Sugarland Learns the Price of Being Headliners

Posted by amyclark on 08/18/2008

10/25/2007 Stephen L. Betts   When Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush came off the stage after the first show of their first headlining tour last month in Charleston, South Carolina, their usual sense of exhilaration was replaced by simple disappointment. “Usually after a show, we just have this big release," Kristian tells the Orange County Register. “We didn't have that after the first show. We kinda looked at each other and we were like, 'This must be it. This must be the moment when you go, 'This is what it feels like to headline.’” Another aspect of being a headlining act was revealed to Kristian when he encountered a woman at a Kenny Chesney concert in Wisconsin – when Sugarland was still an opening act. The woman didn't recognize Kristian without his hat, and she told him that on her salary as a teacher, she can only attend two shows a year. “It was,” he says, “a big eye-opener to go, ‘Golly, we're about to ask people to pay $50, $60 a ticket. We better not (stink).’” Sugarland's headlining gig with CMT on Tour, also featuring Little Big Town and Jake Owen, continues this weekend with shows in Reno, Fresno, and Los Angeles.