Andy Grammer’s Holiday Hat-Trick: Playing the Orange Bowl, Rose Parade and Times Square New Year’s Eve

Seeing Andy Grammer’s name as the headliner for the Orange Bowl Halftime Show and the Tournament of Roses Parade caught Pollstar‘s attention and convinced us to call up his manager, SMG Entertainment’s (not the venue management company) Ben Singer, to talk strategy. During the Q&A, however, Singer revealed the gigs are actually part of a three-day holiday extravaganza that will also include a spot at Times Square New Year’s Eve

The trio of high profile gigs will lead into Grammer’s spring headline tour in support of his third studio album, The Good Parts, which was released Dec. 1 on S-Curve Records. Along with “Smoke Clears,” the album includes the tracks “Fresh Eyes” and “Give Love” (featuring LunchMoney Lewis).

“Playing the Macy’s Day Parade was like hanging with the whole city of New York at once. I’m looking forward to getting that feeling with Los Angeles at The Tournament of Roses Parade,” Grammer told Pollstar. 

He added, “My new album, The Good Parts, is my favorite music I’ve ever put out so I’m pretty excited about 2018 and this tour is a great way to kick it off.”

The most recent box office report submitted to Pollstar for Grammer was an Oct. 29 show at The Paramount In Huntington, N.Y., which sold out and grossed more than $40,300.

Pollstar first spoke with Singer in 2012 when we interviewed him for Grammer’s cover feature and he shared the story of how the artist and manager met. Grammer’s career has certainly come far since his days of performing on the sidewalk in Santa Monica. 

Pollstar:  Why have Andy Grammer play The Orange Bowl and Rose Parade?
Ben Singer: Obviously there’s going to be a lot of people at home for the holiday watching these American pastimes, be that at a parade or a halftime show and it’s nice to have Andy being asked to be a performer. There’s going to be more eyeballs on Andy and … the thing about Andy is people hear him on the radio, they know his name but you don’t really know Andy until you see him perform live. He’s just such an incredible performer so for us the benefit is that many more people seeing Andy in his element, which is being a live performer.

Do you know anything about the setup for these events or how much time he’ll have to perform?
He’ll do a medley of songs. I think he’s playing bits and pieces of different songs. It’s going to be kind of like a mashup.

I think when you’re talking about something as big as this parade and game, you’re going to be hitting all kinds of different people. I think the benefit is just, like I keep saying, people seeing Andy in his element, which is as a live performer. In terms of like, are we trying to reach anybody new? I’d say, no, we’re just trying to reach, in regards to these two events, the American public at home, during the holidays. 

Yeah! The team is always consulted before we confirm these major events. A lot of times with different shows you have different parameters in terms of what we’re willing to kind of do for these performances. So the people at CAA are always brought in the loop. A lot of the time they’re bringing these opportunities to us. So it’s always a group discussion and us trying to figure out what’s the best fit for Andy.

Andy also played the Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving, what did you all learn from that? 
The thing that was really encouraging about that parade, the viewership is so, so broad and we saw such just an explosive uptick in sales after his performance. And with his new record in stores that was a good look for us … I think it was up only for pre-order. Now it’s up for sale so we’re excited – we feel like there’s going to be a lot of people at home that have their iTunes gift cards and I feel like we’re going to see that same sort of explosiveness [with the Orange Bowl and Rose Parade] because like I said, when people see him perform, they really, really get it. 

In terms of overall strategic vision, we recently went on sale for his tour and we’re seeing it sell out everywhere. So for us, we’re starting to see that there are people who are starting to kind of get clued in on the fact that his show is so fun and entertaining. So with these kind of events I just see it as just a calling card for Andy, for people to go, “Oh, shit. He’s going to be a fun show to go to. I think he’s coming to my city. I want to go to that show.”

We’re promoting through our social media outlets and I know that our publicist, Carleen [Donovan] is issuing, if she hasn’t already,a press release. But I’m starting to get those Google alerts where people are talking about it.

It’s exciting. It’s going to be a crazy three days because he’s going from The Orange Bowl to performing in Times Square to performing in LA for the Parade. 

And he’s performing in Times Square for New Year’s Eve? 
Yeah, so it’s back to back to back nights, ringing in the New Year.

What a way to kick off 2018!
Yeah, like a zombie. (laughs). Exhausted. It’ll be fun though.  It’s going to be good. We have so many things we’re excited about for Andy coming into the New Year. It’s an exciting way to kick it off.

Like extraordinarily well. Our strategy was do a great spring tour, really remind everybody that Andy is worth tickets and that people love going to [his] shows and then hopefully get a good support slot for the summer. … We have a projectory we see Andy going in and it’s just up.

It’s been an exciting time just because he just continues to release great music, he continues to tour and just kind of remind people that he’s the real deal and we’re excited that things just keep going. His profile just keeps rising and just kind of. The fans, everything just keeps growing. It’s been really exciting seeing the tour sales and just seeing the fruit of his labor because he’s, Honestly, he’s one of the hardest working guys in the music business.

He is! Honestly, I can’t ask [for anything more]. He’s such a hard worker. A lot of people don’t really know Andy and so they’ll be like, “Is it real? Is he really that nice of a guy?” Then they work with him and they’ll like, “Shit. You really are that nice of a guy.” So it’s fun to see the way he’s succeeding. 

It’s incredible that  he’s manifested all these opportunities are coming about.
And I think a lot of the reason why these opportunities are coming is because when you’re booking talent for an event like the Parade or the Orange Bowl or Times Square, you want an electric performer. It’s such an important event and that’s what Andy is. He’s an electric performer. And bookers know that – he makes events better. So, whether that’s the Orange Bowl Or Times Square or the Rose Bowl Parade, [it’s] going to be better when you have an electric performer. These things don’t just come up from nowhere. People know that’s what he adds, so it’s just exciting that more people know it now.  

I think what I love about his live show is that he’s just such good friends with everybody that’s in his band and there’s a chemistry that people can really feel in the audience.  Because you can go to a show and someone’s band sounds tight but when you go to a show and their band sounds tight and it looks like they’re all really having a lot of fun, it makes you want to have a lot of fun. And I think that’s what’s exciting about Andy’s shows. It’s almost just like people hanging out, playing music.