Blake Shelton is not happy. The country music hitmaker recently found out that several of his fans were being denied refunds for tickets for shows that were canceled on his Friends & Heroes Tour, due to COVID-19. Some fans posted pictures on social media of messages saying they were not able to be issued a refund since the concert dates were postponed, not canceled, something Blake says is false, and is already working to find a resolution.
“I figured it would be a lot easier for me to sit down and say this on video, instead of try to write it all out,” Blake said in a video he shared on social media, which garnered more than 18 million views in less than 24 hours. “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 going to happen moving forward. It’s canceled.”
The Oklahoma native said that there has been some confusion, including with Ticketmaster, regarding what his future tour plans are, which he says he has been trying to clear up.
“I still plan to go back and play those markets that we didn’t get to, but it will not be the Friends & Heroes Tour, and I want to be totally upfront about that,” Blake shared. “I think that’s where the confusion has come in, for everybody involved. And so I want to say this, to you guys, that if you want a refund for your Friends & Heroes ticket, and I’m going to have them put a link on here. You can go to Ticketmaster, and there’s a link page you can go to, and get your refund. It’s there. I’ve heard things today, like there was a two-week window that you had to make the 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 on to your ticket, when I do come back to those markets, there’s your ticket, you got it,” he continued. “You already bought it. You got your seat. I never want to mislead anybody. I have no idea at this point when that’s going to be. Hopefully as soon as they say we can tour again, we’ll be one of the first that tours back out there. But I want to be clear, it won’t be the Friends & Heroes Tour. I don’t even know what the tour’s going to look like. So if you want to hang on to that ticket, it’s still going to be your ticket; it’s still going to work. If you want your refund for the Friends & Heroes Tour, then by all means, hop on Ticketmaster and get your refund, and we’ll put that link up there, like I said.”
Unfortunately, the “Happy Anywhere” singer added that, for people who did not purchase their tickets through Ticketmaster, there wasn’t much that he, or anyone else, could do.
“Now when it comes to StubHub, and some of these third-party ticket vendors, what I’ve been told is StubHub is, they just flat out don’t offer refunds; they offer credits,” said the singer. “There’s not a lot I can do about that. There’s not a lot anybody on my team can do about something like that. I’m also being told that a lot of the third-party ticket vendors throughout all this chaos have gone, and they don’t even exist anymore. I don’t know how true that is, but all I can tell you is that we deal with Ticketmaster, and Ticketmaster is offering refunds.
“This is all terrible and I hope to get back on the road again, and get all this stuff behind us,” he concluded. “You guys stay safe, and if you want that refund from Ticketmaster, it’s there, You’ll get it.”
To receive a refund for Blake’s Friends & Heroes Tour through Ticketmaster, Blake advises to log into your Ticketmaster account, and click on the refund link under the ticket order for the Friends & Heroes Tour. Those who are still unable to get a Ticketmaster refund can email [email protected].