Tame Impala ProfileTame Impala scoring a headline slot on Coachella 2019 was a big win for the WA-born superstars and Aussie music fans, but it was chaos behind the scenes prior to that announcement.
As Billboard reports, in the weeks leading up to the grand unveil, festival co-founder Paul Tollett was swamped with issues as two headline acts withdrew, including Kanye West and Justin Timberlake, the latter of which bumped Tame Impala’s name up the Saturday line-up to a headline slot.
Timberlake was forced to withdraw after bruising his vocal chords in December and rescheduling headline dates that conflicted with Coachella's radius clause.
Just two days out from the line-up announcement, West also dropped off the bill, with the artist reportedly putting in a last-minute production request that promoters labelled impossible.
West wanted to perform a giant, custom-built dome in the middle of the festival grounds, which organisers said would take longer than four months to build and would require a massive overhaul of the festival site, subsequently removing a large number of port-a-potties.
Tollett was able to secure Ariana Grande as a replacement headline act for West.
