For decades, Accept has been a titan of Teutonic metal, thrilling audiences worldwide with their face-melting riffs and soaring vocals. But according to frontman Mark Tornillo, getting American fans headbanging might be a tougher feat than it used to be.
In a recent interview with The Metal Voice, Tornillo addressed the difficulties of touring North America, particularly the struggle to find venues that turn a profit, in contrast with South America and Europe, where Accept consistently sells out shows.
“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. We have 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.”
This doesn’t mean American fans are off the hook entirely. Tornillo assures fans a U.S. tour is coming later this year, hinting at “a very interesting bill” for the late August to October window.
“I would love nothing better than to tour the U.S. every year. But we’ll see how it plays out. There’s definitely going to be a run-in, I’m gonna say late August through October. And I can’t really say any more about it right now. It’s not confirmed and it hasn’t been announced, obviously, but it’s gonna be a very interesting bill.”
Tornillo has been at the mic for Accept in their last five studio albums, “Blood Of The Nations” (2010), “Stalingrad” (2012), “Blind Rage” (2014), “The Rise Of Chaos” (2017) and “Too Mean To Die” (2021), plus the upcoming “Humanoid” (2024).
