Gig by John Bowe

Author:John Bowe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307565761
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2001-01-17T10:00:00+00:00

I did it because I loved it. And, in

addition, I got special perks and

privileges, such as lots of drugs.

HEAVY METAL ROADIE

Thomas B.

I set up my own production company when I was seventeen, promoting rock shows at my parents' theater in Port Jervis, New York. It was an old movie theater that my parents owned with some other people and Metallica was one of the first bands that I booked. This was 1981 or '82, and we booked them for a thousand bucks and two cases of beer. And fried chicken with the catering. Two cases of beer, a quart of Absolut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

John Zazoula at Mega-Force Records was Metallica's manager at the time. I booked a few of his other acts as well—Anthrax, Overkill, Anvil, Exciters—stuff like that. I got to know John pretty well and all his acts. None of them were a big deal yet, and they all needed road people. I had no training, but I was willing to work cheap. So I started as a roadie for Anthrax and SOD—Stormtroopers Of Death—and I found out that I was very good at road stuff. Some people in the music business are great in the studio, but not everybody can do the road. I was very good at the road. When I was nineteen, I started working as what's called a “guitarist technician” for Metallica. Over the next six years, I did most of Metallica's tours and I also worked for a lot of other bands and I did some production stuff—tour managing type stuff—as well. And I came home when I was twenty-three because I was addicted to heroin and alcohol.

In the beginning, it was so low-budget. The original Metallica tours were in Ryder trucks. I drove those trucks and did pretty much everything else too. A typical day was, like, you stayed at a bad hotel, you got up, you had breakfast, you drove to the next show 'cause you were too drunk to drive the night before, so you drove that day to the next show. Mostly it was theaters and big clubs, no stadiums or any of that shit yet. Then you loaded in and set up. The lights get set up first, then the PA, and then the band. Then you did the show.

During the shows, I had a specific job to do with the guitars. I was Kirk's guy in Metallica, which meant that I handled his guitars. I was Cary King's guy in Slayer, and Danny Spitz's guy in Anthrax, and Scott's guy in Stormtroopers Of Death. I set up their guitars, stringing and tuning and cleaning them. Everything like that. And then I'd baby-sit them while they're onstage. You see, you're responsible for his equipment and him. You're responsible for him onstage. You have to watch every show from the wings, backstage. You sit right there, all the time, through the whole show every show. Then, when it's over, you tear everything down and go straight to a hotel for the night 'cause you were usually too drunk to drive.

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