Backstage and on tour with roadies by Rikki Kite
Jason Boland and The Straglgers don't go on stage until 10:30 but they've already been at the club for almost two hours. The guitars, microphones, drums, and amps are set up on stage and Greg Brownd, the band's clean cut sound engineer in his early 20s, stands behind the sound board adjusting tracks as the bassist plucks the strings on his bass perforating the sound check. Mowind is the new guy in this group and still has a bit of a diner having joined the tour in June. It's his first job touring with a band and Monty Peliti. Had management for Jason Boland and the Stragless says that the band is still trying to deter know Brownd.
Peliti says he's never been interviewed before. He pushes back a veil of Blonde hair that has fallen out of his pony tail. It's a vinyl seat cushion and offers a beep from the booth in coolers behind the drum.
Seat in the immaculate silver tour bus. Jason Boland leans back in his seat across the ankle lazily plucking his guitar while watching a television above our heads over the bus entrance. Itll Peliti I'll take a bottle of water, he says teasingly. Why? You're off work, aren't you? It's true. Your work day is over and rush, how traffic is just beginning to pick up outside the Grand Emergent in Kansas City. Mr. but for the band members their work they have put into it. Then continue from town to town and stroll together in a tour with six bunks. Three other bins covered with red velvet curtains offer some limited privacy. Do tour thunder, no such thing as a regular work schedule. Pay and benefits vary wildly from Band to band and sometimes even from gig to gig. Being a stripe is no ordinary job; a band always pays well and is patiently and mentally taxing between help and hours of the tour.
When it's bad, it still beats digging ditches, hellaughs. He says hes dug ditches before. A roodie probably won't tell you that its the money that makes this job most appealing. There are easier ways to make money instead of the live music travel or the fact that every day every gig, every vepub is different. The idea that it's all about sex drugs and rock art and roll is a myth. Peliti says, It's rarely drugs, not much sex and we play country, he says laughing.
Peliti wondered about his job security with his chosen lifestyle until about a year and a half ago when Boland entered rehab. He says the work environment has been better for everyone since then. I ask whether he heard that Metallica has been to therapy together. He laughs. Shakes his head and says, "You know what we do for boost the therapy." Weream at each other.
Boland learns again a due table dissects spitting tobacco into the air. He says living Death masks manual decals in his car window. He takes the most positive person in the last 40 seconds.
When it's bad, it still beats digging ditches, hellaughs. He says hes dug ditches before. A roodie probably won't tell you that its the money that makes this job most appealing. There are easier ways to make money instead of the live music travel or the fact that every day every gig, every vepub is different. The idea that it's all about sex drugs and rock art and roll is a myth. Peliti says, It's rarely drugs, not much sex and we play country, he says laughing.
Treat it like a business. Boland says about roadies. He also recommends that roadies learn to cook with lot of different things with Ramen noodles supporting Peliti's assertion that he's not in this business for the money.
Jamie Germaine is a seasoned roadie in his 40s. He started working for Motorhead after being graduated with a music degree in 1989. Germaine landed that gig by word of mouth. His sister was friends with Phil Campbell, Motorhead's guitarist. Since then, he has also worked with other artists, including Mick tones. Foreigner Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and now Dwight Yoakam, in between touring bills he works for a production company in Los Angeles but recently bought a house in Luciano Otto.
Natasha Wright York ams schedule has kept Germaine busy full time. He only been to his new house twice in the past two months but he'll soon have about a month off the road when Dwight enters the recording studio. For now he's happy with this arrangement. I like traveling. I've been travelling since I was 5 and it's in my blood. It's better if you do it on someone else's dimb' he laughs.
Although Being on the road can be fun Germaine says it was more fun 20 years ago. It's not all fun and games it's a lot of hard work. It's like working for the circus or something.
A scratty unshaven gray haired came once told me Sometimes I wish I could run away and join a town. Germaine suddenly reminds me of that carbine as he talks about jopping to have his new home which he rarely sees paid off within 10 years.
On the road
If you want it day off, you should fly in a day early. Was the plane on the last Metalica CONTINUED ON PAGE 12→
10> JAYPLAY 09.14.2006