In March, Accept singer Mark Tornillo shared his belief that "the United States is just not metal territory anymore."
"It's always been difficult to tour North America. It's mostly promoters and the fact that we need to play at least a big enough room where we're gonna make some money. But it's gotta have the turnout to do it. But we're gonna make it happen this year no matter what. I know that. We've all decided that if we have to take a cut, we'll take a cut. But we've gotta play — we've gotta play for the fans."
"We have no trouble selling tickets in South America. No trouble selling tickets in Europe, or else. I think it's just that the United States is just not metal territory anymore. I don't know why," he said at the time.
Naturally, that statement drew backlash and Tornillo has clarified his statement on the Rockin' Metal Revival podcast (transcribed by Blabbermouth):
"Truly, [metal is] not as big here as it is in the rest of the world by any means. Europe, it's still huge. South America, it's huge. Japan, it's huge. And it's kind of not the main attraction here; it's just not. And I think it has more to do with the fact that the record companies don't promote it properly. Nothing against ours — I mean, I love working with Napalm now. They're really doing a great job for us, but in the mainstream, the big labels, they don't promote metal. They don't… But they don't promote it well enough. And I think if they did, kids would get into it. They're more interested in selling Taylor Swift and hip-hop. So it's what it is. But heavy metal will always be there; it's not going anywhere. It's just underground again."
"Well, K.K. [Downing's new band KK'S PRIEST] and us both played Wacken [Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany in front of] 80,000 people with SCORPIONS. And now we're gonna play small theaters and big clubs [together in America]. So, this is what it is."
