ChordStrike: Touring: Not for the Faint of Heart

Touring: Not for the Faint of Heart

by Courtney Powell on September 22, 2009

Leonardcohen

Leonard Cohen gave fans a scare Saturday night when he crumpled into a heap onstage in Spain following a stoic performance of "Bird on the Wire" (see video below). Cohen's publicist has since reported that he was battling a tough case of food poisoning, and music lovers everywhere are relieved to know that he is recovering well. But the news got me thinking about older artists who are still on the road bringing their music to the masses, despite the physical stresses involved.

Touring is a grueling experience, as any musician who has spent even a week living out of a tour bus will tell you. Artists follow late evening shows with a bumpy night's sleep in a bus bunk roughly the size of a casket, only to wake up the next day in time to soundcheck and repeat. Aggressively gigging bands book back-to-back shows for days on end, enjoying a truly restful night's sleep in a hotel room as seldom as once a week. And while older and more established musicians may have the luxury of forgoing bus sleep and retiring to a hotel each night, they are often back on the bus by early morning anyway, without the full eight hours of regeneration that many of us take for granted.

Add the perils of promoter-supplied meals, the stress of living out of a suitcase and showering in a different dressing room every day, and in some cases a tendency toward a partying lifestyle, and it becomes easier to understand how artists occasionally end up heaped on a stage, exhausted. (Those extravagant-sounding tour riders you hear about can also begin to seem like the least these hardworking musicians deserve.)

So let's take a moment to appreciate those musicians of a certain age who are still out there onstage, toughing it out to share their talent with the crowds who love them, for better or worse, after most in their cohort have observed the traditional retirement age of 65. I'll start the list - add yours in the comments!