Valley gets numerous big-name acts, but why not Ozzfest?
By THOMAS BOND
Get Out

Why isn’t Madonna coming to town on her summer tour? How come Ozzfest, Lollapalooza, Alanis Morrisette, The Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, ZZ Top and “American Idols Live” are similarly missing in action from local stages even though they're performing multiple dates elsewhere?

When it comes to concerts in the Valley, it's not who we get anymore, it's who we don't get.

Twenty-five years ago, it was a huge deal when a top tier musical artist announced a local show because it didn't happen very often. Just ask a longtime resident about the hubbub surrounding the Rolling Stones concert at Sun Devil Stadium in 1981, for example.

Fast forward to the present and the Valley is one of the largest and fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation. Fans have grown accustomed to seeing shows by the biggest acts in the music business, including the aforementioned Stones who played here on both their most recent tours.

“Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country and the metropolitan area is in the top 20 or 25, so in that sense we're a major city and that's why we get 95 percent of all the touring acts,” says Terry Burke, vice president of Clear Channel Entertainment's Phoenix office, who has booked shows in the Valley for more than 20 years. “There's no clear cut answer of why tours play a city or don't play a city, but I'd say we're lucky because we get the majority of them.”

But what gives when major artists and tours decide to skip our town?

“It's a number of issues,” says Tom LaPenna, director of concert promoters’ Nobody In Particular Presents Southwest division. “It's the number of dates that the band has on tour and the availability of the particular venue that they want to get into.”

For her “re-Invention” summer tour, the Material Girl is playing 31 shows in North America but they take place in only 15 cities.

“If you have a limited amount of dates, as in the case of Madonna, Phoenix is competing with all these other cities and doesn't always make that cut list,” says Terry Burke, vice president of Clear Channel Entertainment's Phoenix office.

Still, fans should expect to see her perform here at some point.

“As far as Madonna goes, she's going to come to Phoenix,” LaPenna says. “It's not if, it's when.”

Ozzfest, the multi-band heavy metal tour named for founder Ozzy Osbourne, had been a mainstay of the Valley's hot weather concert calendar for nearly a decade until this summer.

“Ozzfest came down to either Albuquerque or Phoenix this year,” Burke says. “Last year was the first year it ever played in Albuquerque and it sold out right away and it was a big success over there. It came down to let's take a year off in Phoenix because last year's numbers (here) were solid but it wasn't sell-out business like it was in the past. Now, next year if Ozzfest goes out, my guess is that it will definitely play Phoenix.”

Venue availability also figures prominently into the equation.

“Putting a tour together is almost like a big jigsaw puzzle, especially with the sports teams playing in the arenas,” says Stephen Grossman, director of marketing and event development at the newly opened Glendale Arena. “I know one particular act — I can't say who — that wanted to play here in the spring, but neither us nor America West (Arena) was available on the date they wanted and so they skipped us and are now coming back and playing Cricket (Pavilion) this summer.”

And Phoenix isn't alone in getting passed over by the occasional big name artists.

“New York and L.A. are the media capitals of the country and they're the two largest cities in the country. Typically, they get everything, but other than those two cities I don't think anybody else is a lock,” Grossman says. “I've heard major agents say to me that the only three things required of a tour are New York, L.A. and the artist's hometown.”

With all the shows we do get in the Valley, perhaps music fans should just count their blessings.

“I have venues in Tucson and Albuquerque asking me that if we're doing a show with somebody in Phoenix, why can't they come there,” LaPenna says. “At the end of the day, we're getting the majority of the shows.”