Friday
Apr172009
Meet the Crew!
04.17.2009
Ok it’s official… there are TOO MANY people at the YMCA today. I
don’t get it… usually by this time in the year the resolutions are
over with and the gym settles down to a nice hum…. But it took me 10 minutes to find a parking place in a parking lot that I’ve never had
to search in before. CRAZY… and of course as the Roy family always is…we were late. Late to swim lessons for Avery and Haven. I should be used to that by now too, but I HATE being late to anything…. It’s a
parents lot in life, or so I’ve been told.
Seriously though… why haven’t all the resolution people quit yet??
Maybe we as a nation have become more health conscious… or maybe there’s more to this economic downturn that we like to let on… who knows. I do know this though… the treadmill will keep going as long as you’ll keep running, and right now a lot of people are looking for distractions. Some people in my family lost their retirement completely when the stocks bottomed out… an extra 30 minutes should work your mind into numbness so you can forget. Me, when I’m lifting weights I’m conscious the whole time… not in a “I need to work my lats 2 more reps before exhaustion” kind of way. More like a “I hate this, I hate this, I’ve always hated this, but I’m still doing it for some dumb reason”, kind of way. Don’t feel sorry for me though… it’s in my blood… my dad was Texas state power lifting champ 2 different years in the late 80’s so I know what I’m doing. Even though I hate it… I just feel like I have to sometimes. Go figure. When I want to de-stress… basketball is it. The only problem is that there are 30 people waiting on a game right now and I don’t have the patience to wait… so here I sit on the computer talking to you.
All that brings me to my point….I want to share with you the people that work the hardest on our tour bus. Now you know I’d like to believe that’s me, but point of fact: that just isn’t true anymore. If you’d be interested in doing a debate over a time span of the last 10 years then the band still wins cause we’ve paid our dues a thousand times over. But if you were to take the last tour as an example, the gold medal goes to 4 people: Brian Coleman, Ryan Lewis, Richard Davis, and Josh Magnin (aka Mags). So let me introduce them to you!!
BC is the longest tenured guy on the bus with a full 7 years on the road with the band. When all is said and done I hope that I end up being a little bit more like him in the spiritual sense. I mean the guy is flawed to be sure, but if you meet him when he’s loading in a console or backing up a bus or hanging line array you get to see a rare thing: A guy who loves what he does and actually knows exactly
what he’s doing. Brian is the man with the plan. 8-10 hour days in the office advancing shows when we’re at home… 12-16 hour days officiating them when we’re on the road. I’ve never known anybody who loved to pack, unpack, wire and rewire, oil change a generator, or drive a bus any more than him. He makes the tough stuff look fun!!! So if you ever see a dark haired dude with a goatee carrying a 200 lb. console while he’s smiling… be sure to tell him that he freaking ROCKS, cause you just met our hero Brian Coleman.
Ryan Lewis is the genius behind pretty much everything technical.
Chances are, if you thought something at the show was extra cool… he’s the one who designed or built it. The cool thing is that Ryan and I go back 10-12 year to a time when I lived in Wilmington, NC and was in a youth group with him. Ryan got to watch Cortni and I meet at the same church and was one of the youth that we taught. He went to Liberty University for college where he was a part of the tech team that puts on all thier insane Christian concerts. Kid can build scaffolding, lighting, pa, hang points on a pa, and oh yeah, he can tear anything apart and rebuild it with a paper clip and some gum. He’s unbelievably talented and he’s the field general when we hit the ground for load in the mornings. Did I mention that he’s a pretty insane guitar player… plays violin, drums and pretty much anything else he touches… yeah he’s a FREAK.
Richard Davis… Our backline tech, stage manager and my personal
lifeline during the shows. Richard is part of my church in Clarksville, TN and he’s quite possibly the most talented person in any room he walks into. He came out on the THL tour #1 to play Cello for us… yeah that’s right I said Cello… and then decided to stay on with us through the spring leg of the tour. Ok, so if the Cello isn’t cool enough, I watched him tear the bass apart on Easter Sunday at church
and that’s not even close to the end of his talents. He’s a pro drummer too. I mean PRO. We’re so thankful to have him on the road with us changing guitars, tuning drums, running monitors and making sure that the clueless can find their way onto the stage every night. Richard, we salute you!!!
Mags… from Monomaggy productions is the heart of VIDEOWALL operations inc. He sets up and runs our massive video wall for every show. Mags came on doing merch last summer, but he has always been super talented with video, hence his own video company. You wouldn’t believe the kind of stuff he has to figure out to make our video wall work…. It’s pretty insane. Anyway, if you’ve ever enjoyed the way my singing matches up perfectly on “You Carried Me” or
the FIRE behind us on “End of Me” you owe Mr. Maggs a thank you.
Unfortunately for us Josh is going to leave us this summer and take a
road management job, and we’re stoked for him. We always hope that the people we work with have an opportunity to move on to bigger and better things.. so congratulations Mr. Maggs, you deserve it!!!
So good people.. now you know our Crew and the heroes of our
operation. Next time you come to a show look for these guys and say thank you… they do their jobs and they don’t complain, and
because of them… we all get to rock!!!
Blessings,
Jason
don’t get it… usually by this time in the year the resolutions are
over with and the gym settles down to a nice hum…. But it took me 10 minutes to find a parking place in a parking lot that I’ve never had
to search in before. CRAZY… and of course as the Roy family always is…we were late. Late to swim lessons for Avery and Haven. I should be used to that by now too, but I HATE being late to anything…. It’s a
parents lot in life, or so I’ve been told.
Seriously though… why haven’t all the resolution people quit yet??
Maybe we as a nation have become more health conscious… or maybe there’s more to this economic downturn that we like to let on… who knows. I do know this though… the treadmill will keep going as long as you’ll keep running, and right now a lot of people are looking for distractions. Some people in my family lost their retirement completely when the stocks bottomed out… an extra 30 minutes should work your mind into numbness so you can forget. Me, when I’m lifting weights I’m conscious the whole time… not in a “I need to work my lats 2 more reps before exhaustion” kind of way. More like a “I hate this, I hate this, I’ve always hated this, but I’m still doing it for some dumb reason”, kind of way. Don’t feel sorry for me though… it’s in my blood… my dad was Texas state power lifting champ 2 different years in the late 80’s so I know what I’m doing. Even though I hate it… I just feel like I have to sometimes. Go figure. When I want to de-stress… basketball is it. The only problem is that there are 30 people waiting on a game right now and I don’t have the patience to wait… so here I sit on the computer talking to you.
All that brings me to my point….I want to share with you the people that work the hardest on our tour bus. Now you know I’d like to believe that’s me, but point of fact: that just isn’t true anymore. If you’d be interested in doing a debate over a time span of the last 10 years then the band still wins cause we’ve paid our dues a thousand times over. But if you were to take the last tour as an example, the gold medal goes to 4 people: Brian Coleman, Ryan Lewis, Richard Davis, and Josh Magnin (aka Mags). So let me introduce them to you!!
BC is the longest tenured guy on the bus with a full 7 years on the road with the band. When all is said and done I hope that I end up being a little bit more like him in the spiritual sense. I mean the guy is flawed to be sure, but if you meet him when he’s loading in a console or backing up a bus or hanging line array you get to see a rare thing: A guy who loves what he does and actually knows exactly
what he’s doing. Brian is the man with the plan. 8-10 hour days in the office advancing shows when we’re at home… 12-16 hour days officiating them when we’re on the road. I’ve never known anybody who loved to pack, unpack, wire and rewire, oil change a generator, or drive a bus any more than him. He makes the tough stuff look fun!!! So if you ever see a dark haired dude with a goatee carrying a 200 lb. console while he’s smiling… be sure to tell him that he freaking ROCKS, cause you just met our hero Brian Coleman.
Ryan Lewis is the genius behind pretty much everything technical.
Chances are, if you thought something at the show was extra cool… he’s the one who designed or built it. The cool thing is that Ryan and I go back 10-12 year to a time when I lived in Wilmington, NC and was in a youth group with him. Ryan got to watch Cortni and I meet at the same church and was one of the youth that we taught. He went to Liberty University for college where he was a part of the tech team that puts on all thier insane Christian concerts. Kid can build scaffolding, lighting, pa, hang points on a pa, and oh yeah, he can tear anything apart and rebuild it with a paper clip and some gum. He’s unbelievably talented and he’s the field general when we hit the ground for load in the mornings. Did I mention that he’s a pretty insane guitar player… plays violin, drums and pretty much anything else he touches… yeah he’s a FREAK.
Richard Davis… Our backline tech, stage manager and my personal
lifeline during the shows. Richard is part of my church in Clarksville, TN and he’s quite possibly the most talented person in any room he walks into. He came out on the THL tour #1 to play Cello for us… yeah that’s right I said Cello… and then decided to stay on with us through the spring leg of the tour. Ok, so if the Cello isn’t cool enough, I watched him tear the bass apart on Easter Sunday at church
and that’s not even close to the end of his talents. He’s a pro drummer too. I mean PRO. We’re so thankful to have him on the road with us changing guitars, tuning drums, running monitors and making sure that the clueless can find their way onto the stage every night. Richard, we salute you!!!
Mags… from Monomaggy productions is the heart of VIDEOWALL operations inc. He sets up and runs our massive video wall for every show. Mags came on doing merch last summer, but he has always been super talented with video, hence his own video company. You wouldn’t believe the kind of stuff he has to figure out to make our video wall work…. It’s pretty insane. Anyway, if you’ve ever enjoyed the way my singing matches up perfectly on “You Carried Me” or
the FIRE behind us on “End of Me” you owe Mr. Maggs a thank you.
Unfortunately for us Josh is going to leave us this summer and take a
road management job, and we’re stoked for him. We always hope that the people we work with have an opportunity to move on to bigger and better things.. so congratulations Mr. Maggs, you deserve it!!!
So good people.. now you know our Crew and the heroes of our
operation. Next time you come to a show look for these guys and say thank you… they do their jobs and they don’t complain, and
because of them… we all get to rock!!!
Blessings,
Jason
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