Helping The Cowboy Ride Away

George Strait is saying goodbye to touring forever. When Strait said that with fanfare at the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012, it was clear fans would snatch up tickets.

That’s how it can look from the outside – a tour is announced, people buy tickets, tour sells out. But that’s never really the case.

Every tour, even a major one, requires press, marketing and publicity.

U2, for example, is currently in the process of gearing up for its next album and likely tour, while Garth Brooks has been very visible for the last year in a lead-up to one of the worst-kept secrets in the business.

Strait’s tour is just like that, and the team behind it wanted Pollstar to get a peek at how a tour gets assembled. “It was many years in the making,” tour promoter Louis Messina told Pollstar. “George loves performing but he doesn’t like touring. The wear and tear after all these years is something he doesn’t like.”

Messina stressed that Strait will still perform following his tour.

King George has even signed a new, five-album record contract with his label of more than 30 years, MCA.

This is, however, the cessation of his touring life.

The tour launch began about four years ago. Strait and his team had been considering the end of touring.

At the time, Strait was content with about a dozen dates a year.

Messina said he, manager Erv Woolsey and Strait’s wife, Norma, were on the tour bus when Strait, walking to the back, turned and said, “You know that conversation we’ve been having? I think I’m ready.”

It apparently wasn’t an easy or final decision.

Even after the wheels for the final tour were set in motion, Strait, the night before his birthday, called Messina and expressed second thoughts but stuck to his guns and committed to riding away for the last time.

The tour launch began in earnest in Woolsey’s office in 2012, with George, Messina’s team, publicity and Universal Music Group personnel in attendance.

While most discussed the logistics of the tour, UMG took the reins on marketing it.

“The label said they were going to get him his 60th No. 1 single and (CMA’s) entertainer of the year award. We all went, ‘Uh. OK. Sure.’”

That meant a two-year marketing campaign.

Strait had not won the entertainer award for 23 years.

For the 60th No. 1 single, UMG went all out, recruiting practically every major country artist to help Strait’s “Give It All We Got Tonight” get a top rating.

It was called “The Sixty For Sixty” campaign, and artists were asked to urge fans to call radio stations to play the single.

The “Sixty For Sixty” moniker alluded to Strait’s 61st birthday last May, and the idea was to get the single to No. 1 while Strait was still 60, according to Cindy Mabe, senior VP of marketing for UMG Nashville.

Along with a radio and social media push, the label created SixtyForSixty.com, where dozens of artists, from Jimmy Buffett to Naomi Judd to Carrie Underwood, asked for the public’s help.

It also included contact info for radio stations across the U.S.

Meanwhile, the album Love is Everything hit No. 1, with iTunes selling songs from the tour for 69 cents each.

Walmart sold the album with a 64-page tour book.

The effort paid off: Strait did get the entertainer award, along with ASCAP’s Founder’s Award and BMI’s Icon Award.

As for the tour, Strait announced it at a press conference at the Hall of Fame and followed it up with press, including a feature in People.

Routing wasn’t a problem: Messina didn’t know where it would start, but he knew where it would end.

“I said we were going to end in AT&T Stadium in Arlington – in the round, 100,000 tickets. Everybody thought I was crazy but George said, ‘OK.’”

The upcoming June 7 show was announced to 90,000 fans at a NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants.

“As soon as George was mentioned, the place erupted,” Messina said.

Strait held a press conference the next day that was streamed on YouTube and the tour’s website.

The Arlington date, which was “promoted everywhere,” sold out in 30 minutes, Messina said.

The second leg of the tour includes opening acts that are arena headliners themselves, like Jason Aldean, Eric Church and AT&T Stadium  who just wanted to be a part of Strait’s last tour dates.

“There’s a waiting list everywhere,” Messina said. “And if you want tickets for June 7, don’t call me. I want to be the nice guy, but we don’t have any more tickets.”