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company, too. While I'm home, I'm also talking
with management and our agency on
a daily basis."
POINTERS FOR THE JOB SEARCH
"If you want to be a road manager, you need to
get out on the road at any level--
whether that's selling tee shirts, as a sideman,
or a member of the crew--so you can
learn how everything works and have a handle on
the political structure of being on
the road."
JEFF JACKSON, ROAD MANAGER
Jeff Jackson knew from the time he was in grade
school that he wanted to work in
a band. At age 15, he and some friends put
together a group to play for their Grand
Junction, Colorado high school dance. They were
terrible, but bass player Jackson felt
like a rock star. Moving on to more talented
groups as the years passed, in 1989 he
played for an artist that got some label
attention, and went to Nashville to showcase
for Warner Brothers Records. The deal never
happened, but Jackson felt at home
among the area's musicians and decided to
stay.
Planning to land a job as a sideman with a
major country artist, Jackson began
showing up at all the late night jam sessions
where that city's leading players hung
out. Doing so allowed him to play with, and
learn from, musicians of a caliber he had
not been exposed to before. He picked up
whatever gigs he could find to support
himself and auditioned for various artists, but
never made it into a major group. In
1993, through a friend who knew the co-manager
of a new country artist, Jackson got
another audition. While not hired for the band,
his friendly, outgoing personality led
management to offer him the position of road
manager. The career change did not
CASE STUDY:
THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THIS
JOB:
"It's a bit like the military, being on the
road: you have to hurry, hurry,
hurry, and then you end up waiting for two or
three hours. The waiting is
the worst part. It's not like that every day,
but when you're dependent on
other people to stay on time, you often end up
waiting."
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
"I really enjoy the travel and being in a
different place every day."
VOICES
OF
EXPERIENCE
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