During a recent appearance on 95.5 KLOS’s New & Approved show, Volbeat frontman Michael Poulsen reflected on how the global pandemic has affected their shows. Poulsen stated that they don’t like canceling shows as they don’t want to disappoint the fans.
As you might know, Volbeat and Ghost recently embarked on one of 2022’s most anticipated shows. They have been co-headlining a US tour, which started on January 25 in Reno, Nevada, and will end on March 4 in Las Vegas. The two bands also teamed up for a special limited edition double A-side vinyl featuring their Metallica covers as seen in ‘The Metallica Blacklist’ tribute album. That limited edition has been available at each tour stop.
At the beginning of their tour, just before Volbeat’s concert on January 29 in Nampa, Idaho, the band’s drummer, Jon Larsen, tested positive for COVID-19, which led the band to cancel their show. Later on, the members decided to continue the tour with former Slayer and Testament drummer Jon Dette in the absence of Larsen. During the conversation, Poulsen was asked about what it was like to play with Dette in several shows.
The singer stated that the worst thing about Larsen contracting COVID was that they had to cancel their shows, which he knows would highly disappoint fans. Another challenging thing for them was to find someone to replace Larsen. They came up with a new option instead of canceling some shows and called Jon Dette, who has been a close friend of them. He quickly learned 16 Volbeat songs that they would play in the shows and helped them out during this challenging period.
Michael Poulsen speaking on the effects of the pandemic on the band’s shows:
“The worst thing is always to cancel shows because you really don’t wanna let down the fans. But at the same time, Jon is the original drummer, and he played every single Volbeat show there’s ever been. So we were, like, ‘Okay, what are we going to do? Are we going to cancel some shows, or are we going to see if we can come up with a Plan B?’ And the Plan B was to see if we can come up with a drummer that could learn, like, 16 Volbeat songs in less than 24 hours.
And Jon Dette was the guy. And we called him up, and he was very excited about it. And he’s been a very good friend of ours for a very long time. And he always said, ‘If I can ever help you guys out, just call me.’ So that’s what we did. And I don’t know how he managed to pull it off, but he learned those 16 songs within 24 hours. And he did very well. He ended up playing three or four shows; I don’t recall now.”
You can watch the entire conversation below.
