Well, first off, I wouldn’t ever describe myself as a “rockstar” (that seems cheesy to me haha), but I drummed for a popular underground hardcore-punk band for a few years. We toured all the time, headlined a few tours, played all of Warped Tour 08′, and all of Warped Tour ’09. I was 17-21 in the years of playing for the band and touring and everything. I will try to breakdown each part of your question…
- Lifestyle: It was amazing. We were on the road 80% of the year and for that 20% when we were home, we were resting, with our friends/familiares, and working part time jobs to save up for tour money. We obviously all loved music more than anything, so getting to play almost every day was a dream come true. Since we were all 18-21, also, we loved to party and meet new people. Being in places where lots of people already knew who you were made it very easy to meet new people and have lots of conversational topics. I’m not going to lie, either, it was amazing being in the limelight after shows. It just gave you this sense of a “king” or something. You also got lots of fun gifts and such that fans would make you. Even small things like a fan baking us brownies or something was amazing to us.
- Sexlife: You definitely got to meet lots of random girls on the road. We would typically get invited to lots of house parties after each show. Sometimes the parties were lame but other times they were pretty crazy. IT was typically very easy to find a girl to hook up with at the party, if that was what you were into. I had a girlfriend for most of the years in the band, so I wasn’t super into the hooking up, but if you wanted to, it was very easy. Most of the girls at the parties obviously knew who we were so it was an easy conversation started and with the combo of alcohol and occasionally minor drugs, it was very easy to get girls in bed. They would basically throw themselves at you, anyways. Haha
- Daily: This could vary. On the road, there was lots of driving. We had a bus and a bus driver, so we would typically hangout on the bus, play cards, play video games, joke around, etc. while we were traveling. As far as show days went; we would get there in the morning, find out times and schedules, play out show, and then typically just party after we played. Since we didn’t have to worry about driving, it was the best case scenario. We got to live a dream that was perfect for us.
- Diet: You learn pretty fast on tour that fast food and junk food will make touring a horrible experience. So you make a lot of sandwiches, or get sandwiches (like Jimmy Johns or Subway). Or to save money we would stop at a grocery store and get things for PB&J’s, granola bars, fruit cups, veggies, fresh fruit, etc. Since we had a fridge on the tour bus, it was pretty easy to keep food good and fresh like you would at home. Also, a lot of the shows had red room platters and all that jazz, which was typically pretty damn good. Lots of BBQ’s with other band friends, also.
- Working with a manager: We had a tour manager, and a band manager from the same company. The tour manager was on the road with us (obviously), and would do more day-to-day operations and handle all the on-the-road logistics and financial stuff. While our band manager was at his offices in Seattle, WA and did more of the big picture stuff. Promotional stuff with the label, CD/DVD stuff, etc.
All in all, the rest of the band and I stayed very humble. There were times you were cocky in your head a little, but we never liked to show that on the outside. We didn’t want to ever come off as dicks or anything, so we tried extra hard just to be friends with everyone we met and “keep it real.”
– Anonymous
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.