Vance JoyJoining pop giant Taylor Swift on a stadium tour was a huge coup for Vance Joy, but the Melbourne artist has admitted it didn’t go as well as he’d hoped.
Appearing on a recent episode of The Plug with Neil Griffiths podcast, Joy reflected on supporting Swift’s 1989 world tour in 2015 – which saw him perform over 80 shows in stadiums throughout the US, Europe and Australia – saying it was a “trial by fire” experience.
“The first time I opened for Taylor Swift – her previous support was Ed Sheeran, right? Like, the biggest artist in the world – so it was big shoes to fill and I remember getting up there… and I realised that obviously some of the crowd knew Riptide but also I wasn’t really ready to perform to an arena,” Joy told Griffiths.
“In terms of, I couldn’t grab their attention and hold it and rock a show at an arena. I was kind of nervous, I felt like up to that point I was kind of like: ‘Get up there, say a few words in between songs, kind of mumble a few words, look down at my feet and then get off.’ When I felt this disconnect, I was like: ‘Was that good? I don’t know. Seemed alright.’
“I got off stage and I remember my manager… and Taylor Swift’s manager and they were like: ‘It’s OK, we’ll get there. We’ll figure it out.’
“I had to learn a bit of stagecraft… all that stuff which you can only learn by trial by fire. We kind of, not bombed, but we didn’t kill it, you know? And so over that whole tour of 80 shows or whatever it was, it was a real learning on the job.”
Listen to the full podcast with Joy below. The songwriter’s new album, In Our Own Sweet Time, is out now.
For all upcoming tour dates, click here.
