ALTER BRIDGE's MARK TREMONTI Says Some Bands Have To Conduct Meet-And-Greets To Survive Without Record Sales

In a recent interview with The Aquarian Weekly, ALTER BRIDGE guitarist Mark Tremonti spoke about the culture of "V.I.P Packages," which seems to be the only way for fans to meet the bands they admire these days. Some of these come at a really inflated price on top of the standard ticket costs and include anything from a signed item, a photo to watching soundchecks or a collectable lanyard.

"The music industry is changing every day and for some bands to survive without record sales, they have to [conduct] meet-and-greets," he said. "I simply like to meet our fans. Today, bands get much more personal with their fans. It's no longer like the old days, when no one could go behind the curtain. We know our fans very well. We see some of them dozens of times while on a tour. When you see familiar faces, you feel more comfortable. They've become our friends and it is good to see friends. There are fans who met at shows and are now married. Some have travelled the world together to see ALTER BRIDGE shows.

Asked what goes into his "guitar and songwriting clinics" that he conducts on tour, Mark said: "When I am on the road, I like to stay busy. If I am away from my wife and kids, I'm not going to be sitting around playing video games on a tour bus. I'm going to be doing clinics, meet-and-greets or writing songs. It is what I love to do. My manager put me up to the clinics. I said, 'When you put it on our web site, don't list 'songwriting.'' He said, 'Ah, already did.' It's impossible to teach someone how to write songs, so [during the clinics], I am going to show them how I do it. I'm going to answer as many questions as I can and, hopefully, get them excited about it."

ALTER BRIDGE's latest album, "Walk The Sky", was released on October 18 via Napalm Records.