One More For The Road(ies): Ten Songs About Road Crews

“Bless em all. I just play the songs. They make the show happen”.

Tom Petty summed up those who use muscles and electronic wizardry to set up and load out, and face unspeakable danger when keeping the tight schedules to reach the next town.

There were about 10,000 of crews and roadies in Australia before COVID-19 saw some leave.

Pantera, Motörhead and Godsmack featured their road sambas in their tour videos.

Cold Chisel walked the walk when referring to their squads as “family”. They kept them at full pay when they went off the road, and set up a foundation for the children of two crewbies who died in a crash while on duty.

Here are 10 examples of musicians showing their gratitude.

Jackson Browne – The Load-Out

Jackson Browne described The Load-Out as  "a love song to the audience and the crew." 

The US singer songwriter was very close to his crew, particularly to Donald "Buddha" Miller who started as tour manager and became his co-manager.

The song emerged on 1977’s Running On Empty album, made up of live tracks from various locations. 

Browne and his band had tried The Load-Out in rehearsals. But not happy with its arrangement, they decided to keep it on the shelf.

But on August 27, 1977, at a show at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, the audience called them back for three encores. They ran out of songs, and drummer Russ Kunkel suggested they try it out and see how it went down.

The crowd went wild for it. It remained in the set as a closer, segueing into a cover of Maurice Williams' 1960 hit Stay which was about asking an audience not to leave at the end of the show because the musicians wanted to keep playing.

Australian Crawl – Love Boys

Australian Crawl had tough nuts in their squad-ups, including a stage manager and security guy who armed himself with a large sledgehammer he called “The Gentle Persuader” to deal with jealous bogans began mad-doggin’.

Drummer Bill McDonough wrote Love Boys for two of them, dubbed The Two Andys, one Andy who did front of house and the other Andy the lights.

“Kings Cross cruiser

Late night bruiser

The tattooed love boys

The tattooed losers.”

He recalled:  “They worked so hard – Crawl would do 7 to 8 Melbourne gigs in a week, and then seven to eight weeks in Sydney and then to Brisbane—  and they’d be so skinny that they needed regular Vitamin B shots.”

Motörhead – (We Are) The Road Crew

One of Motörhead’s long serving crew members, Richie Duncan, recounted to Louder Sound, “We had a motto out on the road: work hard, play hard.”

“Every night, we’d drink I don’t know how many bottles of Jack Daniel’s,” he added. “And there were no superstars with this band: it was like a family.”

Which is why Lemmy so skilfully captured the lifestyle in the song:

“Another town another place,

Another girl, another face,

Another truce, another race,

I'm eating junk, feeling bad,

Another night, I'm going mad,

My woman's leaving, I feel sad,

But I just love the life I lead,

Another beer is what I need,

Another gig my ears bleed,

We are the road crew.”

Lemmy hailed his troops as “the best in the world”, so it was not a sign of disrespect that he wrote We Are The Road Crew in ten minutes in the toilet of a recording studio in Rickmansworth, North London. “It was the only place that was quiet,” he’d explain.

Duncan, who also pulled double duty as the band’s chef, gave Louder Sound an insight that for all of Lemmy’s hell-raising, “he liked simple food. His big favourite was cod in parsley butter sauce, mashed potatoes and marrowfat peas – always marrowfat peas, straight out of the tin. 

“He also liked shepherd’s pie, but – this was important – no onions. He hated onions.”

Allan Caswell – Boys In Black

Having spent over 50 years on the road, for Australian singer songwriter Allan Caswell it was inevitable that musician/ crew anthems of life on the road would seep through in songs.

On Red Roo Roadhouse he sang, “When I'm strung out tight from driving all night/ I know what it takes, I need the six dollar truckies' breakfast that the Red Roo Roadhouse makes.” 

About ten years ago, when the Australian Road Crew Association (ARCA) and CrewCare started raising funds for roadies in financial, physical and mental crisis, Caswell contacted ARCA co-founder Adrian Anderson on how he could help.

“Write us a theme song,” replied Anderson who toured the US with Rod Stewart and Air Supply.

When Anderson made contact a week later, Caswell told him, “I’m in the studio with some people at the moment, let’s talk in 24 hours.”

Twenty four hours later, Caswell had recorded the song, and donated all royalties to ARCA’s Roadies Fund, in the same way Crowded House, AC/DC and Paul Kelly donated proceeds from tours. At ARCA’s request, Caswell changed some of the lyrics to include women roadies.

The La De Das – Gonna See My Baby Tonight

Guitarist Kevin Borich was inspired by two squad legends for one of the La De Das’ first Australian hits in 1971, reaching #12.

The band had finished a tour, and were driven home by “Swampy” Jarvis in his double transit which came with second hand airplane seats.

Seated behind the driver’s seat Borich began tinkering with chords on his guitar. 

It started bluesily, channelling a sleazy nightclub singer originally titled Ever Since That Night. “What happens next?” Jarvis encouraged. “What does he do?”

The rocky bit which followed, with its final title, was inspired by plans Jarvis and fellow crewer John Sweeney to hit the clubs when they got back to Sydney. 

Borich related, “John Sweeney used to get dressed up in these pink pants. He was a chick magnet.”

The song would also be recorded by The Kevin Borich Express, The Party Boys and Bitzer.

Neil Young – Tonight’s The Night

Tonight’s The Night was Neil Young’s grief at losing roadie Bruce Berry and Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten to heroin.  

Berry was the brother of Jan Berry of surf pop duo Jan and Dean, and crewed for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and some of the solo members.

He died on June 4th, 1973, and Young sings on the song, "Bruce Berry was a working man / He used to load that Econoline van..."

Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show – Roland The Roadie And Gertrude The Groupie

This was written in the early ‘70s by US counter-culture figure Shel Silverstein, author, cartoonist and musician. It was about an ill-fated romance on the road.

Silverstein also wrote Dr. Hook’s hits Cover Of The Rolling Stone and Sylvia’s Mother, as well as Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue and Marianne Faithfull’s The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan.

The Byrds – B.B. Class Road

A light-hearted song from The Byrds about a road manager's life on tour with a rock band, it was penned by Byrds' drummer Gene Parsons and their UK-born sound engineer Stuart "Dinky" Dawson who ran his own sound company

A long-time rumour was that Dawson, a good singer, handled vocals on the track. In fact Parsons wanted him to sing but he’d refused. So the drummer did it impersonating the roadie. 

Dinky (nicknamed because of his collection of dinky toys as a kid) went on to work with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, BB King and J. Geils Band.

Hilltop Hoods – I’m Good?

Roadies face mental, financial and physical problems. CrewCare’s report The Issues Facing Crew Workers In Australia found 45% think they work “excessive hours”, 

53% don’t have a work/life balance, 22% felt they did not manage their physical health well, and 23% are not handling mental health.

In 2020, during the pandemic close-down, Hilltop Hoods released a charity single I'm Good? to raise funds for charity association Support Act’s Roadies Fund.

Hoods member Suffa said aid was going directly to the "backbone of the live music scene, particularly the people in road crews – soundies, light techs, riggers.

"That’s our people, those guys and girls are the ones who look after us at the festivals and concerts. They were probably one of the first groups of people to be hit when all the festivals started being canned."

Tenacious D – The Roadie

In their 2012 track The Roadie, Tenacious D drooled about the perfect stage tech.

"The roadie looks a thousand miles with his eyes

And when the crowd roars, it brings a teardrop to the roadie's eyes

Tears of pride, because they brought you the show, but you will never know

 Because he's changing the strings while hiding in the wings 

No matter how high, the show must go on."

The video for the track featured fellow-comedian Danny McBride of Eastbound And Down fame dressed up to look like Lemmy from Motörhead.

Roadies Who Became Rock Stars

Lemmy was after all a roadie with The Jimi Hendrix Experience who were exploding when Lemmy moved to London in 1967. He got the gig because he slept on the floor of a flat rented by Experience bassist Noel Redding and tour manager Neville Chesters.

He got a stage-side view of the master at work. “When he performed, he was magic. You would watch him and space and time would stop.”

Noel Gallagher lugged gear for Manchester’s Inspiral Carpets, joining Liam’s band when he got sacked.

Tupac Shakur was roadie and backup dancer for New York rap group Digital Underground but let go as he was too ambitious to be a team player.

Henry Rollins made his presence felt in the Washington DC late ‘70s punk scene crewing for a number of acts, including Teen Idles.

Frank Bello of Anthrax and Artimus Pyle of Lynyrd Skynyrd worked as crew before their bands discovered by accident they were actually very good players.