Entertainment
The 1975’s Matty Healy blasts paid fan meet and greets as ‘f***ing gross’-Emily Bashforth-Entertainment – Metro
He has absolutely no time for it.
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The 1975 frontman Matty Healy has long been outspoken about his views on paid meet and greets, something he has now branded ‘f*****g gross.’
Matty – who is 1/4 of the British band, along with Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald, and George Daniel – is never one to shy away from expressing controversial opinions.
Now, the Chocolate singer, 33, has hit out at artists who charge fans to meet them on tour, urging them to ‘take the money off the fan’ themselves if it’s something they feel strongly about.
‘I hate paid meet and greets. You’ve paid for the album, you’ve paid for the ticket, you’ve paid for the parking, you get them in the room and somebody’s gone, “How do we monetise that bit?”,’ Matty said.
In conversation with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, he added: ‘It’s no secret that many artists nowadays offer fans a paid chance to meet them in person ahead of their shows.
‘Tell you what, if you want to do paid meet and greets, do them. I stand by it… but you take the money.’
Matty is famously outspoken and never holds back (Picture: WireImage)
Pointing directly at the camera, the Robbers hitmaker added: ‘If you’re an artist and you do paid meet and greets, do it, cash, and you take the money off the fan. I challenge you to do that.’
Interviewer Zane then responded: ‘It’s f*****g gross,’ to which Matty agreed: ‘It’s absolutely f*****g gross.’
This is far from the first time the star has spoken about his disgust over musicians who charge fans for meet and greets, as he previously shared a series of cut-throat tweets on the matter.
Writing in 2019, the rocker criticised the practice of ‘monetising human connection.’
The Brit Award winners have no desire to start changing fans to meet them (Pictue: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
Asking ‘who came up with’ the idea, the star boldly told fellow artists to not meet fans only if they’re getting paid to do so.
‘Meet your fans or don’t. Don’t only meet them if you’re getting paid honestly what are you doing,’ he wrote.
Matty later picked up the thread again, responding to someone who suggested paid meet and greets were ‘good for lower and up and coming artists.’
In response, he penned: ‘You can’t be big enough for people to want to pay to meet you whilst not being big enough to pay for touring. It’s a paradoxical excuse for making music exclusive.
‘Rich kids, you line up on the left. Poor kids, just f**k off.’
The band are currently gearing up to release their new album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language (Picture: Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns)
When a supporter agreed with him, stating that the matter shouldn’t be up for debate, he said he thinks the problem is that ‘a lot of artists don’t understand how brutal it is.’
‘Major labels have normalised it,’ so major labels should change it,’ he declared.
‘They should make all fans pay in cash – directly to the artist. They should literally hand over the $200. Would soon stop.’
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Matty’s latest comments come as The 1975 prepare to tour the world with their new album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, next year.
We’re guessing there will be no paid meet and greets on their tour and, in fact, the band recently admitted to turning down a tour with Ed Sheeran, despite him offering them an ‘insane’ amount of money.
The lead singer revealed they were meant to tour with the chart topper for four months, but said they would rather focus on their own music instead.
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