Matty Healy blasts ‘f***ing gross’ artists who offer paid meet-and-greets for fans

Healy challenged musicians to take the money off the fans themselves and see how they felt

Matty Healy has issued a challenge to artists who offer paid meet-and-greets for fans – take the cash out of the fans’ hands themselves and see how they feel.

The lead singer of The 1975 raged against the concept, calling it “f***ing gross”, in a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music.

“I hate paid meet and greets. You’ve paid for the album, you’ve paid for the ticket, you’ve paid for the parking, you get them in the room and somebody’s gone, ‘How do we monetise that bit?’” Healy said.

“You know what the model should be?” Healy added, pointing directly into the camera. “If you’re an artist and you do paid meet and greets, do it, cash, and you take the money off the fan. I challenge you to do that.

“... You’ll do it for two minutes and you’ll never f***ing do it again, because you’ll realise that it’s disgraceful.”

Lowe responded that the concept was “f***ing gross” to which Healy agreed “it’s absolutely f***ing gross”.

Healy went on to single out Thirty Seconds to Mars singer Jared Leto and “all that lot” who allegedly “promote” meet-and-greets, saying it’s an “abomination”.

The Independent has contacted Leto’s representatives for comment.

Lowe was speaking to Healy ahead of the release of The 1975’s fifth studio album, Being Funny In a Foreign Language, which is out on 14 October.