I did a long concert tour in England and Denmark and Sweden, and I also sang for the Soviet people, one of the finest musical audiences in the world.
I chased every band around the world. Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention, you name it. I could just go on and on. It was my hobby, my pastime, and my obsession for several years.
Getting to do shows with Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, and Sam Hunt is just awesome. It's so inspiring because I grew up such fans of Lady A and Keith, and to be able to sing my songs on the same stage as them and then stand side stage and watch them is just a really special thing.
I miss touring. I miss seeing people on the road. I miss that adrenaline rush; there's nothing like it.
I tour more than I need to, more than is good for you. But it's my favorite part of music. I much prefer it to studio work.
I hate touring beyond measure. I don't like all the travelling and the hotel rooms. But the hour and a half on stage each night keep me going.
I tour with a piano, actually. Luckily I am able to hire people that deal with it completely and magically a piano appears on stage and then magically disappears when I leave.
I don't mind traveling that much when I can go somewhere and stay there for a while, but touring is different. You rarely see anything. You get there early in the morning and you're resting all day, and you go in and do a sound check, and you do the show, and then bam you're gone.
Touring doesn't have to be a harried, cliched way of life.
And for REO - they get to play for some Styx fans and then we get to play in front of some REO fans. It helps spread the new music to the following of other bands.
I landed gigs touring with The Jonas Brothers and Britney Spears!
We like to party but to be the best partiers in the world you've gotta be serious, you've gotta plan that stuff out. You've gotta wake up the next day and catch that plane to the next show and perform a great show.
Touring is a whole other animal for me and a whole other skill. But I'm having a lot of fun figuring all that out and switching it from internal to external and putting on a show.
I much prefer touring to anything else. Studio work is great, and can be hugely satisfying, but live work has the excitement and the lifestyle that I love.
In fact, Moon came on tour with us for a bit just before a big festival in Brighton, I think.
I still believe in putting something out and not asking people to buy the record, then buy a ticket to my show and then buy a t-shirt and then a, like, copy of the show they just saw on CD. That's undignified to me.
I will always tour, it's hard work it really is hard work, but the feedback and the buzz you get back from it is worth it.
When Phish broke up, I made some comment about how I'm not gonna go around playing 'You Enjoy Myself' for the rest of my life.
As much as I want to go out and tour every single day and I'm ready to rip it right now, there's five people in the band, there's five people who've evolved and grown and there's five people who have to get on the same page and want the same things, and it takes a lot to tour.
I find that touring keeps your voice in great shape.
Since the traditional recorded-music business models have drastically changed, there is truly diminished income derived from recorded music by artists - both current and catalog. The touring industry has become much more important as a majority revenue stream and the ancillary fan experiences and promotions that may be derived from it.
I've invested a couple million into touring, and that's paid off.
Nowadays, it's like two different arenas, recording and touring. When I started way back in the day, doing both was nothing, you didn't have to think about it, the road and recording.
I don't want to get too involved in marketing budgets, online promotions and download set-ups because it would be a bit like Gertrude Stein mapping out a TV campaign. I want to sing. I want visibility. I am essentially Al Martino, not Seymour Stein.
It was weird [touring with them]. It felt more like we were playing for Phoenix. They asked us because they're fans of what we do.
