Creativity Quote by Glenn Frey

Refusing to apologize is the tell here: Frey isn’t just defending a number on a receipt, he’s defending a worldview where price doubles as proof of stature. “Ticket prices” is the flashpoint, but the real argument is about legitimacy in a late-stage rock economy where nostalgia is the product and scarcity is the marketing. By declaring “we’re well worth it,” he shifts the conversation from affordability to value, from consumer complaint to artistic merit. It’s a classic move in celebrity capitalism: if you can afford it, you get to feel discerning; if you can’t, your exclusion becomes evidence of the brand’s “elite” status.

The name-checks aren’t casual. The Stones, Elton, McCartney function like a hall pass into rock’s highest-paying tier, an aspirational peer group that confers cultural immunity. Frey’s phrasing, “we consider ourselves,” is doing quiet work: it acknowledges that “elite” is partly self-appointed, but says it anyway because confidence is part of the transaction. You’re not buying a seat; you’re buying participation in an institution.

Context matters: by the 2000s and 2010s, recorded music revenue had cratered, touring became the real paycheck, and legacy acts discovered they could monetize memory at premium rates. Frey’s bluntness reads like an artist choosing candor over the polite fiction that fans aren’t being financially triaged. It’s not warm, but it’s honest about what the modern arena show is: a luxury good with a soundtrack.