Warped Tour Age Limit For Acts?

First, Lyman wants an age limit for artists and crewmembers. “Next year we’re going to have no kids on this tour,” he recently told Seattle’s The Stranger. “It’s going to be really tough if you want to be on this tour and are 21 and under. Whether it’s the artist, crew… anyone.”

He’s also considering some changes to the way the Warped community functions and addresses bad behavior that might occur on the tour.

“There are things that need to be fixed,” he continued. “[The community] needs to fix what due process is, what judicial systems are, and [we] have to stop putting false information on the internet. “Slow down the social media blur. None of you are retaining. People can’t retain the name of a band and the song they play. Brains have turned into a spaghetti sieve, as I like to say, shit just flows through them all of the time. Nothing’s sticking, except for a little bit of crust off of the sides. We’re going to have to slow down technology. We have to slow it down, so it means something.”

The social media blur to which Lyman was referring may have been linked to two scandals the tour faced this summer involving 23-year-old singer/songwriter Jake Mcelfresh – aka Front Porch Step – and Slaves frontman Jonny Craig. Mcelfresh canceled a number of Warped dates earlier this summer after allegations surfaced that he’d contacted at least a half-dozen teenage girls, in some cases exchanging sexually explicit photos. Just weeks later, Slaves was voted off the tour during a tour entourage meeting, Stereogum reported at the time.

While a reason for that removal wasn’t immediately made public, a statement on Slaves’ Facebook page denied the band had engaged in “forceful sexual harassment” of a woman on the tour, bought or sold drugs during the outing and had not emptied their bus’ sewage tank all over.

“Let me make it %100 clear that we are not continuing Warped Tour because we were voted off because the opinions of certain people who believe that since Jonny drank, despite his success getting clean, will lead to his relapse,” Slaves wrote.