Michael Stipe Quotes

The problem with touring isn't the traveling and the shows, it's the vegetal state you get into.

Traveling is a bit of a push sometimes. When you're doing a lot of miles and you're doing a lot of shows, it does get wearing.

I've done the big 12-city tours, and I'm never going to do that again - never. I was younger then. It wears you out, you know.

Touring is tough. You're almost in a haze because you don't really know where you are half the time: You're in a hotel room one moment, and the next thing you know, you're onstage performing for 60,000 people, then you're back on an airplane. It's very hectic and I couldn't do it without my family.

A lot of bands whine about the road and how tough it is.

When you tour, it's so hard on the body. Being in one place is cool. It's a more stable environment.

We've always enjoyed touring, which is fortunate because we're always on the road. The most difficult part is that time passes by so quickly. It's hard to pay attention to your normal life because shows are all-encompassing.

Being in Pentatonix, we basically toured year round, so it was tough to just get a break.

I couldn't bear the road anymore. I'm sure that a lot of people who have been on the road a long time will say the same thing. After a while, waiting for bedroom service and planes - I wanted to go home.

A lot of the touring stuff has become a drag. Traveling itself is a drag. Anyone who's been to an airport knows that.

You wrestle one night, get up the next morning and fly out to the next city. You try to work out, you try to get some food into you and, lo and behold, you have to go work again. You are living out of a suitcase.

For us as entertainers traveling, the schedule gets really crazy - flying all the time, being on a bus tour, changing hotels every day. And it's challenging.

The hiatus you spoke about happened in 1998. I was somewhat numb from being out on the road every night. I had to stop because I was emotionally and physically drained.

I went along doing the one-salad-a-night routine for a year. And I remember feeling so tired and depressed and irritable. I had no personal life. I was always flying someplace - weekends, holidays, vacations. Dinners at night were no fun because I couldn't eat.

I seem to spend a minimum of eight hours a day in transit of some sort or another... that's eight hours of your life gone. People always ask if I suffer from jet lag, but it's kinda become really normal for me... Although the jet lag does become a factor and you're pretty much always tired.

When I'm doing music and I'm on the road, I love it. But once I'm home, it's very difficult to go back out on the road.

My first full year of touring, I did 300 days on the road. That was not including the travel time or publicity or anything else - that was just dates. I was home probably less than 50 days that year.

I work every day. I was flying the other day. and I was like, where am I flying? I have no idea, I work so much.

Touring is hard on the body.

I don't like touring and it seemed to be getting on top of me in a big way.

Being on the move all the time is draining, but the rewards make up for it.

Book tours are excellent things, and one is lucky to get to go on one, but they have a way of leeching away one's will to live.

I don't want to start getting my little violin out, but travelling across the world constantly and staying in hotels is tough, man.

I can't switch time zones any more. London is one of my favourite places, but I'm always so zonked that I can't appreciate it. It's like a six-inch sheet of glass between me and Charing Cross Road.

One of the negative sides of a really intense arc as a touring band is there are big gaps in your memory because you're so exhausted.