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So many venues are owned by these various different ticketing and promoting people, and they're all in bed with one another. It's no secret over here.

I think fans going to concerts expect more today in terms of meeting and things. It's cool - I get it because of how the Internet has made things much more personal for fans to follow with Facebook, Twitter and everything - but I also think it's kind of hindering because it takes from the music in a way.

Going to a concert can sometimes be very difficult. It can be a long journey. There's the ticket prices. But when the music goes to the community - not the community coming to the concert - they say, 'Wow! I didn't know that this music was so amazing!'

It's really exciting to see all those people that exist in numbers online translate into tickets and then into faces, handshakes, pictures, stories.

It's hard to get concert tickets.

I cultivated this fan base that I really didn't really understand or appreciate until I put my first headlining tour up for sale. 500- to 1,000-capacity rooms weren't an underplay for me at the time. I'd never done a tour before!

Well, I think that when I perform on the road I always thank the audience for buying a ticket because it's a big deal to buy a ticket for a live entertainment, get a baby-sitter and pay for the meal, the parking, whatever.

I won't apologize for ticket prices. I think we're well worth it. We consider ourselves in the elite touring acts, like the Stones, Elton John, Paul McCartney.

I'm not like a legend that - so I'm sort of in the middle in this sort of gray area where, you know, I'm creating music, and I'm not saying there isn't an audience, because there is; because all of those people go out and spend $80 to $150 on a concert ticket.