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There are those in the spotlight, and then there is Everybody Else.
Hosted by Wes Luttrell (Indiana-based artist growth coach and label founder), Everybody Else is a podcast dedicated to the invisible people who make music happen. Featuring solo commentary and insightful interviews with record label execs, tour managers, music tech founders, producers, venue managers, and a slew of others, this show's mission is to pull back the curtain on the lives and ways of thinking of those who make up the modern music ecosystem. New episodes streaming every Tuesday.
Wesley Luttrell (00:00)
This episode of the podcast is a little different than the other episodes that include interviews with the invisible people who make music happen. On this show, I become an invisible person who helps make music happen by going undercover, barely, as a local 102 IOTC union stagehand who tore down for John Partey. This is the story of that experience and I hope that you enjoy it. This is the Everybody Else Podcast.
Who are the invisible people of music today? And what do they do to make music happen? Because behind every great artist, song, venue, festival, and music service, there's a tribe of people who will dedicate their lives to work that if done right, will never appear to have happened. There are those in the spotlight, and then there's everybody else.
After a long week followed by an entire day in the studio, I wasn't really in a place energetically to go work another shift at the Ford Center to load out for the John Partey concert as a 102 local IOTC stagehand. But I talked to my wife and she said, go do it. Let's do it. Go get the experience. And I'm like, you know what? You're right. They called me. They called me up. I need to do it. I need to go see what this is like.
So I roll up, walk up to the Ford Center surrounded by some other people, some who had boots on, some had hard hats. I had my steel toe boots on, had my khakis, or whatever the hell they were on. And I felt like I was a teenager going to my first day and working at the turkey farm. And I'm to go see what this is like. And so I walk in and find the booth. I'm asking where I sign up at. Hell, we know you.
I ain't gonna ask your last name. I ain't gonna ask your name, you're literal. Okay, sign up where I stand. Just go stand there and we'll call you up. And I'm standing there waiting and meet my new friend Wayne. Wayne's been doing it two and a half years. Wayne says, know, you're a blue wristband. That's back line, you're with me. And okay, let's do it, Wayne. And then here comes, here comes a fella who says, you too, Wayne, new guy, you're with me.
Garage door opens up as John Partey is finishing his last tune. I don't know which one it was, but it was a banger. he walks us up, introduces us to Nate. Nate's in charge of the back line for guitar, bass, and keys. So he's a stand stage side until the last moment. And the house lights are gonna come on. We're on the stage. That's a big stage.
That's lot of pyro going off right now. Bang, bang, there's fireworks. John Pardi, here he comes. He walks right past me. I'm standing stage side. I'm like, damn, there's thousands of screaming fans right there. I'm like, wow. Tears welled up in my eyes as though I was born to be here. Not necessarily as a 102IOT Union stagehand, but as somebody in the midst of this moment.
And as I looked up at John Pardi, as he's strumming his last strums for this night, for this shift, really, right? Working on the night shift, baby. I had this feeling of, I recognize you not as John Pardi, the hit, you know, hit singing, ⁓ tour country star, but as a dude working his job. And because, you know, around me,
I see that he's just one of 100, 200 people putting this show on tonight. And all of these people who are on the tour, especially they're doing this every single night. They're setting up, tearing down in cities all across the country every single night. And I recognize these different roles popping up around me as people are running around backstage. And I can look at the fans and see that they're just looking at John party. They're looking at the video board. They're, they're, they're being awestruck by the fireworks and the fire.
literally shooting out of the stage. And house lights come on. Nate's like, all right, you grab the guitar pedal or you know, grab the pedal board, we should unplug those quarter inch, you know, throw them down. I'm like, oh, just like in the studio, bring them over here. We're to put them in this rack and then lift up the rack. There's a little amplifier. I don't know which one. I'm not good at amps and mics. I don't remember anything. I can't even remember last names. I'm pretty good at first names, but I'm definitely good at facial facial recognition. I am not good at.
at names like, I ⁓ know SM7B, know microphones, I know a couple things that I'm in the studio with, but I don't really, there is no spot in my mental hard drive where I store such information at easy recall. It's just, I use my CPU for other things. so, ⁓ well, there's certain moments where it seems like stuff just comes out you're like, damn, I'm having a good day, but this was not one of those days and it never usually is.
But he pops the hood and I see, ⁓ that's a SM57 and some other little microphone. That's, that's it. That's the guitar rig, but it's just being pumped through this gigantic sound system. How crazy this little box is powering all that sound for the guitar. And then we're to put this here. All right. I want you to grab that for the bass. Back on stage. Watch out. Here we go. And it is an army of people running around.
do this, do that, heads up, you know. Thank God I had my hard hat on, because about three minutes in I stood up, bam, nailed my head on a big cabinet. And you know, I've always wondered, something I've always wondered, I've never been backstage at such a big concert to help tear down. I've been backstage at big concerts, I've been on stage, backstage at a louder than life, I've been to big places like this, but never in a way where I am hands on messing with the equipment.
are moving things around, really looking, really paying attention to what like is actually happening here. And I know that we're here to get all of this shit tore down out of this one door or two doors, I guess, on each side of the venue on the floor of the Ford Center out into seven semi trucks because they have to get on the road and we were under the clock. You know, we want to be out of here by midnight. Okay.
And it's like 945. Let's get it. And so what I'm like right now remembering that was so cool was I've always wondered, okay, let's say a Hammond B3 Organ with a big cabinet, like a Leslie cabinet, and a upright piano. How do those things travel? I don't know how they get from place to place, because those things are really heavy. I have an upright piano ⁓ in my basement.
It's a, it's an old Kimball upright. It's a little out of tune, but that's what makes it special. Right? It's got its sound. That sucker took four people sliding it down my basement, ⁓ by, by, by back stairs in my basement on some, some two by tens took four guys to do that for grown men. That thing is heavy. That thing is really heavy. How do they move this each night? Well, I didn't realize the thing that it sits on is the thing that it's about to leave on.
And what we're gonna do is these pieces of the stage are gonna come apart. We're gonna put these big ⁓ ratchet straps around it. We're gonna strap it down with all the cables and all the boxes inside of there. Then we're gonna move over to the side stage where a forklift is gonna come scoop it, set it on the ground, then we're gonna roll it over here and put a ⁓ lid on top of it that is the biggest damn stage case lid. And it's gonna lock.
and they're gonna scoot that thing down the hall, or gonna push it right on the truck like a big, ⁓ what is that game? Tetra? Tetra? Is that what it's called? Where you put the pieces and the blocks and all that? It's like a big puzzle? It's all gonna go into truck one. And don't put this in the way of the audio. The audio goes on first. That lighting goes on the other truck. Meanwhile, while I'm focused on this, a whole army of people have turned their attention to the video board.
the giant LED video board. That's got its own way of coming down and so do the, you know, 15 trusses or whatever it is above us that hold the lighting and the sound rig. All of that's coming down while another army of people hit the stands. They have trash bags, they have sweep, you know, they have brooms, they're sweeping. Another crew's breaking down all the chairs, everything's moving around. I even saw a small group of show goers sitting and watching the second show, which would be the teardown.
Maybe there's three shows in that day. There's the set up, the actual show, and then the tear down. And I appreciate those people standing there watching, because I would be curious too if I was you to sit here and watch this go down. So here we go. We're still tearing down. We start loading out. And as time passes, you look up, you're like, wow, okay, we're getting somewhere. Less stuff is around. All right, I'm gonna pass you on to the next guy. Thank you, Wes. Thank you, Wayne. This has been great. I asked Nate.
Nate, who do you work for technically? He said John. I'm like, yeah. He's just John. To Nate, John party is just John. He's been with him forever. Nate's like, dude, I live in Bowling Green, man. As soon as this show's over, I'm headed home. I'm sleeping in my own bed. Before you guys get done unloading, I'll be asleep. I'm like, man, that sounds, I'm really excited for you, Nate. He was such a great guy, you know?
And then, you know, hey, I'm gonna pass you off this guy. All right, we gotta head over to the dressing rooms. We're gonna start loading stuff out of the dressing rooms. Look in, there's John sipping on whatever. I didn't even look. I don't think John party drinks, but I think I saw him drinking a Michelob. Sorry, John party to expose the party. I don't know. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was an NA. Maybe it was, maybe it was a Coke that was looked like a Michelob. I don't know. But there he is and his band members are sitting in there they're like, there's a whole barn they were about to tear down.
I'm like, there's a bar in there? They set up a bar in there? Yeah, they set up the whole bar. I'm like, wow, that's great. That's cool. And so, all right, we're gonna start turning around. Here goes the artist. All right, he's going to his bus. Here we go, everybody. This goes in a trailer, same thing, Tetra style. We're gonna, that's what I'm calling it. Maybe it's something else. We're gonna put it in there. Okay, next ⁓ we're gonna pass you off somebody else. We need to get these subwoofers out of here. Here comes a train a mile long of subwoofers coming down the way.
And we're going to load those onto the bus, the truck. And you know, there's people at the truck who are just receiving what we're pushing towards them, pushers. And then there are receivers, let's call them. Meanwhile, what I should have assumed, but didn't realize was that the dialogue, the commentary between workers is going to be very similar to when I used to work construction. It is, it is. ⁓
It is intense. is get the hell out of the way. Damn it. Don't put me, don't box me in you son of a bitch. Son of a, you know, all this stuff. And they're smiling the whole time. Hey, you the new guy. Great to have you hit me on the shoulder, you know, and men, women alike, everybody was, everybody was, was, fellows that night. And it felt so good. And I was, you know what? I was quiet. I was just taking it all in. I'm asking questions the whole time, but I made it an intention not to talk about myself.
Tonight, I am a 102 IOT Union stagehand. That's what I am. I'm working the back line, but I'm here for whatever you guys need. I love this. This is great.
We get everything loaded up, I walk back in, kinda some people standing around. I start asking questions about the union, and I'm like, so they said we were gonna be here till 1.30, and they're like, yeah, it's a four hour shift. And I said, like, but we're almost done, and it's like, yeah, yeah, but if we stay here till midnight, well, we can't leave until the last piece of gear gets loaded on the bus and is out of here and that door shuts. I'm like, none of us can leave? No, none of us can leave, I mean.
I guess you could, I don't know, I didn't say like...
here by something but ⁓ but after midnight and before 8 a.m it's time and a half we're gonna get paid overtime for this show i thought but we're all standing here yeah i know but there's like four people over there still loading the last truck okay and it's a four hour shift and so i said like man there's a lot of rules in the there's a lot of like you know there's a lot of there's a lot of regulation with all this yeah yeah
Which, know, to me, okay, I'm an employee of the union tonight. This is great. ⁓ But I'm thinking, doesn't the artist pay us to be here? Doesn't the artist pay for all this? That was my first kind of real, you I've read about the unions. ⁓ I read about the, I don't think I've talked about it before, but the unions in Chicago, like a hundred years ago, were like mobs. They were like, if you, if you, if you were a...
a musician of the Union in Chicago during the 30s and you were playing, know, like you were, and you weren't paying your Union dues or you were a restaurant or a venue hosting shows without paying your Union dues. They'd put a, they would put like a pipe bomb, they would throw a pipe bomb through your window and blow your building up. That actually happened, you know? I don't think that happens today.
I don't even know what musician unions exist around here today. Maybe for the orchestra, for the harmonic or whatever. But anyway, I'm taking in all the union talk and it's great because some people have been doing this job for 50 years, 40 years. They're worker guys, you know, and gals. And they're so open and they're so cool and they're so happy that we're all together tonight working. And ⁓ we finish up.
We finish up and the president who I now know and who is a really cool guy comes in the middle. All right, everybody gather around. Everybody gather around. Your check ain't going to be in the account for two weeks. The bank account got compromised. It ain't our fault. It's the F'ing bank. So don't come bitching to me when your check don't hit. And then he walks off and then another crew, a crew member comes through from John Partey's camp and yells out, ⁓ I mean, just a classic guy.
Ladies and gentlemen, this was a successful exit. Thank you all and have a great night. And I just thought, man, that guy has been touring forever. And he is so cool and so nice. I know certain people who work within the music industry on the back end of things running tours or tour management or other elements of production. They think unions are a pain in the ass. And I understand that. I'm sure some unions, some union houses, some venues that are union houses like the Ford Center.
are probably some pain in the ass people who are really strict and have all these rules and regulations. ⁓ Which, know, if we haven't talked around the podcast, we're going to because there's an episode where we talk about it. But to me, it was really cool to see the camaraderie between all these people. And even, you know, walking outside, I helped load out the bar from the dressing room and I saw John Pardee smoking a cigar with his bodyguard outside.
outside their tour bus and he's just chilling. And I thought, man, everybody's just working tonight. We're all just working. We're not, he's not anything more special than we are. The show wouldn't happen without all of us. And by us, I'm just an, I'm just an everybody else for tonight. I'm just an invisible person for tonight. And ⁓ we all exit. I made it a couple of new friends. Fist bumps, here we go. I man, I need to get my own hard hat with some stickers on it. That's what the real cool.
So I get back in my car and I'm driving home after this crazy experience of being an invisible person at the John party loadout and as I'm driving home I thought wow that was amazing that was amazing and I get home I park my car and I just sit in the driveway I just sit down in the middle of the driveway underneath the moonlight and I said thank you to God to the universe to
to the people I was just with, I just said thank you to all of this. Because this was my first experience in this context being an invisible person and how much I learned and how much respect I gained and how much understanding I gained of how to load a semi, of how that works, of what it takes to put on a show this big, of just the level of focus and dedication of these people.
who literally dedicate their lives to putting up and tearing down such big shows. And this isn't even the biggest shows going on. I I was thinking, that's what one guy, I'm like, isn't it crazy to think that we are loading out right now of this one show in Evansville, Indiana? And there are perhaps like another 100, 200 shows at this scale being torn down right now across the country or across the globe. And
That's just the big shows. Like think about how many hundreds or maybe thousands of bands are loading out of a tiny bar and they don't have a bunch of help. Maybe they have like a tour manager or a buddy or a driver who's helping them, but this is us. You know, this is all of us tonight. And I felt as I was back in my driveway looking up at the moon, connected as a through line connected through all of the people of the past who helped build this. All of the people who will come.
next to build this, this thing that is live music and this thing that is music in general. And I was so grateful for one night and maybe more, we'll see, to be a 102 IOTC Union stagehand for John Partey at the Ford Center. It an invaluable experience and one that I'll be forever grateful for. And thank you to all who made it happen.