Grammy nominee JP Saxe is honest about tour cancellation: 'I didn't sell enough tickets'
The Grammy-nominated artist revealed on Aug. 1 that his team had to call off his fall tour. The announcement came after he posted a July 30 TikTok video telling fans that his tour would be canceled if he didn't sell around 20,000 more tickets within the next 48 hours.
While Saxe later confirmed that the TikTok post helped boost sales, he said it wasn't enough to save the music tour.
In an Aug. 1 guest column published in Variety, the soulful pop singer opened about not meeting his goal, writing: "I aimed too high — my bad."
"Due to unforeseen circumstances… The circumstance: I didn't sell enough tickets," Saxe wrote. "Last week, my team told me we were going to have to cancel my fall tour. Ticket sales weren't where they needed to be. The suggestion was: take the L, try again next year."
Saxe proceeded to thank those who bought tickets, adding that his fans are "more than enough for me emotionally, just… not pragmatically."
Despite the defeat, he remains optimistic that one day he'll pack venues with ease.
"Very few artists want to be sleeping in their car eating ramen, but every artist wants to say they used to sleep in their car eating ramen," he wrote. "If I really believe (which I do) that I'm going to sell out arenas someday… then I also have to believe in how much better it'll feel when I get there — knowing I can tell the story about that one time, in the fall of 2025, when despite the support of a few thousand beautiful strangers on the internet… I had to cancel my whole tour."
Saxe says he wanted to be honest despite the embarrassment
While admitting he felt embarrassed by low ticket sales, Saxe said he wanted to share the truth instead of protecting his brand or "self-image."
"I was embarrassed. I've always prioritized connecting deeply over widely, but if we didn't sell another 20,000 tickets in 48 hours, the tour would be canceled," he wrote. "To my surprise, people responded — in a big way. The video hit a few million views. A little grassroots army of emotional-song-loving cuties showed up, trying to buy every tour-saving ticket they could."
He said he received messages from other musicians calling him bold and "absurdly brave" for being vulnerable.
Saxe is a Canadian singer-songwriter largely known for his track "If the World Was Ending," a collaboration with Julia Michaels that landed the pair a 2021 Grammy nomination in the Song of the Year category.
His new 7-track project "Make Yourself at Home," which dropped on June 27, served as a continuation of his April release "Articulate Excuses."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JP Saxe is not shying away from the reason why he canceled his tour
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