success” but said that trying to bring the same level of production to Europe wasn’t possible, financially. “We can’t have the huge production that we have in the States, go over to Europe, and not do the same thing,” he said. “If you go over there with a backdrop, you could make some money, but if you bring lasers, a video wall, all your crew and techs, the fire, and all this, you can’t do that. And the crowds are gonna be, like, ‘Oh, what the fuck? Why don’t you have that here?’ And they’re not gonna comprehend what I just told you… We can’t go to Europe for a month and not make any money, just to play shows. Everyone else gets paid. The band is the last person to get paid.”

Kelliher also discussed dealing with venues wanting to take a cut of their merch profits, saying, “It’s pretty standard. We’ve been fighting it for years. In the contracts, we’d cross that part out. Like, ‘No, we’re not gonna do that. Why should we do that?’ We have a merch company. We have a merch person that comes on the road with us. They’re an extra body. They fly where we fly, we pay their ticket, they stay in hotels, they’re an extra body, they get a per diem. You go to the venue that day, and the venue says, ‘No, we have our own people that [sell the merchandise].’ And we’re, like, ‘Hey, we have our own credit card machine.’ They’re, like, ‘Nope. You’re gonna use ours, and we’re gonna charge you to use it.’ So it’s, like, you’re just getting fucked everywhere.”

Watch the interview in full below.

Mastodon have shows in Australia in December, followed by festival dates in 2025, including Sonic Temple, Sick New World, and Tool’s new destination fest Live in the Sand. See all dates below.

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MASTODON: 2024-2025 TOUR DATES
Dec 03 Roundhouse Sydney, NSW, Australia *
Dec 04 Northcote Theatre Northcote, VIC, Australia *
Dec 06 Good Things Festival 2024 Flemington, VIC, Australia
Dec 07 Good Things Festival 2024 Sydney, NSW, Australia
Dec 08 Good Things Festival 2024 Fortitude Valley, QLD, Australia
Dec 28 The Venue at Horseshoe Casino Hammond, IN, US
Mar 07 – Mar 09 Tool in The Sand 2025 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Apr 12 Sick New World 2025 Las Vegas, NV, US
May 08 – May 11 Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival 2025 Columbus, OH, US
Jul 30 – Aug 03 Rockstadt Extreme Fest 2025 Râșnov, Romania
Aug 07 – Aug 10 Bloodstock Open Air 2025 Walton-on-trent, UK

* with Kerry King