Seven roadies who became rockstars

Kevin Borich and Allan Caswell were so blown away by associations as the Australian Road Crew Association (ARCA) and CrewCare look after comrades who’ve fallen on financial and health hard times they wrote songs about them, while Australian Crawl sang about their crew.

Willie Nelson is doing a documentary on his longest lasting crew member, Benjamin H. Dorcy, III, a.k.a. Lovey.

Gene Simmons of KISS charges fans $12,000 to be a roadie for a day. KISS, and other bands, have a policy of hiring war veterans who find it impossible to get jobs after their tour of duty, as part of their crews. Some roadies who started as teenagers with major bands are still with them, aged in their ‘60s and ‘70s.

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Kevin Dugan, who started with onetime Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony 43 years ago told him he wanted to go off the road.

The bassist replied, “I’m not going to do that, why should you? I’m still going to be out there.”

Dugan had argued back: “Michael, are you trying to compare your day to my day? Mine starts at 8.30 am and ends at 2 am. You come out and do the show, you leave in a limo, go back to the five-star hotel, or go back to a private jet way and fly home.”

“Your day and my day are worlds apart.’”

Here are stories of seven who had a taste of the crew life before they hit the spotlight (and another ten honourable mentions).

NOEL GALLAGHER

Noel Gallagher was already reputed as a top guitarist around Manchester and equally known as Inspiral Carpets when he roadied for them.

He had auditioned to be their singer. They offered him the role of dope scope and guitar tech.

He sound checked all their gear and helped to run their affairs.

Q Radio

In 2012, he was asked on Q Radio what he’d have been if he hadn’t been a musician.

He replied: “Been a priest… maybe remain a roadie. I’d probably be out there in an ill-fitting black T-shirt (laughs) with a tattoo and some scrappy Converse.”

“That’s what they all wear… except when they wear shorts. It’s embarrassing.”

Gallagher reckons he was the coolest looking roadie in Manchester.

“I was maybe the best dressed roadie in the history of music. I used to wear white jeans which never got dirty.”

The name Oasis came from an Inspiral Carpets tour poster Liam had hanging up in his bedroom. When Noel got sacked, he decided to join Liam’s band.

TUPAC SHAKUR

In the early ‘90s, Lesane Parish Crooks was mega-impatiently wanting to make a name for himself. It was due to the fact that when he was a year old, his mother – a Black Panther activist – renamed him after Túpac Amaru II, a descendant of the last Incan ruler, who was executed in Peru in 1781 after he led a revolt against the Spanish invaders.

“I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighbourhood.”

In tenth grade, he studied acting, poetry, jazz and ballet, and started winning rap competitions.

He likened he themes of the Shakespeare plays he performed akin to gangsta battles. In 1988, he was recording as MC New York and got signed by the manager of rap group Digital Underground, who cast him as roadie and backup dancer. He sang on a couple of their singles, and in turn got signed by Interscope Records.

Digital Underground co-founder Jimi “Chopmaster J” Dright said he didn’t work well in a group.

“This guy was on a mission. From day one. Maybe he knew he wasn’t going to be around seven years later.”

Ice Cube was good friends with him (a “fun dude with a lot of energy”), and recalled how he wanted to move to a successful band like NWA.

“He would always tell me like, you know, ‘This Digital shit is cool, man, but I want to do records like y’all.”

“’Cos where I live at, shit is fucked up. You know what I’m saying? I want to talk about how the shit is.”

The one-time roadie went on to become one of the most influential music names of the 20th century, an important rap pioneer, a voice for African Americans and sold 75 million records.

LEMMY

After leaving school, Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister worked a couple of jobs, including in an electric appliance factory, a horse-riding school and a couple of local bands. But things changed when he moved to London in 1967, with the city’s scene was exploding. He slept on the floor in a flat rented by Neville Chesters and Noel Redding, respectively the tour manager and bassist with the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

“So whenever they needed an extra pair of hands I was right there,” he recalled to Rolling Stone. “I didn’t get the job for any talent or anything.”

He saw Hendrix play twice a night for three months.

“When he performed, he was magic. You would watch him and space and time would stop.”

After the gig, the crew would have to scramble around the stage picking up bits and pieces of his fuzzboxes – “because he’d just stomp all over them” – and put them back together again.

Lemmy admired Hendrix as a person as well, remembering him in Rolling Stone as “a really nice guy. And very courteous.

“If a woman came into the room, he’d shoot to his feet and get a chair out for her. He was old fashioned like that. Good manners don’t cost nothing.”

HENRY ROLLINS

One of the best compilations of the Washington DC late ‘70s punk scene is Dischord Records’ 2000 box set. It includes tracks by The Teen Idles, SOA, Minor Threat (x2), Government Issue and Youth Brigade.

Henry Rollins played a huge part of that scene. From 1979 to 1980, Rollins worked as a roadie for a number of acts, including Teen Idles. When their singer failed to show for rehearsals one day, Rollins pushed to become their singer. Later Rollins would form State of Alert (S.O.A.) , writing the lyrics to their songs, opening up his career as a poet, spoken word and great frontman, coming to mass attention as singer with California’s Black Flag.

FRANK BELLO

Coming from a broken family, Frank Bello was obsessed with all things music, particularly KISS whom he idolised as his super-heroes. At 16 or 17, friends of his formed Anthrax in July 18, 1981, in Queens in New York City. He helped out lugging gear in and out, and changing guitar strings.

At that time, Anthrax had no money, and he didn’t get paid.

“To say I was a roadie was an insult to all those great roadies out there!” he chuckles.

“I was totally horrible because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I was just helping.”

But he could play, at the time toting an ESP Precision-styled bass, most likely a 400 series with EMG P-bass and J-bass pickups that ESP made for the Japanese market. When Anthrax started looking to replace bassist and co-founder Dan Lilker after the release of their debut album, Fistful of Metal, Bello auditioned and got the gig in 1984.

His first gig with them, at the L’Amours club, is on YouTube.

“I look like I’m shitting myself, but the adrenalin had kicked in, and I was clearly going for it.”

His uncle Charlie Benante had become Anthrax’s drummer in 1983. The two grew up in the same household and would jam frequently. In October 2021, when Frank released his memoir Fathers, Brothers, And Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, And Anthrax, one of his three ultimate bass heroes Gene Simmons wrote the foreword.

BILLY POWELL

Billy Powell got sacked as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s roadie in the same minute that they hired him as their new piano player. It was after a high school gig in Jacksonville Florida, where they had formed in 1964. It was raining so heavily they couldn’t load out. So they waited in the gym for the storm to pass.

While waiting, Powell spotted a piano in the corner and said, “This is how I would play Freebird” and did a fantastic 10 minute version. Skynyrd were stunned, and according to guitarist Gary Rossington, some were tearful about how this opened up opportunities for the band’s three guitar sound.

“Billy had been with us as a roadie for two years, and we didn’t even know he could play.”

“So we sacked him as a roadie and got him into the band!”

Powell, born in Corpus Christi, Texas, was the son of an aviator in the navy, which saw him live in Italy, and around US including Florida.

He started studying classical piano, so gifted that his first teacher said, “he outplayed me in 20 minutes”.

While studying at music college, he became inseparable with Leon Wilkeson, a top bass player in the local scene, who later helped form Lynyrd Skynyrd. Wilkeson and Powell were also staunch Christians, and the bassist brought in his friend to become their crew member.

Powell’s contribution to the Skynyrd boogie sound was deep. Aside from classical music, he was also a master of blues and honky tonk, and also played organ and synthesiser.

TEN HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Bon Scott used to drive for AC/DC every time they played Adelaide. He wanted the job of singer and asked them, to which Angus replied, “Hope you sing better than you drive.”

In 1977, Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys fame became a roadie for Colorado’s first punk band The Ravens…only because they were opening for The Ramones as they passed through town and he figured it was the best way to meet them.

Krist Novoselic drove The Melvins to their gigs before forming Nirvana with Kurt Cobain.

Jeff Apter’s book Shirl, about Shirley Strachan of Skyhooks, reported that at the height of the band’s massive popularity, he was only earning $150 a week. So he would help bump gear in on tours by Rod Stewart and ABBA.

Gene Hoglan, lighting guy for Slayer, often played drums during soundcheck. He was such a fast drummer (nicknamed The Atomic Clock) that he actually influenced drummer Dave Lombardo, before going on to play skins with Testament, Dark Angel and Fear Factory.

When Sydney band The Cockroaches’ singer Anthony Field decided to attend Macquarie University to become preschool teachers, he asked the band’s roadie Greg Page to come along…and later the two formed The Wiggles.

Keith Levene of The Clash and co-founder of Public Image Ltd was road-sorcerer for Yes on their Close To The Edge world tour.

Long before he formed A Perfect Circle with Maynard James Keenan in 1999, Billy Howerdel was well known in New Jersey as sound engineer for local bands and guitar tech for David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, Faith No More, The Smashing Pumpkins… and Tool.

Joey DeMaio did the lights on Black Sabbath Heaven And Hell world tour before joining Manowar in the bass slot.

It’s common knowledge that Trent Reznor was a roadie for Revolting Cocks before forming Nine Inch Nails.

But it was an unpleasant experience for him, according to a post by the Cocks, who admitted they “tortured that poor kid” because it was the first time on the road.

“We called him ‘Mama’s Boy’ and whipped Black Cat firecrackers at him all the time.

“We used to throw these things in his bunk to wake him up, and he’d jump around like there were poisonous snakes in his bed.

“He’d try to keep up with our drinking. We wouldn’t let him stop, so he’d puke and pass out, and then we’d draw dicks and pus*sies in permanent Sharpie marker.

“Eventually he got sick of the abuse and said, “Oh, my grandmother is sick. I have to go,” and he left the tour.”