Amazingly enough, I heard this song today on the Radio. I am curious if the station knew it was Jackson Browne’s birthday. So to celebrate his birthday, we’ll honor those he honored in this song, the roadies, or road crew. These men and woman lug the equipment for the concerts onto the stage, then back to the truck on a daily basis. They spend hundreds of days a year on the road so we can be entertained. But every so often, some of them make it big, such as:

1. Jan Alejandro – Was one of the roadies sung about by Jackson Browne. He later got to play the piano on stage with Todd Rundgren, Roger Powell, Ringo Starr, and Bill Wyman during a Jerry Lewis Telethon where he was seen by 33 million people. He later worked on the last Led Zeppelin concert.
2. Billy Powell went from the road crew to a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
3. Lemmy was on the road crew for Jimi Hendrix, long before he formed Motorhead.
4. Noel Gallagher, before he was in Oasis, was a roadie for Inspiral Carpets.
5. Kurt Cobain was a roadie for the Melvins before forming Nirvana.
6. Nirvana had a roadie named Ben Sheppard who went on to be in Soundgarden
7. Bob Bryar was the sound tech for My Chemical Romance before they asked him to join the band.
8. Henry Rollins was a roadie for The Teen Idles before his Black Flag days.
9. John Marshall filled in for James Hetfield after James sustained some burns on his hands. While performing, he maintained his sound tech duties. He later went on to the band Metal church. While filling in, he mainly stayed out of sight, requiring some coaxing to come out, not doing so until his fourth show.
10. A band called Grinderswitch used to open for the Allman Brothers. This band was made up of roadies for the Allman Brothers and they’d often borrow the instruments for their act.

Perhaps we should petition congress to make Oct 9th, roadie day?  Nah, they’d just want the day off and that might mess up Roctober or Octoberfest somewhere.