 
This site is dedicated to my many friends in the professional Tech and Road Crew Industry. Without the hard work and dedication of the tireless Road Crew, we muso's would be unable to ROCK!! Thanks Brothers. A rotisserie of star crew personal will be posted regularly....Enjoy!!! "RCL" Issue # 5..is Mr Texas Greg Looper!! RCL-Q- Welcome to RCL Greg. Could you please explain in detail what your main
gig, or gig's are in the music business. 1. Sometimes I wonder myself. A professional bullshit artist? A little kid who does not want to get a real job? I do anything audio. I mix f.o.h. , monitors, system tech any system (f.o.h., monitors). Gear is gear. When you get a crew you are buying talent, experience, stuff money can’t buy. I’ve worked with lots of different sound companies and lots of different bands. I will work for anybody who pays. I’m a whore. RCL-Q- RCL hales out of Toronto Canada. Recently Velvet Revolver was in town andthe show was almost a no go as the gear trucks were held up at the border Apparently every speaker was taken apart and every truck was unloaded.
Insane!! The crew showed up 3 hours before show time and pulled it off 2hours late. Incredible. Have you ever been in this type of situation at a
border, and what was the fastest set-up time you have seen on your tours in 2. Border crossings! We all love them; it separates the men from the boys, the smart and the dumb. As I try to remember I realize I got tons of border stories, as anybody who has crossed any border knows every time is a fun experience. There are things you don’t do at border crossings. Don’t get me wrong, border crossings are good and smuggling is illegal and they don’t have to let you in or out. I was down in Jamaica for the jazz and blues festival and the customs inspector made us show them every little stupid serial number on every little piece of equipment. Needless to say it took 2 days to get the gear out of the sea container, it took 2 days to get the gear back in to the sea container. Well to make this story better, me and the guy I was down there with talked about sending back some good Jamaican leaf (if you know what I mean) we just talked about it, did not do anything yet. Well the show is over the crowd is gone, it’s 8 am and here is our last chance to put the leaf away before the gear goes back into the sea container. As we are pulling up to the sea container customs has got the dogs out walking our gear, the gear gets the clear and o.k. Then they start this stupid number game again about putting the gear back in to the sea container for the trip back to the states. Well the sea container made it out of Jamaica just fine, but getting back in to the U.S. was hell. It took over 2 months to get the sea container out of U.S. customs. Nothing happened, don’t know why U.S customs held the container. The container was clean. I guess some one did not get their pay off. We were smart. We still had the rest of the day in Jamaica to enjoy our fruits of our labor before we flew home. The fruits from B.C. are far better. I’m a bootlegger in the minds of the Canadian border control.
American Idol's tour 2004 across the border in Toronto Canada ACC. RCL -Q- You have worked for Canadian band Nickelback. What is your take on this lot? Tell us a story about touring with these guys? 3. A GREAT bunch of guys. The time I spent with them was great. Very professional. Sometimes I think they were a bit over whelmed. They just exploded. I think in the time I spent with them they sold like 12 million records. Nobody to somebody in days and it could not have happened to a bunch of nicer guys. Chad can write a rock n’ roll song. That guy has got the gift. During the same time I was out with N.B., they (Chad) were writing their next album "The Long Road" (great title since it was written on the road). Chad had his own bus which had a recording studio in it. Chad would show up to the gigs early in the morning so the bus driver could plug in the bus for electricity and turn the generators off so it would be quieter to record. So here is Chad in the backstage lot every show day at the crack of dawn working on his new songs. We played at the mlb all-star game in Milwaukee and had two days off before the show, and like 2 or 3 days off after and he only came off that bus a couple of times during that whole run in Milwaukee. I believe the entire album was written from this bus. The band started playing the new unrecorded songs in their nightly shows. It’s kind of cool to see a song be born from some guy’s fingertips to a multi-million-seller worldwide. I was not around when they went in to the studio to record “The Long Road” but the songs did not change. They were basically the same songs, just polished. During this same time I believe he also wrote the song for Carlos Santana. Great tune, just a shame Roadrunner did not get behind him and let it be released as a single. I think that song could have been as big or bigger then the Michelle Branch song. But we will never know now. You want a hit Rock n’ Roll song call Chad.
Nickelback - Courtesy Roadrunner Records
4. It’s the future and it’s happening today. I like some of the new digital console's and some are not so hot. I like the digico D5’s. We had them out on Aerosmith. They are cool console’s, but nothing can replace a good Midas xl-4. Here is the old school new school thing again. New school is cool but old school still kicks ass. There are a lot of holdouts not wanting to switch to digital. I think it’s the bean counters (accountants) and production managers who really like the digital console the best because it’s a money thing. Pay a little more for 2 digital consoles and it replaces 4 or more analog consoles and a lot of the processing that has to go with it, plus truck space and weight. You got to have faith that the computer will work everyday.
Greg's Scorpions rig 2004. And yes that is a Cosmo lighting rig. RCL -Q- Are you a musician as well like most techs in the biz? 5. No. I make ambient noise crap. I’m not a musician. I like being close to the spot light, just not in it. I got a couple of old Moog’s and a bunch of other old shit (delay’s, compressors, reverbs) I put it all together and come up with noise, is the easiest way to explain. I got a couple of friends who are in to stuff like that who I sent some tape’s to. That’s about it.
RCL -Q- Tell us the story about Steve Tyler being a swell guy to you when you were out with the Smith? 6. People could tell you some horror stories about that man, but there are also some good stories to. I had just finished the 1st American Idol, where I had gotten’ sick along with the rest of the audio crew. Well our production manager (piece of shit teabag) on Idol would not bring in a doctor and my turn around from Idol to Aerosmith was a day. So I went to Smith sick. We were in Minneapolis at the Target Center and our day was done and we were just waiting for the band to show up, so I crawled on a road box and laid down. Well I fell a sleep and when I woke up Steven was singing to me. It was a bit scary waking up that way. Steven asked why I was sleeping (we all know those guys had their vices in the old days and they don’t really dig the crew partying too much) so Steven was trying to see if I was hung over. I told him I was sick, that was why I was sleeping. We talked for awhile about what ever, then Steven went on about his day as did I. Next thing I know, one of the production girls is telling me to go and see the doctor (I guess Steven had a doctor called in the look at who ever was sick) I saw the doc and got some meds and was feeling better a couple of days later. After that, every show day until the end of the tour Steven would hunt me down and see how I was doing that day. When the tour ended, Steven made a point before he left to go home, to find me and wish me a Merry Christmas and gave me a big ol hug. That’s the touchy feel good story I have with Smith. After all the bullshit I saw and was put through on that tour, I still think under that rock star image he still has a heart. Now the rope swing is a whole other story.
Scoreboard that fell in Birmingham Alabama on an Aerosmith tour. Nobody was hurt.
7. No. The only thing wrong with those guys is they like pyro. More fire, more explosions, the bigger the better. But what is wrong with that.
Nickelback Pyro
8. It’s hard sometimes. Not everybody gels together. It’s a small family you end up touring with. The same people over the years. When I find myself with someone I am having issues with I just try to space myself, and have as little to do with that person.
Greg and good friend Mike Finn
9. Texas, Scorpions/Tesla/Keith Emerson 2004. I’m from San Antonio Texas and the promoter down there is a long time family friend. How we both got in to this business is anybody’s guess. So my friend kind of knew I was on this tour, so we worked over the menu for catering. So in Austin the thing to eat is Barbeque. So we had Barbeque in Austin. In San Antonio, the thing is Mexican food. So we had Mexican in San Antonio. This went on for a week, and people on the tour started to see a pattern. Mexican for lunch, Barbeque for dinner, Barbeque for lunch, Mexican for dinner. I was in hog heaven. It was great. Nothing like going home.
10. I’m a Prevo fan. Eagle’s had the best ride, just old. Had a lot of good drivers over the years. Hard to pick out just one. Every single one of them had something. Had a few bad one’s. I remember this one red dog fired while he kicked his ass because he parked us head down, which is bad when you wake up you got a head ache because of all the blood rushing towards your head. That was fun. Lost a trailer full of band gear on the interstate in Nashville in front of the new football stadium at the time. That was cool just like in the movies. The hitch broke off the bus, the trailer skidded down the highway, took out 3 light poles and stopped about 1/4 mile down the road. We got lucky. Nobody hurt, and no damage to the gear. Just the three light poles the trailer took out. There is nothing cooler and scarier than seeing your trailer pass you by on the interstate going 55 mph.
The trailer hitch that skidded down the road.
11. Ya, but it’s like any other city. When you live in Toronto you don’t go to the CN Tower everyday, or the hockey museum. Only when friends come to town, Vegas is a hard town to live in. If you like drugs, gambling, drinking or girls, you can do them all 24/7 or as long as you have money. I like living here. The casinos are a welcomed site after 6 – 12 months on the road. The casinos are tourist traps and I’m tired of being a tourist most of the time, so you won’t find me wondering the strip. Welcome to Las Vegas, entertainment capital of the world. Just leave the rug rats at home please! The cool thing about Vegas and being a tourist is no body knows you, and you can go completely ape shit and no body cares.
Joe Perry and Kiss, I think Joe is wearing Paul’s boots.
12. The only thing I want to plug is RED DOG. Check this guy out. He is the original Road Crew. There is an effort to get Red Dog in to the Rock n’ Roll hall of fame. He worked for the Allman Brothers Band for over 30 years. He was Duane’s boy. No body knows more about Duane Allman than the dog. He was around when the Tom Dowd Eric Clapton / Derek and the Dominoes, Layla thing all went down. If you have seen the movie Almost Famous, Red Dog is all over that. I remember when the movie was being shot; Cameron was calling Red Dog to check his facts. Check out Red Dogs website and buy his book. http://www.legendaryreddog.com/.
"RCL STAFF" Editor & Chief- Darrell DWaRf Millar....Web Design- Unkledunk Multi-Media...Field Team- Rock Show Personal Inc...Host- Darrell Millar's Time Capsule 2002-2005..This site is non-profit and paid for by DMTC. All rights Reserved RCL 2003-2005 [CONTACT] [LINKS] [ON TOUR] [ARCHIVES]
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