I remember a tour where we played 50 cities in 56 days. We also went to Europe a couple of times.
Every job has its downside. For example, being in a band; the travel part of it - getting picked up from your house in a car, going to the airport, getting on a plane, going from the airplane to a van, then going from the van to a hotel.
Touring is very tough.
When I'm working, I'll often be upgraded to a suite though I don't ask for preferential treatment. I'll be there with a tour manager, my band and various promotions people and the hotel will offer to upgrade one of us; luckily, it's usually me.
Live shows are really big for me. I want to do as many of those as I can.
We just got a tour bus. I didn't know tour buses could be this nice. It's just me, Brian Haner the guitar guy, the tour manager and a writer. We laugh ourselves silly. Apparently we're going to have a road dog, a miniature pincher. It's the smallest they've ever seen. How masculine am I going to look, working with dolls and a miniature dog?
I love looking out at 27 semis and being like, every single one of those semi trucks is there to put together my stage.
I always tell people, 'The music's free. I get paid to travel.'
Playing show after show is like my bread and butter.
My tour manager, I met him at Boot Barn. He was selling me a pair of boots... and he said, 'I moved to Nashville to be a tour manager, and I need work right now,' and I said, 'Man, I don't even have a tour manager. So you can tour-manage me.'
Yeah, about sixteen to twenty weeks a year. For example, we can do America in six or seven weeks. You can do Europe in three weeks; England in two weeks. South America you could do in three weeks; Asia you could do in three weeks.
When I leave backstage, some of the fans ask if I'm a roadie, and I just tell them, 'No, I'm the bus driver.' And, of course, they believe it.
I think touring is hard.
I do some concerts. At the moment, I'm being helped a lot by a gig I play in London, which is Pizza Express.
The great thing about being on tour is that... the band plays at night and other than that we have a lot of free time.
I'm dedicated to touring the rest of my life.
I have a wonderful road manager, and he travels with me. And my valet and friend travels with me. My little entourage is great, and they take good care of me.
Usually for the tour, there's about 80 songs in our brain.
I was on tour with Michael Jackson for a while; I did the 'Dangerous' and 'History' tours. I was also on tour with Diana Ross.
When Ozzy calls and asks you to go on tour, you say, 'When do I start?'
Writing a book is not as tough as it is to haul thirty-five people around the country and sweat like a horse five nights a week.
Mark Crew, the only producer we've ever worked with, has been joining us on tour as often as possible.
No seriously... when there's families, you tend to go back to your room after the gig rather than go for a drink with the other guys. But there's always someone who's got something going, like the tour manager.
I'd stay on tour for the rest of my life if I could. It's awesome.
Then, in 1983 I went on a very long concert tour all over Europe.
