Billy Joel and Rod Stewart will bring two of music’s premier performers to Cleveland on Sept. 13. Both performers are Rock and Roll Hall of Famers: Joel was honored for his solo work in 1999 while Stewart has been honored both sololy (1994) and collectively (1212). This announcement came shortly after Joel teased that a new track entitled “Turn the Lights Back On” would be out soon.
Cleveland will be one of the stops on their tour, which also includes shows at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; Soldier Field in Chicago; Petco Park in San Diego; Alamodome in San Antonio and Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Tickets go on sale Feb 2 for general public purchase; Live Nation Senior Vice President of Marketing Barry Gabel anticipates it selling out rapidly because “these two big artists will be performing at their peak performance level,” as reported by 3News.
Tickets range in price from $49.50 to $249.50 plus service charges and taxes and will be available for purchase online or at the arena box office, with presales beginning January 29 for Citi card members and continuing until Feb 2; other pre-sales will take place for AARP, military service members, VIP and subscriber members as well as fan club members.
Gabel likened the process of booking a major concert to solving an intricate jigsaw, noting it requires many pieces to come together perfectly: dates, venue space, expenses related to staging the show, history with local communities and travel all have to come together perfectly for it to work successfully. “It can be quite a challenging endeavor!” Gabel stressed.
Destination Cleveland CEO David Gilbert expects this concert will generate billions for Cleveland. He expressed delight with seeing what impact an event of this magnitude can have outside of Browns games, said Whitney Haslam Johnson from Haslam Sports Group; she noted how it will fill other events at Cleveland Stadium as well.
Joel was known for popular songs like ‘She’s Got A Way’ and ‘She’s Always a Woman”. The Piano Man was married for 14 years to Christie Brinkley until they parted ways in 2006. Joel holds an impressive musical accomplishment list including selling over 160 million albums worldwide and winning an unprecedented 26 Grammys awards.
Stewart is an award-winning, multi-platinum singer-songwriter renowned for his classic rock hits. His new album Swing Fever will be released on February 23.