Friends & Heroes Tour 2020 has been canceled
Earlier this year Blake Shelton announced that he would be cancelling and rescheduling five remaining Heroes & Friends 2020 Tour featuring Trace Adkins, John Anderson, The Bellamy Brothers and Lauren Alaina due to COVID-19 concerns. Omaha, NE; Denver, CO; Rosemont, IL; Milwaukee, WI; and Detroit, MI were the cities left to play over a two week period when the worldwide pandemic shut down the touring industry.
However, it has been announced that when Shelton returns to play in those markets in 2021, it will not be part of the Heroes & Friends 2020 Tour, as originally planned. In response to fan discussion on social media, Shelton and his team have clarified the ticketing policy, saying refunds are available, should you want one.
“To be clear about this ticket refund situation, the Friends & Heroes Tour, which was myself, The Bellamy Brothers, Trace Adkins, John Anderson and Lauren Alaina. Sadly, that tour is canceled. It’s gone. It’s not gonna happen moving forward with that bill. It’s canceled,” Shelton says in a video statement.
“I think the confusion has come in with some of these buildings and Ticketmaster themselves was the fact that I still plan to go back and play those markets that we weren’t able to get to, but it will not be the Friends & Heroes Tour, and I wanna be totally up front about that. I think that’s where the confusion has come in for everybody involved. And so, I wanna say this to you guys that if you want a refund for your Friends & Heroes ticket — and I’m gonna have ’em put a link on here — you can go to Ticketmaster and I guess there’s a link page that you can go to and get your refund. [The link is] there.”
Shelton says that fans can still request a refund, despite the postponement being announced four months ago when the pandemic started shutting things down.
“I heard things today like there was a two week window you had to make a decision and if you didn’t decide by then, you can’t get a refund. I’m being told that’s not true that you can still get on there right now and get your refund. But if you want to hang onto your ticket, when I do come back to those markets, it’ll be there’s your ticket, you got it, you already bought it, you have your seat. I never wanna mislead anybody. I have no idea at this point when that’s gonna be. Hopefully as soon as they say we can go tour again, we’ll be one of the first back out there.”
Shelton says he wants to be transparent with fans who may think the Heroes & Friends lineup will return next year.
“I wanna be clear, it won’t be the Friends & Heroes Tour. I don’t even know what the tour’s gonna look like. If you wanna hang onto that ticket, it’s still gonna be your ticket, it’s still gonna work. If you want your refund for the Friends & Heroes Tour, then by all means, hop on Ticketmaster and get your refund.”
All tickets will be honored at the to-be-announced rescheduled dates in 2021, which will feature a new line-up and alternative VIP packages. Tickets purchased through Ticketmaster are currently available for refund. Fans who bought tickets through a third-party retailer should consult the point of purchase for individual refund policies which Shelton says he and his team have no control over.
Earlier this month, Shelton and girlfriend Gwen Stefani’s “Happy Anywhere” topped the charts. Within its first week of release, the single took the No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart, selling nearly 27,000 tracks. The single has staked its claim in the streaming space as well, garnering nearly 4.5 million streams and nearly 60,000 U.S track equivalents to date.
The feel-good duet is the follow-up single to Shelton and Stefani’s “Nobody But You,” which has been RIAA-certified platinum and held No. 1 on the country charts for multiple weeks, marking Shelton’s 27th career No. 1. The duo debuted the track on the 61st GRAMMY Awards earlier this year, where Shelton was also nominated for Country Solo Performance for his massive single “God’s Country.” The title track off his most recent album Fully Loaded: God’s Country, the anthemic song took home the CMA award for Single of the Year last year and is currently up for Single, Song and Video of the Year at the 55th ACM Awards.
