Taylor Swift figured out a way to tour in what feels like a brand-new way. Most touring acts go on the road for months at a time and it’s a whole traveling circus 24-7 with the artists, dancers and crew. Not Taylor – most of her concerts are scheduled Thursday through Saturday, and then she has the other half of the week “off,” where she flies home to New York or Nashville and decompresses and checks in with her cats. Her tour equipment is moved by 18-wheeler trucks and she has the franchise on those truckers: they are solely employed by her for the length of her tour. She’s removed herself from the traveling-circus aspect of touring and the whole operation is a well-oiled machine at this point, because she’s done this for her last three or four tours. Well, now Taylor’s truckers are getting a nice bonus.
Taylor Swift is sharing the wealth from her wildly successful Eras Tour … in the form of six-figure bonuses for the truckers hauling her equipment all around the country! Our Taylor sources tell us she gifted each trucker working her tour $100,000 … handing out the bonus checks before her Saturday show in Santa Clara, CA.
We’re told the folks getting the money are production truck drivers who have been hauling Taylor’s equipment for The Eras Tour … there are around 50 truckers for her U.S. tour, which means Taylor just shelled out about $5 million.
Our sources say the checks were an “end of the tour” bonus … remember, the United States leg is coming to a close next week when Taylor plays a series of gigs at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood before moving down to Mexico.
Taylor’s nationwide tour has raked in $1 billion in sales … and when the dust settles, she could end up having the highest-grossing tour of all time!!!
Truck drivers aren’t the only ones getting a slice of the pie in the form of bonuses. Our production sources tell us Taylor also bonused band members, dancers, lighting and sound technicians, caterers, and others. It’s unclear how much the non-truckers received, but we’re told it was a “very generous amount.”
That’s genuinely nice! I would imagine the truckers, dancers and crew people already get paid well, but bonuses are always welcome and appreciated. It’s good for someone in Taylor’s position to not only give generously to the people she employs, but to be seen doing so, especially in an era when blue-collar work is not appreciated or properly compensated. The economics of Taylor Swift are always so fascinating to me, and Taylor is being partly credited with the economic revival in America. Taylor and Barbie – the booming economics of “making a product for girls and women.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Las Vegas, NV – “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Allegiant Stadium on March 24, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 24 MARCH 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Las Vegas, NV – “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Allegiant Stadium on March 24, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 24 MARCH 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Dallas, TX – American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 31 MARCH 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Dallas, TX – American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 31 MARCH 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York City, NY – Taylor Swift dons denim shorts and a smile as she arrives at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 27 JUNE 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Taylor Swift dons black shorts and a smile as she arrives at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 29 JUNE 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
According to People Magazine, she paid $55 MILLION in bonuses in total!! And that’s just for the first leg of the tour. I know her team has got to be thrilled!
Good on her and good for her crew.
Really that is amazing.
Big juxtaposition with Lizzo’s news about her staff
This is how the 1% spread some of their wealth. I hope that others will see what’s she doing and also do something similar. It’s a start.
Love the sparkling mic box on her back. Great job Taylor!
HAHAH! I’ve always said those mike boxes were designed by men to wear on their BatBelt, so they’d feel manly. If mike boxes were designed by women, they’d be a bracelet, and be covered in gems.
Well, she needed some good publicity.
Still good that she is doing something good.
Bitter much?
For riding KY klax klan dick consistently…noo
I think she’s good. Not exactly hurting, is she? She’s always appreciated employees, that’s why they hang around.
The world needs more Taylor and less Lizzo, apparently.
@ sarahlee you’re bias is showing. Please educate yourself and be better. Kindly and respectfully saying this.
If you really believe this, you actually understand nothing about white supremacy. NADA.
I don’t believe the accusations about Lizzo. Sexual harassment? Commenting on employees’ bodies? It’s diametrically opposed to everything she has stood for thus far. 🤨
Yes she needed this. From the “real time” changing ticket prices after the buyer clicked them. To her forgetting words and the sets being so cheap.
She needed to be seen sharing the wealth. I went to one of her “eras” shows.
The crowd tried super hard to keep the energy up. You go to her shows for the crowd.
@Tree
I’m surprised to hear the sets are cheap – I’ve watched some live feeds and they look great – but in real life when you were up close they look shoddy? Is it some of them or all of them?
^ this
Why can’t she just do something good and STFU about it? It almost doesn’t count if you have to tell the world about how generous you are. Prince was the best at this. Give from your heart, not to get good press in return.
@Spillthattea
How did people find out about Prince’s donations eventually? Was it after he died?
Having heard Sinead O’Connor’s horror story about Prince though, it does sour it.
She’s not the one telling her truck drivers are. One of them even posted the hand written letter she sent to tell them about the bonus
She didn’t have to do this at all so this is good of her. It must not be a steady income being in a career associated with touring either so this is cool to give people a bit of peace of mind.
That’s really nice of her. I think that should be standard on all successful tours.
This is certainly better than dating a woman hating punk, scumbag. Good for her crew.
Girl_Ninja, your comment best describes my thoughts. The whole Swilly Heaft debacle left a really nasty taste that hasn’t gone away. On the other hand, this is a very nice tip and show of appreciation for the people employed to run her tour. Interesting that we know this much about her generosity, though.
😅😅💯
TS is without a doubt one of the most generous people. Spreading the wealth among those who deserve it is so admirable. She’s also made donations to food banks in cities she’s toured. I’d bet $$ she’s done plenty of other things we don’t know about.
Pretty much all of the huge touring acts are donating to charity pretty generously they just do not get the public fawning that Taylor gets for it. Harry Styles donated millions from his tour and The Weeknd is giving millions of dollars to UNICEF and local food charities from his tour. Beyonce also has a charitable donation service with her tour. It just does not get the press. Her bonuses were really cool though. I am sure it was much appreciated and she also can use some good press after her Nazi BF fiasco
Nah. You’d def know about it.
She is making me Swifty. I loved her last two alboms very much, hooked on Folklore especially. Look, she is talented, hard worker, interacting with her fans, I liked her views about politics.
Good for her to pay extra to the people who work for her.
What she is doing in her bedroom is not my business. Her private life is hers.
Lol her dating a racist misogynist is not “private” whatsoever. She didn’t even want to keep him private. I think that’s a little telling.
You like her political views? Wow. Tell me you’re OK with racism and misogyny without telling me.
That’s great. Truly, that has a big impact on the lives of all of the people on her crew.
Take note Bezos, this is how you treat your employees.
Ha!
Imagine Bezos giving bonuses to blue-collar staff! No way.
That’s very nice and generous of her. She’s loaded so she can afford it, but plenty of loaded celebrities aren’t this good to their workers (is Kevin Costner? I wonder). One thing I’ll give Taylor, she thinks about the people who underpin her success: her fans, the crew, etc.
Other Uber-rich performers should take not.
Yep. It’s generous but it’s also smart. These people will keep coming back to work for her and obviously know how to do the job right.
Exactly, she can afford to do this but that doesn’t mean that all mega-wealthy people do the same.
Jeff Bezos could learn a thing or two about sharing the wealth from Taylor Swift.
Good for her. Also great way to keep people with you until the end of the tour. It can’t be easy to be away from home (and likely family) for that long.
Yes she doesn’t want a repeat of the Red tour where some of her dancers bailed to join Katy Perry’s Prismatic tour. At least she got a great song out of it though!
She added three additional dates today to occur this fall, but she’s at SoFi now and after that the original US tour schedule ends.
I think I may be a re-Swifty now.
I gotta admit, she annoys me so much with her schtick, but this is beyond criticism, even if some people think she does it for good PR. Pay people what they are worth to you! Good job.
The bar is set in hell for this woman and how easily y’all fall for it.
Good on T Swift.
I would think that dancers,truckers and crew members would be the same through out ones tour. Is it possible to be on Taylor and Beyonces tour at the same time ?
The article states that she had these drivers exclusively, so while contracted they are only on her tour.
I went to an “Eras” concert with my daughters and it was great. I think what this shows is that most people aren’t all good or all bad. People are complex.
I was disgusted by her relationship with with Joe Alwyn — not least because my younger daughter no longer wanted the expensive merch I bought when we went to Taylor’s concert LOL. But also genuinely disgusted.
These bonuses, though, are fantastic. Good for Taylor for sharing the bounty.
I think you mean Matt Healy 🙂 Joe Alwyn seems like a pretty decent human being.
Sheesh, you’re right, Polly!! I really shouldn’t try to multitask!
I’m admittedly a Swiftie but seriously, that is life-changing money for most people. It would be for me! Like buy a home, pay off debt, save for retirement, open a kid’s college fund kind of money. I went to the Eras tour and was generally impressed by how much TS showcases her band and dancers. At the end, they all hold hands and take a bow together. She publicly and privately acknowledges their labor and talent.
I recently saw Janet Jackson and for the first time, ever, that was a concert where the artist never used the names of her dancers or band during the show. No intros or anything. I found it so bizarre.
I think whatever criticisms you might have about Taylor – some valid, some not – she has demonstrated a number of times that she’s a really great boss. She has the same people come back for her tours, and she also takes all her dancers and her band on a luxe vacation at the conclusion of her tours. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has given bonuses at the end of all of her tours in the past – it’s just that these bonuses were so large because this tour has been crazy profitable. I think it’s even going to go down in history as the most profitable musical tour of all time. It’s great she’s giving people back a piece of that.
I wonder if there was also something in the contracts, seasonal jobs like this often have a ‘staying on’ bonus payment. eg if you stay on for the whole duration, you get an extra payment so they dont have people dropping out constantly and especially at the end as they start looking for a new job.
In our city 2 days of Tay’s concerts brought in more money (estimated) than the NFL Draft did to our city! That’s some serious cash to restaurants, hotels, etc. I am not a follower of T.S. but am beginning to be a fan of her business acumen.
It still too easy for some of yall. The only reason she did this is because we learned how awful she was when her dancers took another gig in between her last tour. She did not have any of them on retainers, so they took a working gig, with Katy Perry.
This woman is not a genius, the people she pay are.
Just a tiktok about how the head of the truck drivers actually got 200k, so props to ts.
Um. Why wouldn’t she?!?
She does have the money alright but so many super-rich people are stingy af. So it’s not by any means a given.
Good for her. I like her. I was surprised at this last “romance” – but my ex-fiance turned out to be a Trump supporter (after we’d broken up, thank God), so maybe she didn’t see it coming? Maybe she didn’t care. Idk – I pay attention to celeb gossip, but not down to checking timelines and such.
But it’s been shown that she’s pretty generous with her money, at least as far as I’m aware.
Comparing her to the Lizzo situation is extremely unfair to Lizzo (who I totally adore until proven that I should not adore her).
She gave out a bunch of money to people who work to prop her up when she didn’t have to – I can’t find a problem with that. Sorry.
She’s netting $500 million from this tour (from the $1 billion in sales) but it’s always nice to see people doing stuff like this (Keanu on the Matrix production too).
That is so wonderful of her!