Van Warped co-founder plans country music tour

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Kevin Lyman has a pretty warped view of country music, and that could be a good thing.

The co-founder of the Vans Warped, Rockstar Taste of Chaos and Rockstar Mayhem tours now has his sights set on a similar tour focusing on country music: multi-act, multistage, sponsor-driven and conservatively priced.

To put the tour together, Lyman has opened an office of his 4fini Productions in Nashville. His company's team visited Nashville in January to meet with labels, managers and agents on an exploratory trip, and interest was high.

"Everyone was saying the time is right," he says.

The first version of the yet-to-be-named tour will hit the road in summer 2010. "We want to customize what we've been able to do with Warped (in the punk genre), and last year with Mayhem in metal," Lyman tells Billboard. "We invested a lot of time with the metal labels before we put that tour into motion, and we've put a lot of time into this (new) project."

The inaugural country tour will probably book about 14 acts and 10 to 12 singer-songwriters, Lyman says. He also envisions targeted ancillary events with other exhibition partners, and action sports exhibitions.

"It's very wide open. We're not down to those details yet, but we're not discounting anything," Lyman says.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

(please visit our entertainment blog via www.reuters.com or on blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)