Stephen Kellogg and family here giving each of you a socially distant, but extremely heartfelt, hug.
One week into a national emergency– How ya holding up? Yeah, me too. As I’ve told my daughters, this is a chance to reveal our character. We don’t like it, we didn’t choose it, but it’s where we are and we’re lucky we’re all such badasses so that we can meet this crisis head on.
I wanted to give you an update on the upcoming book tour which is scheduled to begin on April 15. It’s going to be happening, but there will be a change of venue. It’s being moved to your living room screens. We have paid deposits and rented non-traditional locales around the country. We’ve invested in the gear for an evening of stories and song. We've hired an amazing crew to work the shows. That hasn’t changed and if at any point in the next two months the government tells us that it’s ok to safely congregate again, we will arrive at these venues in person. But since you’ve purchased tickets and we’ve made a date, I intend to keep that date with you, and because this isn’t quite what either of us expected, I’ve spent the last week working with our new digital partner Lee on a contingency plan that would allow me to deliver the Experience Tour as scheduled, while doing our duty as citizen’s of the world by not putting folks at risk. So what does this mean?
It means that if you have tickets to one of our shows, you will be sent a private link on the week of the show at the email address you used when you got your tickets. At the appointed show time (7:30pm local time for most, excepting our Sunday Matinees), I will come on the screen and perform a full-length, one-of-a-kind, geared towards-your-city, concert for you. As planned, I’ll be sharing stories from the book and my twenty years on the road, taking requests and playing some music. If you purchased a meet and greet ticket those will take place immediately prior to the show on a second private link that we’ll also send you. There we will be able to take digital photos together and chat. I will be happy to answer questions, you can tell me any stories you had hoped to tell me and we’ll have a hang. If you’ve already purchased your tickets you don’t need to do anything, we will be in touch on the week of the event and you’re good to go.
Even though these are virtual shows, I am only going to sell to the extremely limited capacity that we had planned to offer, because I want you to have the same intimate experience you would have had if we weren’t in this unique situation. As such, 4 of our shows are now sold out–thank you for that. Your support means more to my family and those that work with us than you can ever imagine.
In order to keep our crew working throughout this crisis, they will be available on show days to answer any tech questions you might have. We’ll also have the Kellogg Family assisting during the quarantine, so I’ll have to up my humor game if I’m gonna get any laughs. You’ll be able to post comments and make requests at the shows simply by typing them in.
Is this a perfect solution? No. But here is what I’m asking you to trust me on:
#1 I am going to show up and deliver my very best at every single one of these events because I know you need it more now than ever. I couldn’t bear the thought of being just another cancellation or rescheduled event and I’m excited to over-deliver for you. We have decided that you’ll be able to keep the link to the meet and greet and watch it again and again. It’s our gift to you for being the best fans in the world.
#2 If you decide to purchase a ticket to a show and by some stroke of luck we are mobile again when that event takes place, we will still stream it from location. Otherwise, all the shows will be broadcast from my home where we are building the stage that I intended to bring to your cities. The good news is that now you can watch from anywhere in the world and if I wasn’t coming to your city, now I am. Plus all the shows will be BYOB, BYOF, and you won’t need to get that sitter after all (-=
#3 Last but not least. You know me. I’m not doing this lightly. I’m not just gonna sit in my office and say “so what did you want to hear?” I’m gonna bring the heat. This will be worth the price of your tickets. I need this as much as I believe you do, and if you’ll bear with us and go ahead and pick up your tickets today for the “Virtual” Experience Tour, I’ll do everything in my power to lift you and your loved ones up.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’ll be doing a free fireside chat on Facebook Live this Monday at 7pm where I will further explain how it’s all going to work AND I’ve decided to read the introduction to my forthcoming book that evening as well.
See you later, See you soon,
SK
