“They pay us to travel, they don't pay us to play,” Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry said recently, and anyone who’s toured or possibly just gigged will know what he means. A successful show is fun, a buzz, the kind of thing you’ve prepared for and, if you’re lucky, might even have the talent for. Touring, on the other hand, is a drag.
Traveling, driving, flying, waiting in departure lounges, sharing a bus, loading in, loading out, packing up. Endless motorways, highways, autobahns. The pressure of arriving in one town after the other, facing a paying audience looking for the night of their lives when you feel slightly broken? That is what they pay you for.
