Bobby Brown’s Unhappy Customers

Concert promoters are miffed at pop star Bobby Brown, who recently canceled the final 20 dates on his long-running U.S. tour--including one planned for Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Aug. 11.

Maynard Potter, general manager of the California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles, which had booked Brown for Aug. 13, issued a terse statement announcing the cancellation and adding: “The reasons are very nebulous . . . and the fair interprets this as a lack of concern for Brown’s fans and the public in general.”

Brown’s booking agent, John Marx, acknowledged that other promoters were also unhappy about the cancellation.

“Clearly everybody that has had a date cancelled is upset,” said Marx, vice president in charge of the contemporary music department at the William Morris Agency.

The Los Angeles-based singer could not be reached for comment on the reasons for the cancellation. But one thing’s for sure: The dates weren’t pulled because of poor ticket sales. Brown is one of the year’s hottest artists. His “Don’t Be Cruel” album has sold nearly 5 million copies in this country alone, and has yielded four straight Top 5 singles.

So what’s the reason for the cancellation?

Brown’s New York-based attorney, Richard Hofstetter, told Pop Eye: “The only reason these dates are being cancelled is so he can begin pre-production work on his next album, take some time to write, and work on other people’s projects. The next album probably won’t come out before the end of the year but he needs to start working on it now. On his last album, he didn’t write the majority of the songs. He wants to write a great deal of his album this time.

“He had to make a choice here,” Hofstetter said. “He could have made a lot more money staying out on the road. But there’s a lot of pressure on him for the next album. He wants to make it right.”

Liz Heller, MCA’s vice president of artist development, suggested that general burnout was another reason for the cancellation.

“I think he’s a little tired of being on the road,” she said. “It’s very difficult for him to do other things.”

Agent Marx noted that “Bobby has had a very rigorous schedule.” The singer was on the road virtually non-stop from September to June, playing 160 dates. He has also filmed six videos and acted in two films, “Ghostbusters 2” and an upcoming Shelley Duvall movie for the Disney Channel.

Brown’s representatives denied widely circulated rumors that a cocaine dependency was a factor in the decision.

“He does not do drugs. This is one instance where the rumors are wrong,” said attorney Hofstetter, who attributed the rumors to Brown’s street-tough persona.

“I understand everyone’s concern,” added Louil Silas Jr., an executive vice president in MCA’s black music division. “But at what point in his career are these rumors going to be put to rest? They’ve been going on virtually his entire career. When he left New Edition that was the rumor--it was drugs, cancer, all kinds of other things other than what he wanted to do as a solo artist.

“He’s been touring since September,” added Silas. “He’s been to a lot of these markets two and three times. There is such a thing as overexposure. When does it end? It ends now, so he can enjoy life before he literally falls out.”

But none of this mollifies Potter of the Mid-State Fair.

“I’ve heard every excuse and at this point I don’t buy any of them,” he told Pop Eye. “We had close to $100,000 worth of tickets sold here and we’re looking at $40,000 to $50,000 in out-of-pocket expenses on this date. And it’s a unilateral situation. They can seem to cancel us anytime they want, but if I wanted to cancel a show after I was committed, they’d say, ‘Oh, you can’t get out of this. Your contract is in blood.’ The other way, it’s in very thin water.”