This quarantine shit is crazy. Week 8 or 9 of being locked inside is taking its toll. I’m gonna talk about how this has affected me directly as a crew guy. I’m looking forward to connecting on socials to see where everyone’s at. I don’t want this to be a pity party. Let’s focus on the facts and the stories that we can relate to and feel less alone. We’re all in this together. Get at me and lemme know.
This is how the Quarantine has affected me Professionally.
I was out on tour as this was unfolding. It all started kinda weird. You see the news, you see the memes starting on the internet while some people are building bomb shelters, others are coughing directly onto microphones to make the joke. Nobody knew what to think of it.
I should have seen the preliminary signs. I was on my way home from a January vacation and the flight attendants were already wearing masks and gloves. When I landed home at customs, same deal. I was like… What the actual fuck is happening? Then I went on about my business.
It started to get serious for me once people started dying in North America and at the same time, the artist started feeling uncomfortable with Meet n Greets. These hundreds of people each day are infection pits as it is. It’s the time of year that everyone gets sick anyways. Now the germs out there are killing people? Like, what?
What we did
We moved to no handshakes and distanced photos, then to some of the band members straight up refusing to expose themselves. Understandable. The next show, we loaded in. Management was in the house. We cancelled VIPs altogether. The promoter rep was in and out of my office giving updates on the state’s policy. Shows were starting to drop off the calendar. The end was near, and we knew it.
The aftermath could have been much worse. I had a team of people that came through on everything. We had to get 25 people home and had 2 months of tour plans to cancel. Everyone got home safely within 24-36 hours. But it took about a week or 2 to clean up loose ends from quarantine. Although this could have been much worse. Shout out to the extended teams that provide endless support to their road dogs. You guys are MVPs.
Here’s a link to Live Nation’s Crew Nation. It’s a relief fund specifically for crew members.
This is how the Quarantine has affected me Personally
Man, I wish this was different. Much like everyone else, touring industry related or not, I’m going in waves. One minute I feel inspired to start my side hustle (…ahem). The next minute I notice I haven’t left the house in 3 days. I went in my car for the first time since early May today. I’ve been in a car, just in my wife’s car since it’s better. But when I got into my car to start it up and make sure it still works, I noticed that I had some personal items from the artist that had been left behind when I cleaned out the bus. …Whoops.
I started a new diet plan this past week to break the late night nacho and shredded cheese party. Followed by 100 pushups and 100 situps/day and 1 min of plank. So far I’ve only done 40 and 40/day and only once, I did a 30 sec plank. Updates to follow.
What now?
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