2018.09.26 - Backstage Productions Inc. - Touring Legend Tom Mayhue Talks about Life on the Road with Guns N' Roses

Transcript of relevant parts:

Starting in the industry:

Tom Mayhue: First tour I ever did was in 1982 with the French Canadian artist by the name of Aldo Nova and he had a big hit called Life It's Just A Fantasy. So I went out, I really didn't know what I was doing, I was pretty young. I didn't make it too long on the tour, maybe about a month or so, before I got canned. But my production manager was an absolute blow-freak-stealing-money-from-the-band kind of guy that just kept burning through people to disguise his issues.

Being asked about a moment in his career that sticks out:

Tom Mayhue: I think probably recently I had one of those moments and it was when Axl went in to help out AC/DC and cover 23 shows for them. And it was the first show that we did in Lisbon, Portugal, there was about 80,000 people there. There were 1,100 press requests and a lot of the press were there to see Axl fail and he was more nervous than you know I'd ever seen him I think, just sheer fear. You know, it's a scary proposition to stand up in front of that many people and sing those songs. And a lot of people wanted to see him fail. I wanted to see him be successful.

Patrick Whalen: I think social media at that point was just too exploding with, you know, "What the fuck?" "Why is he in AC/DC?" [...]

TM: It was pretty funny because he came out and they did the first song, Rock Or Bust, and he just absolutely killed it and it was just like... I was almost in tears just watching the guy because he was doing something that he really, really enjoyed doing. That brand, you don't want to do anything to hurt that brand, you know, that is just a legendary, legendary brand. And so he prepared himself and worked harder for that than I'd ever seen him work for anything that he ever wanted in his life. And he went out and he absolutely crushed it. And the press wrote really nice things about it and the fans were absolutely elated at seeing it because it was just epic. I mean, it was unbelievable.

[...]

TM: Well, I mean, look, you've got Bon Scot, you've got Brian Johnson, those gentlemen have been there, you know, had been there from day one and starting in '73, so, you know, and we all grew up on AC/DC. Anybody that tells me they haven't heard an AC/DC song I would like to just hit him in the head with a pipe. And Axl as well. I mean, he grew up on all those songs and it was such a dream come true to be able to sing those songs in that band, was just unbelievable. [...] I would love to see that happen again one day.

Talking about how the industry has changed:

Tom Mayhue: The danger and everything is gone. I mean, like with Guns N' Roses, that was really the last dangerous rock band on the road. It was life or death every day.

About current difficulties with large crews and production:

Tom Mayhue: We are just getting ready to wrap up our last nine shows with Guns N' Roses now and so it's amazing to see, you know, like Opie's productions on the road because they're to me they're the best as far as togetherness. I mean, he's just got it down to an art. There's a few guys, Jake Perry, out there, is legendary and you know and Jake changed this the entire music industry single-handedly. He made big productions possible. Bill Graham was the first one that did stadium tours but a guy like Jake Barry made the scale of touring that way so much easier and so much more organized and together. So he's taught so many different people, you know, from [?], who does McCartney, you know, Opie. I mean we all really learned from Jake. I mean, most production and sales managers if you've had the opportunity to work with Jake, you know, really you're blessed because it's an amazing-

Patrick Whalen: And he's an incredible person to work for.

TM: These guys are just, I mean, they're just so forward-thinking, you know, and their jobs and they just organize a guy together and they they can move stuff. I mean, like we just did these Guns N' Roses, we got 22 semis in stadiums and Opie has out of there, it takes about four and a half hours to put our stuff up and we're out of there in 90 minutes-100 minutes and it's done. I mean it's amazing to see these guys in action. It's unbelievable.

Talking about the biggest reaming he ever gave anyone:

TM: It wasn't very cool on my part after thinking about this. It wasn't a crew guy, it was to a Canadian cop, a border cop. And he had pissed me off. I pretty much had enough of him after about... I went to do a cross and coming in with Guns N' Roses on a trip up to Canada and I love Canada. But I'd been in the country, I don't know, maybe 150 or 200 times to go up with Seal all the time. So I'd at least 50 times with them and then touring over the years, the last 35 years. And so I flew and this border cop... I said very politically incorrect things, I think. But he asked me, said, "Have you ever been arrested?" and I said, "Yes, sir, I was arrested for DUI when I was 21," and he said, "Okay, you ever been arrested for anything else?" and I'm like, "I don't think so," and I couldn't remember. So he goes, "Did you ever give a false ID to a police officer in the States?" and I go, "I did," and then so he started to berate me and he started to just say, "You know how serious of an offense that is?" and I'm like, "I had a fake ID in my wallet, I made it when I was a kid so that I could get into clubs to see bands. I didn't really see that, you know, big of a harm in it," you know it wasn't like I was trying to bring down the police system or somethin. I'm just trying to go to a show and see band play or something, you know. And then this guy just wouldn't stop and he's like, "You go sit down over there," he goes, "there's more people in line, we'll deal with you later." I go, "You'll deal with me right now! I've had enough of you!" and this is after about five minutes worth and I go, "I ain't waiting, I ain't going anywhere, you're gonna deal with me right fucking now! Those fucking people behind me can fucking wait!" and I looked at him I said, "What's the matter with you? Did your boyfriend not pound enough fucking pipe into your fucking heinie last night?" And there's two other cops had to come over and fucking hold him down for me and pull his gun out and probably shooting me in the head. He was pissed. [...] This is only 8-10 years ago. But I'm like, "This happened when I was 17 years old, I'm 52 years old or something at the time, I go, "Do you think I haven't been rehabilitated? You could see on your little goddamn computer there that I've been in your country a couple hundred times so if this is a matter of money that you want from me, just extort it now." I go, "I'm not leaving, you're gonna fucking either deny me entry into your fucking, shitty country or you're letting me leave right now!" Yeah, I don't mean that about Canada, I love Canada. But so they they issued that cop... they took him away and they had him do another... a break and then talk to other people. But then the next set of cops that came up go, "Why did you just get all fired up?" and I go, "I'm not gonna be talked down to by anybody, I could care less, if you don't want me in your country, I won't come, but don't sit there and berate me." I go, "I'm not gonna have some 35 year old kid tell me how much of a fucking horrible person I am." If it was up to me, if I had a pipe I'd hit him right in the fucking head.

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