Ken Barr - We Are the Road Crew, Vol. 1

We Are the Road Crew

By

Ken Barr

We Are the Road Crew

Life on the Road and How I Got There

By

Ken Barr

Published by:

Dark Alley Publishing

A Division of Dark Alley Studios

Authors note: In this book you will read mostly stories of my days on the road. Its not that I am self centered, rather that I want to respect the privacy of the guys I toured with. If they want to share any stories or pictures, maybe Ill do another book. Lets hope so.

Copyright 2009 by Ken Barr
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Printed by CreateSpace.com

In the United States of America
Published in 2009 by Dark Alley Publishing

A division of Dark Alley Studios

WWW.DarkAlley-Studios.com

www.myspace.com/darkalleystudios

Inquiries: Kbarr2@cfl.rr.com
2010 Second Edition

Text copyright 2009 by Ken Barr

Photographs copyright 2009 by Ken Barr

Cover concept by Ken Barr

Cover Layout by Roy Louden

Cover copyright 2009 Ken Barr

Cover photo 2000 Ben Goode

Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Without the love and support of my wife Monica, this book would not be possible. Thank you for always being there.

I would also like to dedicate this work to the memory of my grandparents William and Edith Donnelly. Two people who raised their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and many other peoples children. They raised me and I miss them every day.

As all things start with family, I would like to thank mine for their contributions to my life.

Thank you to all those that gave me the opportunities I had on the road, and to all my road brothers out there.

Emma and Darla, you are always in my heart.

The Barr girls; Lucy, Pebs and Abbey, you bring light and love into my life every day.

Thank you

The Alice Cooper Organization; Alice, Shep, Toby, and Brian

The KISS Organization

The Gibson Family

Mr. Udo and all at Udo Artists

Eric Singer, Derek Sherinian, John Miceli, John Roggio, Tommy Henriksen, Johnny Caswell, Greg Smith, Louie Appel, George Cintron, Joe Lynn Turner, George Silk, Karl Cochran, Gary Corbett, Angus Vail, Andre Augustine, Al Fritsch, Todd Jensen, Ryan Roxie, Teri Hatcher, Russell Dannecker, The Botting Family, Bruce Kulick, Todds parents- Mr. and Mrs. Confessore, Ralphs parents- Mr. and Mrs. Ferreri, Vinnies family-The Kowalskis, Johns parents Mr. and Mrs. Miceli, Als parents Mr. and Mrs. Pitrelli, The Seymour Family, Paul Duffy and all at The Irish Rover in Sarasota, Fl., John Karlquist, Fiddlers Green in Winter Park, Fl., Rob Super Roadie Belcher, Kevin Batty Walsh, Putter T, Dan Stevenson, Scott Hennessy, Charlie Hernandez, Jeff Mann, Kevin Tater McCarthy, Trapps the Boy Wonder, The Almighty, Stone Temple Pilots, John OReilly, Al Pitrelli, Jimmy DeGrasso, The Bangles, Air Supply, Ritchie Mazzetta, Kenny Sherry, Ritchie Blackmore, Blake Elkin, Jimmy Gregorek, Raymie Kopels, Todd Confessore, Vinnie Kowalski, Ralph Ferreri, Charlie Milton, Howie Thaler, Carl Davino, and all the bands on Long Island that gave me a gig over the years.

We are the Road Crew

Somewhere, sometime if you have ever been to a concert, whether you realized it or not there was an army of technicians there putting the show together and keeping it running. If they were doing their job, you didn't know they were there, but they were. The road crew. Most people don't even realize there is a crew, they are there from the early morning setting up, through the show, and late into the night tearing the show down and putting it back into the trucks so they can get to tomorrows show.

Any show out there is going to have its own army of riggers, carpenters, sound and light crews, video crew, security team, pyro crew, laser people, production and stage managers, and the band gear or backline crew. All these people work together with the local stagehand crew do an amazing amount of work in a relatively short time.

I spent the better part of my adult life on the road and I loved every day of it. Nowadays they have schools where kids can learn the basic skills needed to get a job on the road. But when I started out these schools either didn't exist, or if they did I didn't know about them. Back then we all started out working local bar gigs, where you learned a little of everything and everyone did it all. That's where my story starts, the local bars of Long Island, New York.

The First Gig

Having learned the very basics in high school, which end of the microphone to yell into among other things, I realized I knew all there was to know about putting on a show, how hard could it be? Like most crew guys I started out as a rock star wannabe. I played guitar and started a band, I was on my way.

The town I grew up in was small and there really werent any clubs as such to play in. As kids we convinced the owners of the local taverns, gin mills for the working man, to let us set up in the corner and play. We were allowed to charge a small cover which the bar owner would then give us a percentage of, or so we thought.

There were only a couple of bands in the school I went to, and as I said very few places to play. When one band would get a gig at the local bar, the rest of us would become the crew, carrying in equipment in milk crates in hopes of avoiding the cover charge, and possibly getting to mooch from the bands bar tab. The phrase Im with the band has gotten me many a free drink over the years.

The first gig that I actually recall was a neighborhood bar called Schultzes Tuck Inn , it was a massive building with a four sided bar right by the front door, and a couple of pool tables further back. Behind that was just a large darkness, the place was poorly lit and there was no reason to go beyond the pool tables. I spent many a Saturday afternoon as a kid in Schultzes, sipping cokes and playing shuffleboard as my parents drank with their friends. Eventually someone ventured into the darkness at the back of the building and realized there was a full-size stage there. Nobody seemed to realize it was there, and the owner couldnt seem to remember why it was there or if it had ever been used.

The gig at Schultzes was an enormous event that took weeks of planning, an army of friends to help, hand made flyers, a PA borrowed from school. This was bigger than Woodstock. The lights we had were made from tomato sauce cans that our friend from the pizza place saved for us, the really large ones. The bulbs, I am sorry to say, were borrowed from a local airport runway. This was back when you could drive right to a runway, not like today. It never occurred to us that taking the runway lights might be bad. We were kind of like the little rascals that way; everything seemed like a good idea.

The gig itself almost seems uneventful after the weeks of planning. Songs were played, people danced, bar tabs were rung up. But it was the planning, the putting together of this massive event that stands out in my memory.

This gig led to others, a lot of bars where we kids werent really welcome. We didnt care. When you are under the legal drinking age but either in or with the band, nobody thinks to proof you. It is assumed you are legal. Not only that, on the nights when you arent playing you could go to a bar where you were known and drink, and often times the bartender wouldnt charge you because you were a regular. This may not seem like much now, but to a kid of 15 or 16 back in the seventies, this was heaven.

Ken Barr circa 1979

The Steady Night