A Behind the Scenes Look at a Train of Tourbulence

Most of you reading this have gotten the chance to attend at least one concert in your lifetime – whether it be Dream Theater or some other artist. You go to the venue, see the band play and leave the venue – a fairly simple process. But the effort that it takes for you to enjoy those 2 or 3 hours of musical bliss is more than you likely could imagine!

So what is required to take a band out on a world tour for several months? Rikk Feulner, Dream Theater’s most recent tour manager, answers that question, as well as shares stories of his time out on the road.

Scott Hansen: First of all, thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

Rikk Feulner: No problem.

SH: How long have you been Dream Theater’s tour manager?

RF: I’ve only done two tours with them, so far.

SH: Exactly what does the tour manager do?

RF: Oh God! [laughs] I don’t think you’ll have enough pen and paper to write it all down!

SH: Well, how about giving me a synopsis of what you do day-to-day while you’re on the road.

RF: First of all, a tour manager books all the flights, books all the hotels, does all the scheduling to get from point A to point B. When you travel all over the world like Dream Theater does, you use all sorts of things. We’ve done everything from buses to flying to van rides to sit up buses to everything. I think the only thing we haven’t used are mules! [laughs] At least not yet!

Between myself and the production manager, when we put the tour together, it takes a good month, six weeks or sometimes even two months just to get everything put together even before we start the tour. So for instance, last year we knew we were going to be starting in England and so we spent two months getting everything ready, figuring out how to get the equipment over to England, where we were going to rehearse, setting up buses, figuring out how many trucks we’re going to need – depending on how much production we needed. Contacting sound companies, light companies, bus companies, truck companies, video companies, catering companies – contacting a bunch of different ones and getting quotes – trying to find out who will give us the best deal, the best equipment...basically everything we needed for the lowest amount of money, just like any other business.

SH: So you’re given a budget to start off with then?

RF: Yeah, pretty much. Frank [Solomon], the band’s manager says “here’s our budget – here’s how much we can spend. Make it happen.” It’s up to me and whoever the production manager is at the time to do it. So he and I will split it up. A lot of times, the production manager will take care of the crew, the lighting, video and sound, and I’ll do the buses, the trucks and the catering. If I have more contacts in one area, then I’ll do it, and if he has better contacts in another area, then he’ll take care of that. So that’s how it starts.

And then we just start getting things together – deciding where we’re going to rehearse, where the tour’s going to start, booking flights and the hotels. Also, we set up all the times for load in, times for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for sound check, show times. A lot of places have curfews, so generally we start with the end of the day and work our way backwards. Here in the U.S., there are so many union rules, curfews and everything else; if a show is to end at 11:00pm and you go over by one minute, you could be fined and it could be tens of thousands of dollars.

SH: Yeah, I remember Mike mentioning that they wanted to play Comfortably Numb with Queensrÿche for the first time, when they played Jones Beach in New York in 2003, but because they were running out of time, it wasn’t worth the thousands and thousands of dollars that they would have had to pay for going over.

RF: Yeah. I mean, if we know curfew is 11:00, we start working our way backward from there. If we’re doing a 3-hour show, then it needs to start by this time, doors have to open by this time, etc. It’s hard because some venues say that you can’t start the show until 7:30 or 8:00 and you have to be done by 11:00 or 11:30; some venues dictate how long an artist can play. So if Dream Theater wants to do a 3-hour show, we don’t just call and tell them – it almost turns into a fight some times to make sure we can play for 3 hours.

SH: Wow! What would you say has been the most difficult venue to deal with?

RF: Hmm...I don’t think there’s a difficult venue. Obviously, Dream Theater can’t bring 3 truck loads of stuff into a club because it’s just not going to work, so that’s going to be difficult. But before we start putting the tour together, we know we’re going to be playing this many theaters, this many arenas – we know where we’re going to be playing so we plan accordingly. But yeah, the smaller the venue, the more difficult it is. Dream Theater has a lot of stuff and to cram it in is not an easy thing.

SH: Are there a lot of things you have to rearrange when going from arenas in Europe and Japan to the theaters in the US?

RF: Only the amount of lighting and the amount of sound, and whether we can use video walls or not. The back line never changes – Mike’s drum set is always Mike’s drum set, John’s guitar rig is always the same – that stuff never changes. The monitor system is always the same no matter where we are. If you’re in a small room, you don’t need a truckload of PA; you only need half a truckload. So we adjust accordingly – that’s pretty much what the crew is all about – to make it work.

SH: What countries are the most difficult to book or arrange for? Parts of Europe, South America or...?

RF: Eastern Europe is probably more behind than the rest of the world because they were Communist for so long. They’re still years behind in a lot of things. Basically, they just don’t have the resources.

SH: How much local crew do you normally use, and how much crew do you take with you? Is it just primarily the techs for each respective instrument?

RF: Yeah, our backline techs, our lighting, sound and video people and they remain pretty much the same throughout the whole year. The only crew that change are the guys on the sound and lighting crews, depending on which company’s equipment we’re using, which may change from leg to leg of a tour. We prefer to use their techs, because they know how the equipment runs and how it’s set up – that’s their job – to maintain it and keep it in working condition. Our techs just fine tune it to make it sound and look the way Dream Theater wants it to sound or look.

SH: Interesting. Now with regards to planning, to what extent do you dictate how the stage is set up and things of that nature? Is it the band that does that?

RF: Yeah, it’s the band. It hasn’t changed in years – it’s pretty much the same set up as they’ve always had.

SH: Except that James doesn’t have his percussion stand like he did back in 2002.

RF: That’s just a matter of James either not wanting it or not needing it – that really didn’t have anything to do with how the stage was set up.

SH: How much more difficult was it to use the video screens used on the Train of Thought tour, in comparison to the projection screens used in 2002?

RF: Those LED screens are great – they’re beautiful. But they’re way more expensive. If you can afford them, they’re a beautiful thing.

SH: Is it quite the challenge to incorporate them into everything that you have to plan for? Because that was definitely the most significant, visual thing that I noticed.

RF: Yeah, the biggest thing with video screens is that when you’re playing arenas every day, then they’re easy to hang. But with Dream Theater, we play arenas and we play theaters. With some of the older theaters, they don’t have the rigging, which means that the ceiling isn’t as strong as a new theater or arena would be. So they tell you this thing can only hold 5000 lbs. or 1000 lbs. and the video screens may weigh more than 1000 lbs. so obviously you can’t hang them – then you have to figure out how you’re going to do it from the ground. Anybody who’s been to a lot of Dream Theater shows will see the video screens hanging in the air one day, and the next day they might be sitting on a riser or something like that. And then there’s the fire codes that you have to go by...

SH: I was just thinking about that with regards to the Great White show in Rhode Island. Having seen that happen, did it make you sit up and take notice or could you relate to the whole situation?

RF: To be honest with you, I can’t believe it didn’t happen years before that. I mean bands have been using pyro for years and years – I used pyro when I was in bands in the ’70s. To be honest with you, we didn’t know what we were doing – we bought some green dot gunpowder and figured out how to make it go boom! [laughs]

I worked with Great White in the ’80s when they were doing Rock Me and Save Your Love. They were a bigger band at the time, playing arenas and we never had any problems. But when you bring that stuff into a small club, you’re just looking for trouble. I don’t blame Great White – I honestly blame the club more than the band. I mean, if somebody comes into your house, you want to know what they’re doing. If a carpenter comes in to put in a new bathroom, you’re going to look in there to see what he’s doing. You’re not going to assume that everything’s peachy keen. The clubs should be the same way. When a band comes in, they should walk up on stage and look around, be nosey to protect their customers, to protect their club. But if the club told them they couldn’t do it, and they did it anyway, well... I don’t think we’ll ever know the whole truth.

SH: It’s a he said, she said kind of thing.

RF: Exactly. Unless there’s e-mails floating around saying “we do pyro” and the club says “no you’re not” then there’s no proof either way. It’s an unfortunate thing that I hope never happens again for anyone.

SH: Had you ever been to that venue?

RF: No. It’s funny that you ask, because I actually just talked to Mark Kendall, the guitarist for Great White about a month ago, and it’s still pretty ugly. Their career was on the skids anyway, and since that happened, they can barely get any work. I could go on about that all day!

SH: How long have you been a tour manager in general?

RF: Around ’79 or ’80 is the first time I went on the road as a tour manager.

SH: So you had been on the road prior to that?

RF: Yeah, playing in bands, working with lighting companies and doing back line stuff – as a drum tech or something like that. I’ve done nothing else but this since I graduated high school in 1976. I’ve never had a job in my entire life, so I couldn’t get a job if I wanted to, because I haven’t really done anything, other than be a tour manager! [laughs]

SH: So have you been a tour manager pretty consistently since 1980 or did you do other types of road crew jobs?

RF: No, just tour manager and tour accountant. I started out with a band in upstate New York that had a regional MTV hit – unless you were from that area, you never heard of them. When that came to an end, I got a job with Johnny Winter. I was with Johnny Winter 3 or 4 years which was very interesting – I’ve got stories for days about that! [laughs]

SH: Tell me one – now you’ve got my curiosity up! [laughs]

RF: God – there’s hundreds! At the time that I worked with him, Johnny was trying to kick heroin. I would take him to methadone clinics. While trying to quit heroin, he would drink just about a whole bottle of vodka every day and chain-smoke pot. I mean he’d smoke a joint, then he’d smoke a Marlboro, then he’d smoke a joint, then he’d smoke a Marlboro – this went on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

SH: Wow! That must’ve been a wake up call for you then to avoid all that stuff!

RF: It was a total wake up call. I did my share of bad things in my day, but when you see people like that, it makes you wake up and look around. I worked with Roy Buchanan who ended up committing suicide in jail, who had a serious drug and alcohol problem. Mick Taylor, after he left the Rolling Stones had a solo record out, and he too had a serious drug and alcohol problem. Back in the early days, all the bands that I worked with had serious drug problems. You see what their lives are like, and you ask yourself “is that what I want?” You definitely are more aware of your surroundings and what it can do to you.

SH: I can only imagine. Who are some of the other illustrious artists that you’ve tour managed?

RF: The list goes on and on! I’ve worked with Peter Frampton, Asia, Foghat, Vinnie Vincent’s Invasion, Great White and Winger. I was Winger’s tour manager for 5 years. I’ve also done tours with Jesus Jones, the Violent Femmes – I’ve done all kinds of things.

I did a dance tour called Burn the Floor, which was dancers from all over the world. They took ballet, hip hop, salsa, ballroom and every kind of dance that you could think of and put it all together in one big show. And they had dancers from all over the world – there were actually 42 dancers, and there were 2 tour managers – me and another guy. It was like having 42 rock stars! [laughs]

SH: And there was probably tons of drama if you had 42 rock stars!

RF: Lots of drama. There was 21 couples – some were brothers and sisters, some were just friends, some were husband and wife – some of the guys were gay. It was interesting and a lot of work. I got paid well, but it wasn’t worth the money! [laughs]

SH: So Dream Theater is pretty tame in comparison to that, I’m sure!

RF: Yeah, well there’s only 5 of them! [laughs] The funny thing with the dance tour is that you had people from all over the world that hardly spoke any English. You just had to figure out how to talk to them.

SH: Since you’ve always been on the road, do you have family? And if so, how much of a toll does it take on them for you to be on the road all the time?

RF: They’re all use to it. I have a wife and 3 kids. It’s all I’ve done, so for them it’s normal. But all 3 kids have college educations and normal jobs – they’re just normal people with no drug and alcohol problems. None of them want to be in the music business, thank God! [laughs]

SH: Did you ever manage any bands or artists that they were interested in?

RF: Yeah, they’ve liked everything that I’ve done – there are only a few tours I’ve done that they couldn’t care less about. I’ve done some country stuff too. I’ve done tours with Keith Urban, JoDee Messina and Deana Carter. A lot of kids are into country too, if they’re not into rock. So they can tell all their friends that, and their friends think their dad is cool! [laughs]

SH What would you say is the best thing about being a tour manager?

RF: Traveling – seeing the world for free, basically. I’ve been all over the world several times. You get to go to Rome, Japan and Australia for free. People work and save for years just to go to these places on vacation for a week.

SH: What’s your favorite place to go?

RF: I really love Japan. It’s really easy. I hate the jet-lag, but once you’re over the jet-lag, it’s great. I love working there – the people are very together and they’re really diehard fans. It’s funny that there are bands from New York and LA that are huge in Japan, that you and I have never heard of! I’ve run into American guys at hotels and asked “who are you here with?” And they’ll respond with some band name I’ve never heard of, and I’ll ask what they do and they’ll say “oh, we just played Budokan for 3 nights in a row!” You’ve never even heard of them, but they’re huge over there.

SH: I think of Mr. Big over there...

RF: Mr. Big was humongous over there. Nelson – you remember Nelson? They’re just huge over there – Nelson had their own store that sold nothing but Nelson merchandise in Tokyo – that’s how huge these guys were! It’s unbelievable. So you can make a lot of money in Japan if they like you.

SH: Which would explain why Dream Theater goes over there on every tour!

RF: They go over very well – they’ve worked hard and they’ve built up a following. It’s the same with Europe. Dream Theater’s been there a lot and they’ve worked hard to get the following that they have. The thing with Dream Theater is that they don’t have the record company support, MTV or even radio to support them like a lot of bands do. Like a lot of the bands that I’ve worked with such as Great White, Jesus Jones and Winger had tons of MTV and radio hits. Dream Theater actually has a better career than all of them, because they’ve worked hard and kept at it.

SH: They come from more of the old mindset of the bands from the ’70s where you toured a lot and your fans stuck with you through thick and thin.

RF: Exactly. Nowadays there are not too many new bands that I like – I almost feel like I don’t want to like them because they’ll be gone in a year! I mean I like Maroon 5, but if they don’t have a hit on their next record, they’re over and you’ll never hear from them again.

SH: It’s funny because that almost happened to me with Dream Theater. I picked up their first album in ’89 and never heard from them – they never toured, never came out with another album, nothing. And I was just about ready to sell off their CD when Images and Words came out. I snapped it up and the rest is history!

RF: Most of the bands that I like, I have to go on the Internet to find them. You can’t find them in stores anywhere because they’re not on big labels anymore; they’re not getting any record company support. They’re just putting out records on their own and selling them through their website, which a lot of bands are doing now. There’s so much great music out there that no one’s ever going to hear or see or find because they don’t know where to look. Record stores only want to carry top-40 stuff. With the exception of Tower Records and a couple other ones, there are not many places you can go to find something off the wall. I worked with this girl Fiona Flannigan who just went by the name Fiona, and she had 3 records out – this was before there were CDs – when all there was, was vinyl. I never found her stuff anywhere or knew that it was on CD, until I found it on the Internet, and when I did, I bought all 3 of her CDs! [laughs] So my point is, you can’t go to the record store and spend hours going through everything – whether it was prog or punk or whatever – like you could at the mom’n’pop places that carried everything; now it seems that there’s only a few music stores out there, and they carry just the top-40. Whenever I see a used CD store, I go in there because you can find stuff that you can’t find in a normal record store. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! [laughs] You might find an obscure Dream Theater thing that some kid had and he didn’t know what he had, so he sold it to the used CD store. You and I will go in there and be the happiest guys on earth because we found it.

SH: That’s what eBay is for! [laughs]

RF: Exactly. Pretty much all the Christmas stuff I’ve bought so far, I bought off eBay. DVDs and CDs. My daughter is a huge Pat Methany fan, so I went to eBay, found 5 or 6 Pat Methany DVDs that are official releases, but there’s no record stores around here that are going to carry Pat Methany. She also loves Jaco Pastorius and you can’t find a Jaco CD or DVD anywhere unless you go on the Internet.

SH: Since we’re talking about music that you like, what are some of your favorite artists?

RF: It depends on the mood I’m in! [laughs] Being a child of the ’60s and ’70s – it seems that whatever you like in high school is what you like the rest of your life, because it brings back memories and certain state of mind. In my case in the ’70s, I was probably stoned when I listened to Pink Floyd; I remember smoking a lot of pot and loving Dark Side of the Moon. But to answer your question...I can’t even tell you what my favorite stuff is. Sometimes I’m in a Pink Floyd state of mind or King Crimson, I could be into Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin the next day, and then I could be into Norah Jones the next day – it really depends on the mood I’m in. I have thousands of CDs and there’s nothing consistent about any of it. Rock, country, jazz, oldies, everything. Stuff as obscure as the Esquire record that Chris Squire and his wife put out, obscure bootleg things of Aerosmith that I found in Japan – just all kinds of stuff. Today, I listened to the best of Van Morrison when taking my cat to the vet – I don’t know why – I just pulled it out and listened to it. Last week, I was listening to Velvet Revolver. So like I said, it depends on the mood I’m in – it probably depends on the weather! [laughs]

SH: So what do you think of Dream Theater’s music?

RF: It’s great – it’s amazing. Dream Theater opened up a few shows for Winger back in ’89, so I’ve been very aware of them.

SH: I was thinking about that – that since you worked with Winger, and since I knew Dream Theater had opened for them a couple times, I wondered if you had met them or not.

RF: I don’t really remember them and they probably don’t really remember me then – they just probably remember opening for Winger, and I remember them opening for us. But I’ve always been aware of them. Actually, I think around ’92 I had finished the Winger tour and they weren’t going to be doing anything for a while, and I actually interviewed for Dream Theater and they didn’t hire me! [laughs]

SH: Ah, that was when Rob Shore and Jim Pitulski were managing them.

RF: Yeah, I interviewed with Rob and Jim both. Rob is still their business manager – he’s their accountant now and I actually reminded him of that once. [laughs] But I’ve known their current manager Frank [Solomon] for a long time, because he was friends with Rod Morgenstein, who was the drummer for Winger. Frank also manages the Dixie Dregs.

SH: Is that how Dream Theater got to have Frank as their manager? Through that connection since they opened for Dream Theater in 2000?

RF: I don’t really know how Frank got involved. It could have been through the Dixie Dregs – Frank’s managed them for a long time. Whenever Winger played the New England area, where he lives, he would come out to see us, and that’s how I got to know Frank. It’s kind of how I got this gig, because he called me. He had called me numerous times before I ever worked with Dream Theater, but I was already working with somebody else. He was like “if you’re not working, call me, will ya?” [laughs] So it just worked out that he called me when I wasn’t working and here we are.

SH: What is the worst thing about being a tour manager?

RF: Probably the hours – you’re the first one up, and the last one to bed.

SH: When you’re on the road, how many hours of sleep will you get between shows on 2 consecutive nights?

RF: It really depends. On an average, I’d say 6 hours a day. Luckily, all the Dream Theater guys like to sleep in, so if we have a day off, I can sleep in. We all just sleep on the bus and the bus driver will get the room keys to our hotel rooms, which I’ll arrange for earlier, so that when we get up, we can just go to our rooms. But on show days, I get up and I have to get everyone else up, since people have interviews to do. And when I’m on the road with Dream Theater or any other band, I could easily get an average of 100 e-mails a day between advancing shows, hotel stuff, booking flights – the travel agent might send 10 e-mails in one day. The booking agent could send 10 e-mails in one day telling you what deposits are in, beware of this or we have a problem here. There are just so many things that go on that people don’t know about. You might not be happy with the bus driver, so you’re trying to get a replacement, flying him home, getting the other one out. Then James and Jordan each have a solo record deals, you’ve got clinics for Tama, Ernie Ball, Boogie, Yamaha and Korg – so you have all these people lining to set up clinics wherever you are in the world. So you’ve got all those record companies that want to do interviews for their solo records, plus Atlantic (the old Elektra) wanting to set up interviews for whatever the current DT record is, and then the fan clubs all want something. So it can be very hectic on some days.

SH: It sounds like you’ve got to be quite the organized person!

RF: Yeah, that’s primarily the tour manager’s job – to organize everything. You’re a baby-sitter, an organizer and an accountant. That pretty much sums up what I do for a living. I have to account for every dime that comes in and every dime that goes out. If you take in $2 million, then you have to account for $2 million, and if you’re off by $500, then it comes out of your pay. Essentially, you’re managing a company.

SH: A company that’s on the road.

RF: That’s the thing – when you’re traveling in Europe or in Asia, there’s different currencies everywhere you go, so you’re constantly trying to balance your books.

SH: I’m sure you had to love it when many countries switched over to the Euro.

RF: I was jumping up and down! [laughs] Because back in the ’80s when I was doing tours, it was a nightmare. And back then, you had border crossings every day because the borders aren’t open like they are now. Now with the EU, it’s just one big happy family.

SH: It’s almost like going from state to state in the US.

RF: Yeah. Back then, when you went into Germany, you’d need your passports when you got off the bus, and the next minute you crossed into the next country you had to do the same thing all over again. Every day you were doing this and it was very grueling – and that was the easy part! Then you had the currencies to deal with, and food and language barriers. It’s gotten a lot easier now – a lot of professional people speak English, and if you know basic French or Spanish, you can get anywhere around the world now.

SH: How about you – do you speak any other languages?

RF: A little bit of this, a little bit of that – enough to get by. You learn a lot of sign language – universal sign language other than the middle finger! [laughs]

SH: Being the tour manager, obviously you walk around with a tour laminate around your neck that the fans see, so what are some of the most extreme or bizarre things you’ve been offered in exchange for backstage passes?

RF: Mainly just money. For some reason, everybody seems to have $100 in their pocket – I don’t know why. “Hey, I’ll give you $100 for that.” Back in the hair band days, there were girls everywhere that would do and did do just about anything for a pass – not so much anymore.

SH: At least not with Dream Theater.

RF: There’s not that many girls – it’s all guys. The only girls that come to Dream Theater shows are the girlfriends of guys who play in bands and don’t have a car, so they have to drive their boyfriend to the show. [laughs] It’s weird, though. In some parts of the world, they have more female fans. In Japan, they have a ton of female fans.

SH: What would you say was your most interesting experience in having to deal with fans?

RF: I don’t really know. I mean, there’s some really nice fans out there that are great and you’re happy to see them, and then there’s some that are a pain in the butt who want everything under the sun, so you’re not happy to see them – you wonder why they’re there, since all they do is complain. [laughs] “Why didn’t they play this song?” “Why can’t I come backstage?” “Why can’t I eat catering?” “Why can’t I ride on the bus?” You don’t work for us, so go out and enjoy the show. I mean, when I was younger, I would never be that way with Led Zeppelin, for instance. I would just be so excited to see them and then leave. But for some, that’s not enough – it’s like they want your first born. The fans are the same in country music – it’s not just Dream Theater or just rock fans. Some are great and they bring you a plate of cookies [laughs] and they’re excited to be there; and then there’s some where you just want them to go away – they forget that you’re there to do a job and that you’re working. I’m not just hanging out, having fun.

SH: Is it easier for you when Dream Theater’s opening for somebody else, or when they’re headlining/Evening With thing themselves?

RF: Definitely the headlining thing. Because when you’re opening for somebody else, like we opened for Yes, there were no major problems, but there are just little things that irk you because you wouldn’t do things the way that they do it. Like if I was Yes’s tour manager, I wouldn’t do things “this” way – whether it be their pass system, the times they set up for sound check or the catering they might use or agree to. But of course everybody has their own way of doing things – I’d rather do it my way! [laughs] And our production manager would rather do it his way, instead of the way Yes or Queensrÿche or whoever else involved would do it.

With the Joe Satriani/King’s X thing, it was great because there was just one production manager for all 3 bands. I did all the tour accounting for all 3 bands and there never was a problem because I was never fighting with anybody else. Everybody had their set times, were very professional and it worked very, very well. That was an easy tour for me. Much easier than...

SH: Dream Theater, Fates Warning and Queensrÿche.

RF: Yeah, I wasn’t there for that, but I heard horror stories. I was on another tour and was unavailable. But I heard about fighting and just silly things that should have never happened.

SH: Dealing with Geoff Tate’s wife I’m sure was part of it!

RF: Well, I don’t know her, but I’ve heard stories. It’s never good when an artist allows their wife or girlfriend to manage them because there’s going to be a conflict of interest. They’re not thinking logically and what’s best for the whole – they’re only thinking what’s best for the individual. But like I said, I’ve never met her, so it wouldn’t be fair to criticize her.

A tour manager can make a tour run really smoothly or make it a total disaster. If you get somebody who doesn’t know what they’re doing, because you didn’t want to pay anything...you get what you pay for just like anything else. If you hire a kid out of school to run a company, he’s not going to run the company very well – he doesn’t know what he’s doing. But if you hire someone who’s run several companies, already made the mistakes and has the knowledge already, then things are going to run smoothly. It’s the same with a tour. If you hire someone just because they’re your cousin, then things are going to get screwed up. A lot of country artists are like that – they have their cousin or friend be their tour manager. I mean, I’m happy they keep it in the family, but I know of bands that have lost thousands and thousands of dollars because the tour manager didn’t know what he was doing. The promoter’s going to rip them off – why? Because they can.

SH: What creates the biggest headaches for you on the road?

RF: Definitely hotels and airports. There’s no big secret that flying is a pain in the butt no matter who you are. The only good thing about it is that it hopefully gets you there quickly. And then with hotels, some have their act together – I’m very, very anal about hotels. I’ll send them so much information – I do everything that I can do, so that when I arrive, everything is set. All I have to do is hand them a credit card and they hand me the keys, and I walk away – I’m not at the front desk for anything more than 5 minutes. And it will work at good hotels, but you show up at some hotels and they’ll say “oh you’re here? I guess we’ll try to get some rooms ready.” An hour later you’re still waiting for your rooms because somebody dropped the ball and doesn’t care. And it’s amazing how many people don’t know how to check people in and out of a hotel. So those are the two most aggravating things – flying and hotels. Which is most of my job! [laughs] You could spend all your time just on those two things alone, and on huge tours like Britney Spears, there is one person who does nothing but hotels and flights – that’s all they do because there’s so many people. I only have to worry about 20 or 30 people – the crew and the band – for those bigger tours, they’re looking for hotels for 100 people.

I love music, although my job really has nothing to do with music. There are some nights where I don’t hear a note of Dream Theater. I put them on stage and then I go back to answer hundreds of e-mails, because there’s so much other stuff that I have to be doing to prepare for the next day, the next week or the next month. When we go to Europe or Asia, we work on that stuff a month in advance. We could be playing in Chicago that night, and I might be working out details for a show in Tokyo next month. My job and that of the production manager, even though we are here today, we’re working on what’s coming up.

SH: Since you brought it up, how much of a difference is there between what you and Ray [Amico, the production manager] do?

RF: Ray’s job is pretty much to get the show in, get the show up and get the show out. He makes sure that the stage hands show up on time, make sure that the crew is fed and showered, that the lighting and sound are hung when they’re supposed to be, that the back line is in at the right time, so that at 4:00 the band can do sound check. Because just like with the hotels, you have stagehands that don’t want to work, so they take their time and don’t care about you, your band or anything else – they’re just there to collect their paycheck. And we’re on a schedule, no matter what the stagehands want. Ray’s got a tough job – he has to deal with the local unions and the union boss. If there’s a problem with the rigging, he’s got to figure out a way to make it better – he’s got to figure out a way to make it happen. There’s no such thing as not being able to do a show.

SH: I remember catching the first US show for World Tourbulence in Phoenix and you guys had a hard time trying to get the equipment across the border, and Mike told me how they came very close to canceling the show that day.

RF: Yeah, sound check was supposed to be at 4:00 and the trucks didn’t even show up until 4:00! Doors are at 6:00 and we hadn’t even had the chance to sound check yet. That show was a disaster – everything about it was wrong. In hindsight, we probably should have cancelled it, but there again, never cancel a show and let the fans down. That’s not what we get paid for. Those kinds of nights make up for all the easy nights. That’s the thing about being a road crew guy – the stage could be huge or the stage could be small, so there’s always something new to deal with. It’s always a challenge, which is why a lot of people do it – they like that more than sitting on an assembly line or in front of a computer screen – they like the challenge.

SH: Going back to the subject of flying and Mexico, do you care to comment on what happened when you first arrived in Mexico City for the last show with Yes? Mike already had posted an explanation online, when some of the fans posted about how they were treated rudely when all they were trying to do was greet the band at the airport. Do you have anything to add to that?

RF: Well, first of all, James’ luggage didn’t show up, so I stayed behind to get it instead of making them all wait, which was mistake #1. Coming into the international terminal, I didn’t see all that many people out there, let alone any fans, so I told Ray to take the band out to the vans waiting for us, while I arranged to have James’ luggage sent to the hotel – which is a big song and dance in and of itself. In hindsight, I should have gone out with them and it would have been handled differently. The problem existed partly because of the language barrier, but also the promoters were unorganized and Ray was caught off guard in this situation. Normally, he just has to deal with the crew, so he doesn’t have to deal with fans – the fans usually don’t care about the crew, so they’re able to go right to their bus and away they go. So I think Ray got nervous when he saw these fans charging towards them. It was very unorganized and there was no security, which was the promoter’s fault, as I sent him several e-mails stating that we needed security there – he told me they would, but obviously they didn’t. So all around, things didn’t get handled properly, and the band felt really bad about it.

We had a huge discussion about it and I assured them that it wouldn’t happen again. As it was, there weren’t that many fans, so if they would have just lined up, the band could have just signed their stuff and it would have been fine. Instead, the fans just surrounded them, and the band was just trying to carry their carry-ons or their computers. When you get 10 or 15 people surrounding you, you start to think that somebody’s going to try to steal your stuff, and you automatically become somewhat defensive. It’s not that you want to be that way, but it’s just instinctive to be protective of yourself, and when you have these people you’ve never met surround you, you don’t know if someone will have a knife or if they’re simply trying to rip you off – you just don’t know. They’re all fans, but you don’t know how they’re going to react. [As was sadly evident by the death of Dimebag Darrell, who was murdered 2 days after this interview.] The whole scenario is partially my fault for not being there – I came out when it was pretty much over. I got on the bus, we started driving and the band was just freaking out. I was like “what happened?” because by the time I came out, the band was already on the bus and the fans were all just kind of standing there, and everything was just calm. So I only got the band’s point of view, and then Mike forwarded to me all the e-mails of the people that were pissed off. But we probably signed more autographs and did more for the fans in Mexico than just about anywhere because the promoter set up a thing at the hotel the next day – that was done properly, and it was very organized – nobody got hurt and everybody got their stuff signed. That’s the thing – as long as it’s organized, most artists will sign stuff, whether it be Dream Theater or...Mott the Hoople for example. Even people waiting outside by the bus – as long as they’re polite and orderly, they’ll sign anything; but if they’re pushing, shoving and just being animals, the band will just want to jump on the bus and get away. Mainly just because you don’t know what could happen, and anything could happen – especially nowadays since there just seems to be so many strange people out there.

You know, we were talking about Great White earlier, and I said I can’t believe that it didn’t happen before it did. But I guarantee, it could be 10 or 20 years down the road, somebody’s going to get seriously hurt.

SH: Well, you even look at what happened to Selena...

RF: Yeah, she got killed by her fan club president because she got pissed off that she was fired. But I’m just talking about walking out to a bus or whatever – people coming up to you – and I’m just amazed that something hasn’t happened yet. Working with country artists, you play all these gigantic festivals where there’s 10,000 or 20,000 people, and they don’t search you when you go in there. They could go in with guns and shoot people – if you start to think about it, it’s pretty scary. I pray that nothing like that ever happens, but there will come a day when it will happen. Then things will change dramatically in the concert world and in the touring world.

SH: Sure. They already have metal detectors at some venues, and when I went to see Rush at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, they had walk-through detectors just like at airports.

RF: It’s sad that it’s come to that, but that’s what you have to do to make sure that everyone’s safe – not just the artist, but even the audience. If some guy pushes you, or you accidentally bump into somebody and they might be drunk, doing drugs or whatever, if they’re not thinking properly, they could easily pull out a knife and kill you. There are just so many wacky people out there you have to be cautious.

SH: Very true. Moving on, to what degree do you think people have an accurate perception of your job or what would you say is the biggest misconception about your job?

RF: What’s really funny – and this has happened more than once – is during meet ‘n’ greets, people will come up to me and say “how do I get your job?” And I say “well what do you think my job is?” because I know by them saying that, they have no idea. And they go “well you just travel around and take pictures of the band every day” like they think you just sleep until 4:00 in the afternoon and you eat and then take pictures of the band all day! [laughs] That’s what I do for 30 minutes of the day! [laughs] This is the easy, fun part! I would say the average person has no clue as to what the tour manager or production manager does. Even some artists have no idea what we do. It’s pretty easy to figure out what a drum tech or guitar tech does, but the production and tour manager’s jobs are pretty involved – it’s almost doing everything that needs to be done – it’s not simply having one task, and this is all I do. And I don’t have days off while I’m on the road, even if there isn’t a show that night – I’m still answering e-mails and doing tour accounting, working on itineraries, going through all the hotel bills and receipts from all the shows, sending out checks and making sure the bank wires went through. Again, for a tour as big as Britney Spears, they have one person who does nothing but accounting. Dream Theater is at a level where they can’t afford to have a tour accountant and tour manager, so I do both. So most people don’t know what I do, but it’s so involved that I really can’t explain it to people. A friend of mine wanted to shadow me one day at a gig so I said “OK let’s do it.” After 4 hours he was exhausted – he couldn’t believe I did this day after day! He gave up and sat in the production office for the remainder of the day!

SH: Well, hopefully through this interview, people will have a much better idea of what goes on behind the scenes! Now having toured with Dream Theater for a while, I have to ask: who’s the easiest to work with, and who’s the most difficult?

RF: Ummmm...you’re gonna get me fired! [lots of laughs] They all have their own personalities, so... A good tour manager almost has to be a chameleon – I’ve gone from a Dream Theater tour to a country tour in a matter of days, and they’re 2 totally different beasts! People are people – they’re either nice, or they’re not nice, but you basically have to learn to deal with all kinds of people. So I really don’t have an answer for that question.

SH: Are all of them pretty easy to get along with?

RF: Yeah, I’d say they’re all pretty easy to get along with. The more you know them, the easier it is to get along with them, to keep them happy and know what to expect from them. If I didn’t know Mike and what he expected, then yeah, it would be more difficult to get along with him – the same holds true for John Myung or any of them. But overall, you’ve been around them – they’re friendly guys.

SH: Totally. Is John Myung as quiet –

RF: He’s as quiet on the bus as anywhere else. He speaks very seldom to anybody – and it’s not because he’s stuck up or doesn’t like anybody. That’s just his personality – he’s more of an introvert than an extrovert.

SH: That’s funny because when I interviewed Chris Collins, he made it sound like John was much more talkative than he is now.

RF: Maybe. People change as they get older.

SH: One other thing that I wanted to ask you when we were talking about planning for a tour: is it a lot more difficult to plan for a tour when promoters especially in the US seem to take forever to finalize a particular gig, announcing a show maybe 1 month before the show?

RF: We pretty much expect them to hold off in finalizing them. It’s just like in some countries in Europe – I won’t mention names – but I dread going there because I know the promoter’s going to be really slow in responding to any questions we ask them. It’s not that they don’t care – it’s just the way they are – that’s their culture and they don’t get excited over anything. But it makes our job more difficult, because we’re planning it out before we get to that country and what we’re going to do before we leave that country. A lot of times, we’re sending multiple e-mails to one promoter, trying to get an answer that could make or break several things that we have planned. As far as the US goes, most promoters aren’t going to promote the show for more than a month anyway unless they know it’s going to sell out immediately. Basically, they don’t want to spend the advertising money, so they don’t want to advertise more than a month out. And they do the same advertisement for all artists – they put it in the local music papers and the radio, and that’s it – unless they get the record company to kick in some money for a TV advertisement, and there’s very little of that nowadays.

SH: Being that you’re obviously off the road now, what do you do with your time?

RF: Staring at the TV and doing interviews! [laughs] I don’t spend a lot of time off the road. During this time of year, in December, nobody does anything, whether it’s rock or country. But the reason why I live in Nashville is because I can do a country gig if I’m not doing Dream Theater or another rock group. Some country artists just go out Friday, Saturday and Sunday and are home the rest of the week and others will go out on a long tour. But there’s always work here. There’s a thousand country artists, but there’s not a thousand tour managers, so I’m always working. Being December, right now I’m just doing things around the house – I’ve got a big house and 2.5 acres of land – so there’s always something to do! [laughs] When you are a home owner, the work never ends.

SH: Being that you’re in Nashville, do you ever bump into Neal Morse then?

RF: I’ve never met Neal Morse, so even if I did bump into him, I wouldn’t know him and he wouldn’t know me. I know what he looks like, but we don’t live in the same part of town. Nashville’s a really spread out place, so you and another person can both live in Nashville and still be an hour away from each other. The only place I would run into him at would be a concert.

SH: Well thanks very much for the interview Rikk! Any parting words for the Dream Theater fans out there?

RF: Yeah, thanks for coming to the shows and thanks for being Dream Theater fans. With that said, see you down the road and no, I don’t want to sell my laminate for a hundred dollars! [laughs].