During the pandemic, Lamont hosted remote conversations with thought leaders who were actively shape shifting and recalibrating the next rendition of concert going and culture. This episode was recorded at the peak of the pandemic when mental health emerged as one of the most discussed and newly reformed subjects in the industry. Kyle Lamont connects virtually with Misty Roberts, a seasoned tour manager who has worked with top touring bands, Bruno Mars, Metallica, and Haim. Her candid revelations shed light on the future of touring, unveiling profound insights that advocate for extreme changes. Misty emphasizes that while managing logistics remains integral to tour operations, prioritizing mental and physical health must become an above the line concern for every individual involved in the concert touring business.
Announcer: Every music venue has a story, a culture, and each is a portal to discovery. Kyle Lamont, host and producer of Concert Cast, is your guide on a journey through today's concert culture. Season one, a road trip around Maine was released in the wake of a global pandemic rocked by the cataclysmic shift, Lamont began to document the movement in season two will connect deeper with thought leaders who are creatively adapting and recalibrating the next rendition of concert-going and culture. In this episode, the man talks with Misty Roberts, a tour manager who's worked with Bruno Mars, Metallica, and more. Who shares transparent insights into the future of touring and changes she wants to see take center stage.
Kyle Lamont: Long before creating Concert Cast, I was a runner at the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri. I was a wide-eyed hippy college chick who just couldn't wait to jump on the bus and grab the rider, which is like a fancy term for a grocery list from the badass tour manager so that I could help them take care of all the little details that would set the band up for a killer show, you know, granola bars, pizza, beer and sometimes the occasional stage blood request. I loved being a gear in the concert machine. Roadies, managers, promoters, owners, and runners like me all working together to transform a venue. And it was a rinse and repeat cycle pretty much every night. But it was always exciting and clearly very impressionable. I thrived on the energy and the tour managers enchanted me with their wizardry. And to this day, when going to a concert, I like to arrive early so that I can watch the roadies dial everything in. And when orbiting around the venue during a show to take in the varying vantage points, I tend to linger longest behind the production board so that I can watch the sound and lighting engineers work. The telepathy between the band and the tech crew is just remarkable.
Kyle Lamont: And after the show, I stay as long as I can, sometimes right up to the point of when security asks me to leave because watching the roadies disassemble the stage is a thing of wonder. And even from afar, I'll always feel part of an exclusive club. When covid hit, I felt utter despair for all the tour managers and roadies I've ever worked with and those I've never met. These humans are instrumental to putting on a concert and they've built careers on touring. To have it completely pulled out from under them without any support or backup plan was devastating, according to an article in the New York Times about roadies without work. Seventeen hundred respondents in the Production Services Association said that they had suffered depression, and nearly 15 percent said that they had experienced suicidal thoughts while researching this unsettling topic and planning an episode from a tour manager's perspective. I luckily happened upon Misty Roberts. She's a veteran tour manager who has strong opinions about happiness and health being top priorities when the touring business comes back online. But before we get there, let's take you to a happy music memory of hers way back in eighth grade. What was your first concert?
Misty Roberts: Oh, my gosh, you're going to laugh. It was New Kids on the Block. I remember sitting on the phone and redialing over and over Ticketmaster to get in line on the phone to get tickets because we didn't have Ticketmaster outlet to buy tickets.
Kyle Lamont: So was it an arena show?
Misty Roberts: It was actually an amphitheater at the time. It was called Sandstone Amphitheater outside of Kansas City. It's in Bonner Springs and it's been rebranded eight million times. I have no idea what it's called now.
Kyle Lamont: Have you been there on tour with a band that you were working for?
Misty Roberts: Believe it or not. I have never gotten to play there on tour. I've gone backstage for other shows, but I've never actually gotten to do a show there. It's still on my bucket list of things to go back to that place that I saw my very first show,
Kyle Lamont: Roberts and I have connected over Zoom for this interview. She's at her podcast studio in L.A., but she's originally from Richmond, Kansas, population 2000, where the average occupation is farmer or factory worker. She discovered how live music could be an outlet during her moody teenage years.
Misty Roberts: I consider myself super lucky because my like era of music was when alternative music started to come to the forefront. I mean, it's super cool for me to be able to say that I snuck in the back door of clubs to go see the Smashing Pumpkins
Kyle Lamont: In her mid-20s. After a few unfulfilling jobs and an impulsive marriage.
Misty Roberts: I met a boy and I was definitely very rebellious and it seemed like a good idea when he said, Let's get married. I was like, that will piss everyone off. Absolutely. So I was married for a couple of years, really, really young. I was 19 when I got married and I was about twenty-two when I got divorced. We parted very amicably.
Kyle Lamont: She ended up moving to Lawrence, Kansas, a very cool college town and living right next door to The Bottleneck and iconic music venue
Misty Roberts: So that we could make sure that we could get home every night from the following.
Kyle Lamont: So tell me about that, like how important it was to just, like, feed the love of live music every night just to, like, so much so that you were living down the street from a venue?
Misty Roberts: I feel like it was the first time in my life that I was surrounded by people that got it, you know, being raised in a super small town. There are things that are like set out for you. You're not supposed to sneak into the back door of a club to listen to a rock band. I mean, I have so many memories of shows at the Bottleneck and the Granada. And it wasn't just a hobby. It was our life. You would wake up in the morning hungover from the night before and go, who are we seeing tonight? It was your people. It was your place, and it's where you felt comfortable. And I think out of that, I started to realize that spending that time there, I did get to observe all of those bands coming through. And I got to see that there was a path there that can be taken and it wasn't going to be easy. But nothing in life that's worth it is easy.
Kyle Lamont: During that early time when you were getting interested in, like the business side, did you find yourself watching the tech crew or the sound guy? Maybe more so than the band?
Misty Roberts: There wasn't the Internet, so it wasn't like you could look up an article of who does what on tour and where do you go to school? For me, it was just well, I guess I want to jump into this the same way I kind of have with everything else my life and just figure it out. Just observing everybody, including the musicians, and being like, am I sure I want to take care of musicians? Sometimes they're a little crazy. I think I'm by nature a nurturer. I wanted to be the person that made sure that all those people felt good about what they were doing.
Kyle Lamont: She got her feet wet by managing a few local Midwest bands
Misty Roberts: In St. Louis. We would do The Pageant.
Kyle Lamont: Yes, love that.
Misty Roberts: And Chicago, we would do The Double Door. And then in Dallas, we would do the entire like Deep Ellum, you know, the whole realm of clubs down there. There were at the time, I think, like seven or eight different clubs in Deep Ellum that were pretty big-name clubs. So, yeah, it was a really impressive undertaking for, like I said, a bunch of unsigned bands that didn't have a booking agent. We just learned we taught ourselves.
Kyle Lamont: And from there she was hired to manage a big-time national tour called Mannheim Steamroller.
Misty Roberts: Yeah, it's the longest-standing Christmas tour in the US.
Kyle Lamont: Talk about night and day going from like rock and roll to like
Misty Roberts: Completely is absolutely like polar opposite. It was two hours Christmas music November through the beginning of January.
Kyle Lamont: It was a much bigger role, which included traveling on a bus for the first time to many different theaters.
Misty Roberts: I didn't know what to think when I walked in the first day and I was like, I didn't know how to sleep on a tour bus. You know, somebody had to tell me which direction to sleep. And they played all the normal new-timer jokes on you. Like, don't forget to put on your bunk seatbelt. I'm like, here's a seat belt. Like, you don't fall out in the middle of the night. We were driving and I remember the first night like looking frantically for the seat belt. And I was like, I don't want to fall out. Like, I don't want them to make fun of me. I don't know any of these people. There's no such thing as a box seat belt. I mean, most of the men that I was out with on the tour had been touring for 40 years. They find nothing more enjoyable than, like, poking fun at the new kid. They'd never do it maliciously at all. They do it out of fun.
Kyle Lamont: And then this new kid on the block's career went sky high. She's been the tour manager for Bruno Mars, Metallica, James Taylor, and Enrique Iglesias. Do the artists interview you to be their tour manager or how does that process work of being hired?
Misty Roberts: I mean, on Enrique, I was hired by the production manager as the production coordinator. And then I also kind of segued into, like, road managing the band a little bit. It generally starts out with management.
Kyle Lamont: What was it for Enrique like when you first met him? Is it sort of you get to know him a little bit and understand sort of how he rolls? Or is it just you jump into the deep end?
Misty Roberts: Just jumped into the deep end. That was a really unique scenario. Like the production manager, they had just started a co-headlining tour with Pitbull and the production manager is really, really sick and had to go home and they needed someone to come out and just really help move things along. He's an incredible, incredible human. He probably has the best sense of humor of any artist I've ever worked with.
Kyle Lamont: She finds that artists like Enrique and James Taylor, who find a lot of joy in their music and performances, make her job easier and share some sweet insight on working with Taylor.
Misty Roberts: I've never seen someone quite so invested in knowing so much about the people that are working with him. He makes sure that he knows every bus driver's name, every truck driver's name, knows everyone on the crew, what they do. Sometimes I'll be walking by the tracks, the semi-trucks and go, what goes in that one? Who's the guy that loads this one? Like, introduce me to him.
Kyle Lamont: What would you say is like a big reputation you have then or your style? What do people in the tour industry say about you as the tour manager?
Misty Roberts: I am very honest sometimes to a fault. I'm trying to figure out how to tamp my brutal honesty sometimes because I've realized that as much as I like it from people, it is not often received the same way. And I think that I'm also very, very understanding
Kyle Lamont: What you said earlier, which I liked, was nurturing, you know, sounds like you nurture people's talent and skills. And that's the big thing with a manager and tour manager especially, is the skills and pairing people up so that there's a real joint success. And that starts with the tour manager.
Misty Roberts: I'm also I would say one thing that people might say is very resourceful.
Kyle Lamont: Her skills were put to the ultimate test when she set up a concert for Metallica in Antarctica.
Misty Roberts: I got a phone call from our production manager and he was like, so I think we're going to go to Antarctica. Pepsi wants their Coke Zero wants to sponsor this trip. And no band has ever played a show in Antarctica and Metallica. This year. We've been to all the other six continents and they want to say that they went to all seven continents in a year and break the Guinness World Record or set a Guinness World Record. And I was like, I don't even know how people get to Antarctica.
Kyle Lamont: But she figured it out and she won't ever forget The Drake Passage.
Misty Roberts: It's the Drake Passage. And when it's calm, they call it the Drake Lake. And when it's not, they call it Drake shake. And we got the Drake shake and it was supposed to take us about two days to get there and it took us almost four because the storm kept pushing us back. And I have a video of waves that were three times taller than the boat. And I thought we were going to die. And I was so seasick.
Kyle Lamont: Once they arrived, it was all hands on deck to set up their stage, which was inside a giant igloo. And the show was arranged to be a silent disco because there was a real concern of glaciers breaking off from the sonic vibrations. The, shall we say, gut-wrenching work was all worth it.
Misty Roberts: And then I got to stand there on a helicopter port in Antarctica and have all these research scientists come and see a rock show with, like one of the world's biggest rock bands. And it was super. It was amazing.
Kyle Lamont: There are elements to tour managing that aren't picture perfect. It's no secret that the industry is male-centric. I was wondering if there was an event or moment that happened to you while on tour that you learned a lot from about the industry and also about yourself as a person?
Misty Roberts: Absolutely. I got fired from a tour and I had not ever been fired from anything before, ever. But it did also show me the importance of small steps to we are making steps and we do need to acknowledge those all the time. We also need to acknowledge that everything is not a female versus male fight. This isn't a fight to silence one voice or the other, that it's a fight for equality for both. I think that I had slipped into a little bit of a mindset of if you're a man, you better get the fuck out of my way. And in hindsight, when I had to step back and take a look at all of it, I had to go, OK, I took a part in that. And I'm not proud of the methods or the way that I was acting to get the point across. And I'll do better next time.
Kyle Lamont: So what would you say to women starting out in the industry?
Misty Roberts: You don't need to smash stuff. You know, there is something to be said for the feminine energy that is brought into a conversation. Let that come out on its own, hone those skills and then be yourself. First of all, give it time to find who you want to be and how you want to represent yourself in any industry. Harness that and use it.
Kyle Lamont: While at home. Recalibrating covid hit and Roberts refocused her energy to host a 10-week mental health webinar series geared towards roadies.
Misty Roberts: One of them, Dave Shurman, is a substance abuse counselor and kind of a life coach type person. And then I had Karen Lango, who is a trauma and somatic therapist, and we did a different subject every week of how to how to navigate through all of this. You know, I don't think that, like, I gave up on the idea of when things were going to come back, but I also didn't want to live in it every day. I didn't want to wake up every day and go, is today the day I get my industry back? So I really threw myself into learning different skills.
Kyle Lamont: Including podcasting. She currently hosts a daily podcast called the Misty and Ike show that allows listeners to escape through laughter.
Misty Roberts: I'm Misty and I'm Ike, for the next 15 minutes we're going to debate pop culture.
Kyle Lamont: They talk about everything under the pop culture sun and their charismatic dynamic is reminiscent of talk radio.
Misty Roberts: I did start to make a habit for a while of like when we were driving to the venue in the morning of going up front and sitting with the bus driver and having him turn on like local radio so that I could hear those people talk to each other. There's just an openness that comes with them. There's a vulnerability that comes out of it. That is something that I don't think that you get in a lot of things anymore.
Kyle Lamont: My personal favorite episode was number fifty-three, where they talk about the origins of band names. The show makes great use of fun sound effects and their banter is genuine.
Ike: Everything I say is going to get applause today.
Misty Roberts: It is. I like that.
Ike: Meow.
Misty Roberts: Meow. I have one for you.
Ike: OK.
Misty Roberts: And this makes me really excited because I love it when you can like full circle some shit where Phoenix got their name. OK, the French pop outfit Phoenix name themselves. I get to think about something and go and I'm going to make something that hopefully just make somebody laugh today.
Kyle Lamont: But it's her valuable experience in the industry that has major organizations and conferences bringing her on panels to share thoughts on what the touring industry will look like post covid. She thinks that the future of touring needs to be more human-focused and that the industry has a chance to recreate a more sustainable and healthy model that puts people first.
Misty Roberts: You know, we were very caught up in a repetitive cycle of what's your next gig, having your next gig lined up halfway through the tour. Ticket sales getting more and more expensive because you needed more and more production. And I think with the absence of all of that, we have an opportunity to really look at our industry and go, we are really unhealthy. And I hope very much that we are able to take a lot of the things that we've learned this last year into a new mode of touring.
Kyle Lamont: While understanding the importance of the bottom line. She's also concerned about the well-being of the crew who typically push their mental and physical health aside.
Misty Roberts: The attitudes that come out of touring. You know, when you add the ego in with exhaustion and bad nutrition and taking a day off in a hotel room to just try to recharge yourself because you've had. Four shows in a row and you're exhausted to the point that you can't move. Those are not productive humans. And I feel like if we could make some very humane allowances, that we can really bring a big shot of humanity into the game for everyone.
Kyle Lamont: You're sort of positioning a viewpoint here where perhaps covid is re-centering people and maybe bands or tours might be a little bit more focused on the experience for everyone. So it's less volume, right. And more meaningful.
Misty Roberts: We lost everything that we really had based our lives because like I said, I think that we get into touring and we get in this tunnel vision of what's next tour. What am I doing? How much more money? Where am I going to go on this one? I just think that everyone, when they come back, is going to have to make a lot of compromises. And I think it's completely doable because we have seen the cracks, we've seen the cracks in a very, very large way.
Kyle Lamont: She goes on to say how important it will be to not only have a covid safety officer but possibly even a human resource officer, someone who's there to help roadies a musician's work their way through collective PTSD and help better manage life situations.
Misty Roberts: Roadies are kind of known at times for being hot-headed already. I can't imagine what that's going to look like when the stress of putting up the first show is happening and the stress of getting back, seeing passports looked at. You know, we're going to have a lot of people that are going to come back that are in desperate financial shape, that it would be really helpful if they knew that they could go and talk to somebody and say, can you help me look up somewhere that I can look for some kind of a loan to catch up on my mortgage?
Kyle Lamont: And she also envisions a focus on physical health.
Misty Roberts: I do think that there will be a big trend in hopefully trying to stay healthier, you know, nutrition-wise down the road. I think that you're going to see tours that are going to take out personal trainers, not just for the artists and the musicians anymore, that they'll make themselves available to people on the crew as well. I don't think that we've done a really good job in the past of taking advantage of the places that we're in. We're in sports arenas, open up the basketball court, let guys go play basketball for an hour in the afternoon after we're done with load-in, you know, some physical activity other than lifting a beer to your face on the bus after the show is over. A lot of people, first of all, have gotten very, very into taking better care of themselves during the pandemic. So hopefully that goes back out on tour as well.
Kyle Lamont: Even though Roberts is excited to get back on the road with her industry experience, she's realistic and transparent with expectations.
Misty Roberts: There's no possible way that I would want to be a part of the first two tours that go back out. I don't want to invent that that wheel. It's going to be very, very difficult. And, you know, there's a lot of conversation in our industry too about pay rates being lower when we go back out. There's no possible way with the addition of duties that are going to be added on to a tour manager or production coordinator that I would take less than I was taking before. You're going to be expected to really be dealing with the health and safety like it's no longer food and lodging, it's health and safety. And that's a different ballgame.
Kyle Lamont: It would take a very mindful tour to bring her out of the podcast studio and back on the road.
Misty Roberts: I love the idea at this point of going out on a tour because I want to, not because I have to. If I were to hop back out on tour tomorrow, I would want it to be with a management company and an artist that I really, truly can align with and that I feel like understand the value of crew. I miss the travel so much, I've really taken time this year to think about how much I did not appreciate the places that I had the opportunity to go to, and I want another run at that. You know, I also have that pie in the sky idea that maybe our podcast takes off and we go out and tour and do our podcast live. I love the idea that you know what? Maybe somebody is my tour manager for a minute. I think that there would be nothing more fun than that.
Kyle Lamont: Tell me what venue you're excited to get back to.
Misty Roberts: Oh, I cannot wait for the Hollywood Bowl. There is something about doing a show at the Hollywood Bowl that it was always one of my bucket list places. And it just has a different feeling. It just resonates different every time I'm there. I actually have only seen one show at the Hollywood Bowl myself. You know, I'm always backstage and I'm going to make it a point to go to more shows, the Hollywood Bowl whenever I can. That way I can get that feeling that everybody else does. I feel like if I can keep recapturing that feeling myself, it will keep me in line with all those things that I've learned this year.
Kyle Lamont: After our interview, I couldn't help but think about how tomorrow's wide-eyed runners might be making more smoothy runs than beer runs or bringing roadies and musicians to the nearest gym instead of smoking Js with them in the back alley or green room. So much of the touring lifestyle is built on wild nights and chaos. Is it possible to have a holistic approach to touring, or will the concert industry lose its edge? Will roadies choose to swap beers for basketballs? Or maybe it's a more subtle shift from needing to cope and escape from exhaustion to celebrating the love of live music with renewed energy. Clearly, the concert industry has an interesting opportunity to reinvent itself, prioritizing people over profit and exchanging immediacy for sustainability. Like Robert said, covid has shown the industry its cracks. So why push people to pass through them again?
Announcer: Little things that go a long way donate to NIVA, the National Independent Venue Association, to save our stages and to backline.care, a non-profit organization that connects music industry professionals and their families with a trusted network of mental health and wellness providers. Our resident mastermind is Mark Tekushan, editor and engineer is Peter McGill. Our supervising producer is Heidi Stanton-Drew. Special thanks to Misty Roberts, Pepper Little, Amy Charley, Cara Romano, Eddie Contento, Jesse Couto. And thank you for listening.