Kid Rock is getting ready to hit the road for his First Kiss Tour, which begins on June 24th in Connecticut. Foreigner will join the 36-date tour, which will do six shows in Rock’s hometown of Detroit. Tickets for the tour will go on sale February 24th, which is the day the First Kiss album will be released. Fans of the rocker can purchase pre-sale tickets beginning tomorrow. Just like his 2013 Best Night Ever tour, tickets will cost twenty dollars. The tour will also have reduced prices for venue parking, concession, and merchandise. Walmart is selling twenty dollar all-inclusive tickets that will include parking, as well as a two dollar coupon towards the First Kiss album purchase. The rocker is also reserving the first rows of the venues, and he will award the seats to fans as upgrades at the shows.
Rock spoke to Billboard about his upcoming First Kiss Tour. “I’m so happy about the twenty dollar thing. I’ve said before, I feel like I’ll be able to ride this into the sunset. I really do,” the rocker told Billboard. He added, We’ve even learned much more from being the guinea pig to do it the first time. We thought about raising the ticket price five bucks, and then we’re like, ‘let’s just keep it twenty.'” Rock also came up with ways to make his concert experience more efficient for his fans, which is why he reduced parking, concession, and merchandise prices.
Rock was able to cut down on his tour prices by partnering with Live Nation, for which the two entities will split the receipts from the shows. “It’s still nuts to me that nobody else has done this. Not just twenty dollar [tickets] but [no one] has used the business model of showing up without a guaranteed amount of money and sharing the concessions and merchandise, and really putting the weight on your back and passing the savings onto the fans,” Rock told Billboard.
Rock did say it’s scary to take a gamble like this because if no one comes to the shows, then the whole tour would have to shut down. However, Rock said there is a tremendous upside if a lot of people come to the shows. Rock also told Billboard magazine he is really looking forward to hitting the road with Foreigner because they have so many hit records, and it’s always best to have opening acts who are well-known. The rocker believes opening a show with an unknown artist is pointless because no one knows who they are, therefore the audience won’t know any of their music either.