Chesney and McGraw {Photo: Tim Boyles}The 2012 summer season has shaped up to be a great one for live music lovers, with mega-tours in virtually every genre raking in fans in cities across the nation. Every one of the acts are also certainly raking in the bucks--but which summer tour is the most lucrative of all?
It will come as no surprise to country fans that the honor goes to Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw's Brothers of The Sun tour. The dual-star summer trek has been named by industry publication Pollstar as the highest-grossing tour ($4,272,326), leaping ahead this week over other popular artists such as Roger Waters ($2,086,906), Coldplay ($1,969,465), Van Halen ($1,168,797), the Red Hot Chili Peppers ($794,979), and Drake ($783,513).
Pollstar's numbers are based on average box office gross per city--and, according to their figures, Chesney and McGraw don't even have any serious competition. Their country extravaganza grossed more than twice as much as its nearest competitor, Roger Waters.
Chesney and McGraw's most recent tour stops--which were over the weekend in California--demonstrated that the show has star power beyond its headliners. On Saturday in Anaheim, they were joined by actor Ashton Kutcher; while Sunday's show in Oakland welcomed rock legend Steve Miller onstage to perform his classic hits "Rock'n Me" and "The Joker" with Chesney.
The Brothers of the Sun tour will stop next in Denver on July 21. It will close August 25 in Foxborough, MA.
Country music did fairly well overall in Pollstar's list, with Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, and Eric Church's tours all appearing in the Top 20.
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