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You Wanna be an Idol!
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I’m amazed at how many people feel like being on the road is glamorous. I’ll admit when Bob Seger leaves the stage after a show he’s ushered into a limousine, driven to his plane and flown home to sleep in his own bed every night. Unless you’re a band like Nickelback, or Seger, or Prince, this typically isn’t the scenario.
I’ve been on the road with bands, covering them for stories. I’m one of the few people I know that enjoys sleeping on a tour bus. The feeling of the wheels turning and the road underneath me is my perfect recipe for a great nights sleep. The kicker though is week after week, month after month, year after year would be WAY too much.
Here’s a typical few days for most bands. After the show you do a meet and greet into later in the night. Then you go backstage or to the bus to unwind a bit. Sometimes that involves seeing friends from whatever city you’re in. Sometimes it involves finding a quiet place in the arena to have solitude. Sometimes it involves all out partying.
Once the bus pulls out of town and things die down you typically hit your bunk at whatever hour. In the morning you wake up outside of a club or arena. Typically you get up and go through the load in area to find breakfast, or shower. Once in the arena your day revolves around radio interviews, press, meet and greets, and what not. There is a sound check and more waiting around. Many times a band will not even leave the arena at all until the bus pulls away at night. The next morning it’s a different city, a different arena and many of the same activities.
What happens often is that you step into the bus, step off of the bus and walk through a backstage door time and time again. There’s little site seeing, there’s little ‘experiencing’ the ambiance of a particular city. When your tour goes like this it’s real easy to actually forget where you are. Soon, Columbus looks like Grand Rapids that looks like Sioux Falls that looks like Toledo, you get the picture.
I’m not saying that rock and roll isn’t a great gig, all I’m saying is that after a week or so I’m usually ready to go home.
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