$1 Million Gets A Bad Tour With Motley Crue

I know that you’ve gone to a concert to see your favorite artist and wondered why or how the opening act was chosen. The fact of the matter is that most times, they’re not chosen at all – they buy their way onto the tour, which has become known as a “buy-on.” Whether a buy-on is worth it is debatable, but for one band that paid a cool $1 million to open up for Motley Crue on their last tour, it was enough of a bad time that now they’re suing the supergroup for $30 million in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Logan and Roger Raskin of the Manhattan group The Raskins, claim that they were harassed and sabotaged by months of hazing during their tour with Crue in 2014. Among other things, the band claims that they were forced to play short sets in mostly empty venues after Motley Crue’s management refused to open the doors for shows, the PA system was interfered with during their shows, they weren’t allowed to sell merchandise and they weren’t given dressing rooms. Worst of all, the suit claims that at a stop in Darien, Conn., Crue crew members ran out on stage in monkey masks and sprayed the Raskins “with water guns filled with urine.”

Getting harassed by the top-billed band and their crew is a right of passage that every opening act goes through at one point or another, especially if the opening act is doing well with the audience. That said, if you’re going to take someone’s money, the least you can do is deliver, which means at least opening the doors to let people into the audience. That said, it’s a fact of life that the opening act is going to get the short end of the stick PA-wise, and it’s something that happens everywhere and should be expected.