Mastodon bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders talked about the band’s intensive touring schedule and some of the misconceptions surrounding life on the road, telling Rich Chamberlain:
“Take yourself camping with your friends for a long time and you will see if you’re cut out for this life or not.
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“Follow your heart and you will know if you’re going in the right direction, whether that be in music or anything in life.
“When you read tour dates it looks extremely glamorous. It’s like on this tour tomorrow we play in Paris and then we fly in to Stockholm. It looks fabulous.
“From a band’s perspective, it is great because we have all of these gigs lined up that will be great shows for our band.
“However, what you don’t read is the intense travel, the overnights, the 6AM flights and the 2AM trips to get the gear.
“It’s much more involved that just looking at the tour dates and thinking it’s incredible. Having a healthy list of tour dates is incredible for the band’s prosperity and what they strive to do and what they thrive on.
“But it’s a very popular misconception that it’s glamorous.
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“The first thing that all 12 of us on our bus do each morning is exit the bus looking for a toilet. That is the first adventure of the day for many days in a row. That becomes a game and a lot of people can’t wrap their head around the reality of that.
“That’s all part of this ship that we’re on. It’s always an adventure. I’m not complaining; I have been very fortunate to do this for 17 years with Mastodon.”