The brothers leased their coaches to many of the major acts of the ’80s and ’90s and were in stark contrast to the corporate style of some of the other leasing companies. It’s been fun to follow their companies and their spirited mischievous approach to the coach leasing business. The stories I’ve heard about those two would make an incredible movie, I am sure. They didn’t invent the custom coach leasing business, but their approach set the performance bar high among all other companies.
Another impressive story comes out of Four Seasons Coach Leasing. Its owner, Mike Slarve, worked in the Los Angeles recording industry in the ’60s during the same time some huge rock legends recorded. Mike worked at the Village Recorder, the largest independent studio in Los Angeles, where folks like the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac recorded hit songs and albums. He promoted shows with acts like Rod Stewart and Deep Purple and managed a few acts before stepping into the coach leasing business. He started as a broker in the business, leasing other companies’ equipment, and he has built a fleet of over 50 of his own coaches just outside Nashville.
Road House Coach in Texas puts the Texas touch to the business. Based in Lubbock for years before moving south of Austin, its owner Jay Boy Adams is a good guitar player and has recorded a few albums himself. He’s provided nice coaches to the touring business for more than 30 years. Road House also had an artist who painted scenes on the sides of its coaches. A painter named Fitzpatrick (no relation) was equally as good as Rainmaker was for the Florida Coach companies. Fitzpatrick has a beautiful way of painting animals. I drove a couple of coaches that had his artwork on the side along with his “Fitzpatrick” signature. Of course a few people asked.
Nashville is often referred to as Bus City with dozens of companies like Night Train Coach, Music City Coach, All Access Coach, Roberts Brothers Coach and other quality companies competing for a slice of the business. More than fifty percent of all coach leasing companies are based in the metropolitan Nashville area.
I admire folks who have advanced from behind the wheel and gone on to establish themselves and their competing companies. Before Chip Huffman started Nigh Train Coach, he sang and played keyboard in gospel bands. In order to save money, it’s common practice for gospel groups to share driving responsibilities. Chip would ride and drive thousands of miles in buses for various shows. I drove on many tours with Gaylon Moore, who now owns Music City Coach. He clocked hundreds of thousands of miles of driving experience before acquiring his bus company.
D&S and Taylor Tours, based in Phoenix, Arizona, are western companies that have been providing great buses to the industry for years and are the closest companies to Los Angeles. Both companies derived from drivers who bought buses and grew the companies to what they are today.
The people who build coaches are an important key to the whole system. How they build can make or break a fleet. Several of the large companies build their own interiors to meet the demands of their customers. Most of the smaller companies use one of the many independent builders. An owner’s understanding the needs of his market and being able to have a builder accommodate those needs is very important.
Many interior coachbuilders are located in the Nashville area with several others located in Florida, Virginia and various states. Several builders specialize solely in conversions to the private market. Marathon Coach and Country Coach, both based in Oregon, and Liberty Coach in Illinois, among others, build some of the plushest coaches on the road that are sold worldwide. Racing teams use their coaches for drivers to live in at the racetrack. The race drivers rarely ride in them, though.
Usually, these private market builders build motor homes that cost one million dollars or more. The interiors generally won’t meet the demands of the touring industry. Tour buses cover up to a million miles in their lifetime. Custom coaches built for Mom and Pop rarely accumulate more than 50,000 to 100,000 miles during their lifetime, with most being used for short vacations and winter living quarters.
There are financial people who invest in these sorts of things, since there are some tax advantages in investing in big equipment such as trucks, buses, tractors and the likes. Rarely are these people seen.
Bus maintenance shops are a vital key to the whole operation. Keeping the bus maintained so it doesn’t break down and fixing things as soon as they do break are a must. And they do break. Put your home on wheels, and roll it down the highway and see what you would have to fix every day. The people who repair them are a key component to the equation. If a unit breaks down and an entertainer misses a show, it could be a financial disaster. Interior refurbishing, engine services and repairs are done when a coach has down time. Much of the maintenance is done before and after a tour.
It’s the driver’s responsibility to keep the bus in shape when the unit is on tour. Finding someone to repair a coach can be nerve-racking in some parts of the country. Parts and general mechanical knowledge of coaches is rare for a general repair shop that doesn’t specialize in coaches. The large bus manufacturers have service facilities located in several states, but a break down cannot be planned in their area. Prevost Car, the primary supplier of entertainment coach shells to the industry, has facilities in New Jersey, Florida, Nashville, Dallas and Southern California. Everywhere else you either find someone to handle the problem or drivers fix it themselves. Things are always breaking or going wrong with a coach, so drivers have to be on top of it daily when not in the area of the bus owner’s shop.
As a “Gearhead” I love working on a bus when I have the time. For me, fixing a small problem before it becomes a big one makes for a satisfying and relaxing time. Broken down on the side of the road trying to fix something to meet a demanding schedule does not make me a happy driver, however.
Drivers who are well known in the industry are requested often and their experience can help an owner to keep his fleet leased. These drivers are in demand year round. Many entertainers and their management know them and depend on them. Some of these guys and gals have just as many road-war stories from their experiences with different groups as the rock stars themselves. The police will kick in the hotel door of the driver’s room just like they do of rowdy celebrities.
Drivers can face issues that can add to the spectrum of emotions on a tour. For a driver, it’s a 24/7 job that starts before you leave the house and goes and goes until a few days after returning home. Once under way, you might be cruising along tapping your toes to Motown sounds one moment and the next tapping your fingers on the steering wheel frustrated by a traffic jam that might be cutting into your arrival time. Passengers can give you grief, wanting to stop here and there, cutting into your schedules. A phone call from home with a family problem that you really can’t do much about can keep your mind off the details at hand. Working for endless hours and finally arriving to a hotel after looking forward to a hot shower and rest only to find they can’t accommodate you because of corporate rules about check-in is just part of the job. Travel plans can change at the turn of a dime with a band wanting to go to a topless bar, a restaurant, store, or worse, some fan’s house that they just met. So many variables can and do play into the mood of a driver.
With less than 1,000 vehicles in the industry, most feel the government rules should be applied differently to custom coach leasing and operations. In the early days of the business, there were no rules governing operations of custom coaches. Drivers could drive as long as they could safely do so. Sitting in the seat is how to make wages. Sitting there longer makes more wages. With up to a dozen passengers checking on you, bringing you coffee, talking to you, bothering you, it’s not that hard to continue on for 10-plus hours. With the speed limit at 70, that’s 700 miles covered in a sitting if needed. With the TV blasting a movie or sporting event, the noise and activity will keep you alert and going with the desire to get to the destination. Generally, if a coach is traveling more than 450 miles it is not a show day.
A major benefit for most of the lease companies is that coach drivers ar
en’t the employees of the coach leasing company. Drivers are employees of the entertainers and the people who lease a coach. The group pays the driver’s wages based on experience and the general rate that lease companies say their driver’s work for. The coach company doesn’t compensate the driver for any services whatsoever. There is no insurance provided by any coach companies or any 401K. Most good drivers consider themselves small businesses offering their driving skills and services to the clients.
The owners and companies have drivers who they only allow to operate their coaches, and they offer their clients these drivers with the coach they lease. Generally, good drivers get assigned to a coach for a period of time.
The coach company will try and treat you as an employee. They will give you rules and regulations to go by. Some will even give you a lecture. One coach owner gave me a class on how he wanted the beds made in his coaches. Of course once I left his office, I used my own system.
Many of the companies’ coach owners and their office staff work eight to five and go home and sleep in their beds. Many have never spent 30, 60 or 90 days on a tour or even understand what a tour is. It’s all about owning equipment with them. So just about every time one of these guys or gals gives you the run down on a lease or tour, they really don’t have a clue who they’re telling you to go pick up, how they’re going to act and most importantly, how they will like their bus.
Just like bus drivers, bus owners can be a fickle lot. In years past, if you broke some of “their” rules, you might not get any work from them. In the past, some companies seemed to play games and lead drivers on by saying there may be work in the future. In the meantime, when a coach driver is not working, there is no pay. With a shortage of experienced drivers, coach companies and owners seem to have a different approach toward drivers these days. Earning the most for being good at my craft and away from my home and family is all that matters. The business side of life says that’s what it’s really all about, anyway.
Owners run the gambit from the professional corporate types to wealthy people who think it’s a cool idea to own a bus that some rock or country star rides in. Some own buses because their accountants advised them to invest. Some are hard to deal with. Few are compassionate enough to understand the nuts and bolts of operating a bus.
When a bus breaks, everyone loses money. The entertainer, the bus owner, the employees of the entertainers and me, the driver – we all lose. When lights, stereos, toilets or whatever breaks, someone is not happy. Keeping one in shape and clean when up to a dozen people are riding and living in it is a mega job and expense that few understand. The bus owner is always concerned about the bottom line or the revenue, as are all business owners. How a driver spends money on a coach can be a point of contention between the owner and driver.
I’ve invested my money many times in a coach to keep it running and have had to argue with a bus owner to be reimbursed. If a moment arises and money has to be spent to keep the bus on time, I will probably do what has to be done to keep things on schedule. It’s my strong work ethic.
I consider myself an independent, contracting my services, as all drivers do. With more than 25 safe years in the entertainment touring business, I have maintained quite a few contacts with folks who like my style and approach.
Several bus owners and bus brokers have known me for years, and I stay on their lists for possible work. A few entertainment management companies, tour managers and production managers know me and request me whenever schedules match up. I get a call once in awhile from them looking for coaches and offering work. When folks call me, I search through the various companies to find what they need, bid on it and put a coach together to meet their needs. Saving money for the lessee and making money for an owner is the goal.
An experienced, trustworthy driver who can generate revenue for an owner without being a liability to anyone is every coach owner’s desire. A driver who damages the coach, scares the passengers and costs everyone thousands of dollars in liability issues, is an owner’s nightmare. Not to mention the hassles of finding a replacement person and transferring them in and out of the seat when the coach is 2,000 miles from the shop.
Over the years, I’ve had to pay for my own insurance and cover my taxes, just like a small business. Like a small business, I try to put customer service first, giving my passengers the smoothest and safest ride possible and getting them to their destination on time no matter what. Giving passengers a smooth ride is a key to being a good driver. When passengers are able to get up in the coach and walk to the bathroom or prepare something at the galley and not be tossed into the floor, that will help them trust and trusting the driver is the ticket to good sleep in a tour bus. Would you crawl onto a shelf in a bus and go to sleep with just any driver? If a driver can drive without spilling their drinks, that’s less mess you have to clean up when you get to the destination. Driving smooth and steady while passengers are sleeping keeps them in their bunks and out of my hair. The best part of waking up in a bus is already being in the next town.
Although my travels are usually based in the entertainment touring business, there are all types of customers who rent or lease coaches. It really doesn’t matter to me who’s riding in the coach. My motto: pay the rent and my salary and you’re OK with me. Be who you want to be.
Besides entertainment based touring groups, I’ve driven individuals to sporting and racing events, corporate people to seminars and conventions, and private wealthy folks on vacations.
I once took a group of guys to a Notre Dame game. They had all known each other since grade school. Now grown and successful businessmen, once a year, they hit South Bend for their traditional game. I picked them up in Memphis, Tennessee, and drove overnight while they partied and slept. After parking the bus in the lot outside the stadium, I headed off to a local hotel. The group of guys tailgated all day until the game, and when the game was over and the celebrations finished, I checked out of my hotel room and came back to drive overnight to their hometown. I’ve had dozens of similar drives over the years.
Usually when I arrive to pick up passengers I’m meeting for the first time, someone asks, “Do you have any rules?”
I respond, “I’m the captain of the land yacht.” I’m pretty easy going. You make your own rules to live by and if something doesn’t seem to add up, I might remind you that the professional people I worked with last didn’t do it that way. It is your house. Make your own rules; you get that privilege as the lessee of the coach.
There are a few common sense rules when living and traveling in a coach. The only rule I would have would be that I don’t do your luggage. I will if you pay me, and I’ll do it with a smile, but otherwise it’s your luggage. If you’re going to hand a bellman five bucks a bag every time we check in and out of a hotel, you can pay me, too. And with entertainers checking in and checking out sometimes two times a day, that’s a lot of damn luggage. I’m working here, and after all, we live together. So, it’s your choice.
Another very important unwritten rule to remember is to sleep with your feet forward, head to the back of the bus. Like a cat, it’s best to land on your feet when you fall. It would be the same in a bus crash. I will never go backward fast enough to hurt you.
Other common sense rules are easy enough. Simple stuff like NO shitting on the bus. It’s a given. Get your shit schedule right. You don’t want to be the one making everyone late for work because you can’t keep your shit together. No shitting on the bus. It stinks, everyone can smell it and there are plenty of other smells to deal with when you have up to 12 people in a bus living in less than 300 square feet. The air travels forward in a bus. I know when you go to bed. I can smell you take off your shoes. I know when you get up in the morning. I can smell your breath. Let’s all try and keep the smells down as we ride around.
People always ask me to tell them the best tour I’ve been on. My response: there is no best tour. Every tour I’ve worked on has its memorable experiences. There are good ti
mes and tough times. Tours roll on no matter what, so you make the best of each day, take the good from them all and apply the lessons learned. I’ve had some tours that I didn’t want to end. The 1988 Grateful Dead summer tour was a good time and their close-knit family lifestyle made everything seem so easy. Eddie Murphy’s operation was first class and another tour that I didn’t want to end.
Sometimes it’s the activities between the shows on a tour that mean the most. After taking up golf in 1995, I considered myself very lucky that Chris, Ed and Michael of Queensryche made me their fourth in their golf outings. We made many treks to golf courses during the 1995 I Am I Tour. I was able to improve my game. I was so fortunate they put up with my bad playing and taught me many things I needed to know about the game. A funny sight, I thought, was me showing up to a country club with guys in a metal band to play a round of golf. There were a few weeks when we hit the course four times a week and we played some spectacular courses around the country.
My So-called Typical Day
People often ask me what a typical day is like driving a custom coach on entertainment-based tours?
My response: “There is NO such a thing as a typical day. It doesn’t matter what day of the week or month it is. There are show days and there are off days. That’s the only typical in touring.”
Just when you think you have it figured out, it’s time for another tour. The only constant is the clock. Everything in the touring business works by the clock. Arrival times, load in of the equipment, rigging, staging, lighting, sound, sets, eating, SHOW TIME, load out, departure times … repeat. The clock can be anyone’s archenemy on a tour. Life on the road is a constant battle with this nemesis that churns with or without you. The clock is never late, and it never sleeps. With no personality, it just continues being the beast and master that it is. The ticking thing turns for you as soon as you have the assignment and are given a pickup time. Be there. Be on time. Start off on the right foot, the one you press the accelerator with, and here we go again.
Tales from the Trails of a Rock ’n’ Roll Bus Driver Page 3
