Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Part III: Rock and Roll by Stevie Adamek

This is the last installment of a three-part series on what I learned touring with Journey, Boston and Van Halen as part of the melodic rock band, Bighorn, in the late 70s. As I mentioned in Part II (Drugs and Alcohol), rock and roll – actually any kind of music – is a business. Rock and roll touring is a special kind of business, though.

These days, of course, there are no more record stores, a lot of promotion is done through social media, and almost everyone downloads and listens to music on their phones. Some things are still pretty much the same in the music business – there’s still a lot of sex and drugs. It’s also still all about the money. For us artists, though, it’s always going to be about the rock and roll.

Here are some of the most important things I learned as a touring musician:

Take Opportunities When They Appear And Don’t Look Back

Bighorn had been together for 7 years before I joined the band. They were the top nightclub act in the Seattle area – mostly a cover band (Zeppelin, Queen, Stix, Yes) with a few originals thrown in. In August 1977, their management decided that they needed someone with a proven record of writing original songs to move them forward.

Peter Davis, the keyboard player from Bighorn, had a solo career going as well. I had met him at  Seattle West Studios (Sea West), where he had hired me as a studio musician to play drums on his solo record (I was also an engineer there). This was 1977, the same time Heart was recording their fourth album, Dog and Butterfly, in the room across the hall at SeaWest. In addition to engineering at SeaWest, I was playing and writing music in a four-person band called the See Band. I was 26 at the time. (more…)

Van Halen News Desk Publishes Stevie’s Post

Thank you to the Van Halen News Desk, who this week published Stevie’s post on touring with Van Halen in 1978 on their website. Read it here: Three Lessons I Learned in 1978 Touring With Van Halen by Stevie Adamek. 

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Part II: Drugs and Alcohol by Stevie Adamek

Stevie singing lead in the Allies

In Part I (Sex) of this series, I wrote about my experience touring the country with the Seattle power rock band Bighorn, opening for bands like Boston, Van Halen, Journey and the J. Geils Band.

The three biggest characteristics of touring, in my experience, are that it’s boring the majority of the time, you’re spending your time (if you’re in an all-male rock band) with a group of guys like you who are stuck psychologically at age 14, and – most importantly – there’s usually free access to a variety of mind-altering substances. There are also some compelling business reasons why indulging in drugs and alcohol is encouraged in the touring business. I’ll get into those reasons later in this post. It’s a fun – but sometimes hazardous – thing to mix music, drugs and alcohol. When you’re a touring musician, it’s key to know what you are getting yourself into when you decide to indulge.

When I was on tour with the rock bands Bighorn and The Allies in the late 1970s and early 80s, I only drank when I was on tour. I smoked some weed when I wrote songs, and sometimes on stage, and did some occasional cocaine (more on that later, too), but alcohol was my primary drug of choice while touring.

I never paid for either drugs or alcohol. Either the club paid for your alcohol or fans bought you drinks. Fans always wanted to get close to the band, and drugs and alcohol were the transaction fee. Fans offered you drugs before, during and after the show. It was a young man’s dream, pretty much. The dream didn’t come without side effects, however. (more…)