Nashville, July 12: For country supergroup Alabama, parting is indeed sweet sorrow. The sweetness is to the tune of $15 million in box office before the tour even hits its stride. Billed as Alabama's Farewell tour, the 40-city trek ends in mid-November.
Following "test runs" last New Year's Eve at the Aladdin in Las Vegas and the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo in March, Alabama began the tour in earnest with huge openings at Philips Arena in Atlanta and a brace of shows in Birmingham, Ala.
Dale Morris, Alabama's manager for 25 years, says, "We saw we really had something in Vegas and Houston, but it wasn't really tested until we went into the big venues on our own."
The band passed the test in Birmingham and Atlanta. "Prior to the Farewell tour, Birmingham and Atlanta were two of our slowest hard-ticket markets," Morris says. "We went to Atlanta and did close to $600,000 in box office, and then we went to Birmingham and had one of the fastest sellouts ever."
Other markets are following suit. The November Chicago-market show at All-State Arena in Rosemont, Ill., is currently the last scheduled date. "We're already sold out, with $865,000 in box office," Morris says. "Chicago has always been good but not that strong. They're all there now. We've got $15 million in box office already."
The tour marks the end of one of the hardest-touring bands in country music history. A bankable mainstay for more than two decades, Alabama fittingly finishes with its top-grossing tour.

Alabama has been a strong act at fairs for years, but Morris describes the economics of the current tour as "a little pricey" for fairs. "What's making it work in the larger venues this time is some of the money is trickling down to Alabama. A lot of it stays in each town, too, but the numbers work for everybody.
"They've had years where they drew more people, but that was at $12 a ticket, as opposed to $35-$50 this time," he adds.
Morris says that tour merchandise is also moving extremely well. "We're averaging over $9 a head and a little over $100,000 a show."
For Alabama frontman Randy Owen, going out at the top of the group's game is an intriguing concept.
"We're very excited about this tour," Owen says, adding that it has been challenging creatively. "Every show is different by design. We don't want anybody to see us in Tennessee and then see the same show in Birmingham.

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"That's a fun way to do it, but it's very mentally demanding," Owen continues. "But what we're very determined to do is make this a historical overview and celebration of the music to enjoy with the fans."

Despite the financial success, "it's never been about the money," Owen says. "It has always been about the music with us. After a successful 25 years, we always felt like we would know when the time was right to step back, and we wanted to do it while we could still get down and do it right."

While Alabama is sticking with a mid-November wrap, Morris is open to doing something like Cher's ongoing opus of a farewell tour.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing to do," he says. "Better to stay out and say goodbye to everybody rather than come back later and do a reunion."

Owen admits he has mixed feelings about letting Alabama go but doesn't think the odds are in favor of the band extending the tour.

"Selfishly, I would like to play some more shows, because some people might not be able to see us because we're not going to all of the cities," he says. "But I don't see that happening. This is Alabama; this is not Randy Owen. And I'm proud to be a part of it."

Bureau Report