questions for celebrity tour bus drivers

I hope someone answers. This should be interesting.

 

I would imagine they are subject to confidentiality agreements.

 

The ones I've known over the years have no time to be messin' around on a message board...They're too busy babysittin'!

 

I will have to try and get a friend of my Wife's to come on here when he gets going.
He will be starting out driving a tour bus in a couple of weeks.
Some friends of his from high school made it big recently and will be touring with some really big rock bands this summer.
I told him if they end up needing a second bus, to give me a call.

 

I know one from another site. He drives a rig OTR and switches back to a tour bus. Some kind of a music gig on the tour bus. I think when he gets burned out on one he switches up.

 

For five years, I drove a million dollar motorcoach for a very wealthy man who owned a large trucking company. I was on salary, unlimited expense account, he sent me to his tailor to have my suits and clothes made, I had a company car to run errands for him when we were at home. I was responsible for everything concerning the coach, supplies, booze, washing and cleaning was my job too. The coach was kept in a heated garage with a large room off to the side where we kept supplies. I was the driver, the cook, the doorman, the janitor, and the "floor mat".

What else do you want to know about a job such as this? It ain't all roses.

Oh, I did not fall under DOT. The coach was registered in N.C. as a RV.

 

My dad started out driving a bus for The Hemphills, a gospel group out of Nashville.

Later on, he drove for the Marshall Tucker Band for about 9 years. He didn't drive the band but the road crew guys. I got to see alot of concerts from the backstage area and I really miss that part. He received 4 gold records by the band with his name on the record for driving.

The last tour that he did was for Bon Jovi and Ratt.. I was 16 and got to spend 2 weeks on tour with them. Did I mention I was 16, they were famous and I had a blast!!!!!

When I got into trucking, that was my goal.. Drive for a couple of years and then drive the bus or the truck. Well that has changed but I still think about it. My husband and I team and we don't have a house per say, so being out for months wouldn't be a problem.

But it is a babysitting job... Some of the guys were not nice, nor clean and drank and drank and some other stuff..

If anyone knows how to get into that side of the business, please let me know..

 

I have been driving an entertainer coach for the last 13 years i started out hauling cattle, Yes i am one of the guys that blow by you doing 100 usually at about 3 am trying to get to the next gig, Everyone thinks we have the greatest job and at times it is but for the most part its not, we dont have to run log books therefore we dont get much sleep, try driving 2000 miles nonstop to get to a show or a day off so everyone is happy, if you think i am exaggerating i really dont care, im just giving you a peak into what we go through every week, typical day for a rock & roll bus driver just did this on monday>>> wake up in my hotel room at 11 pm bus call is at 1 am, get a shower get dressed go downstairs and wait for the runner to pick me up, runner was only 20 minutes late because he had to wait for girlfriend to get autographs from the band, get back to the bus, clean up the mess the band has made, beer cans and bottle sitting everywhere take out the trash that they cant seem to figure out how to do, tidy up the rest of the bus, make sure we are a bus (everyone is on board) by now it is 1 AM leave dallas headed to phoenix just a little over a thousand miles not too bad considering some of our runs, we have to be in phoenix at 4pm local time the next day, ( i know what your thinking and i promise you not only can it be done but it is done so by every truck and bus on the tour) 1 hour down the road lead singer wants to stop for cookies, tell him we dont have time, he gripes and moans, goes back to watching tv, 3 hours later lead singer wants to stop for cookies, tell him no time, goes back to bed, this goes on all night through the morning and into the afternoon with the lead singer and band members, until finally we pull into the flying hook in phoenix it is now 3 pm local time, top off with fuel, we always top off when we get to where we are going so we dont have to stop during the night, if a band ever gets off at a truckstop your screwed for at least an hour, so we fuel up top off the water tanks, get them back on and head to the venue, get parked up level the bus up put the slide out and proceed to cleaning the bus again, taking trash out, vacuming, wiping down the counters cleaning the bathroom, picking up all the trash they have made on the trip since we left, today just so happens to be service day, so after the interior is done i tell the guys to pull there sheets so i can have them washed i give them a clean pair and send the dirty out with the runner to be cleaned, now i have to service my generator just change the air filter oil filter and fuel filter and oil this has to be done every 100 hours bout once a week typically, get that done, go to catering and eat dinner it is now 5:30 pm i eat as quickly as possible so i can get some rest, wait on the runner to take me to the hotel, check in hotel at 6:30 pm get my shower and finally get in the bed at 7:15 bus call is at 1 am so i will be up at 11 pm the next show is medford, oregon. Just a little over a thousand miles away, and if you guessed soundcheck was at 4 pm local time you were right. Maybe this will give you some insight as to why we are always blowing by at triple digits, i have heard drivers on the radio yell at me that we should have left sooner but the truth is you cant leave until the band is on and ready to go, also there is a reason we are at a crawl when we are pulling into truckstops, its because we have people sleeping and we try not to wake them by hitting the parking lot bumps at 40mph got #####ed at by truck drivers for that one as well, its funny though when i hauled cattle no one ever griped about crawling across a parking lot, lol anyway i hope that gives you some insight to what you were looking for, and no i will not tell stories about any bands i am under a confidentiality agreement with everyone i work for.

 

thank you for posting this. I watched my Dad go through this. I have so many questions for him but unfortunately too late to ask (he passed away in 91)

again, thanks