The End

The End

November 19, 2007, 12:12 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

a. Mike D. – Mike D. is a pretty quiet guy, but very cool. Rumor has it he was pre-med at Baylor before he started playing bass for Crowder. Several times on the tour someone (like me) would ask Mike about different medications, or if they felt a certain way, and he would have some smart sounding, medical answer and seemed to truly care about the persons health. Almost like a real doctor. Mike D. is also a pretty amazing Guitar Hero player, even though to my knowledge he hasn’t beaten Guitar Hero 3 yet. It was great to get to know this guy better.

b. Jonathon – Jonathon (which is what he likes to be called) plays guitar for The Myriad. He is also one of the most caring, genuine guys I have ever met. There were several times on the tour I would forget something somewhere or forget to do something and he always bailed me out. More than once I would see him looking out for someone on the tour, going the extra mile and always with a smile. Someone I am blessed to call my friend.

c. Cory – Cory is seventeen. And he is an amazing lighting guy. One of the coolest, most mature seventeen year olds that I have ever seen. Several times Cory and I would hang out after shows, playing video games or just sitting around talking. This kid has an amazing future. He’s smart and really good at what he does. To see his growth from the beginning of the tour to the end was astounding. It will be exciting to keep track of Cory and see what he does in the future. Anything he does it’s sure to be great.

d. Joe – Joe is The Myriad’s “guy”. One of the hardest working guys on the tour, Joe was up early, moving things, setting things up, waking guys up for interviews and helping out with the stage. I think Joe’s official title is the Myriad’s road manager, but it seemed like he was everywhere and doing everything, and always smiling. Once again, another unbelievably genuine guy. The type of guy that you would trust with anything. I could tell that he is passionate about the success of his friends in the band, and would do anything to help them get there. Joe also ran sound for Phil’s set so it was an amazing help to have him at the soundboard, and every night it sounded amazing.

e. Mark – Mark is the 21 year-old guitar player for the David Crowder Band. Mark always made me laugh whenever there was music on. Walking through a restaurant, or department store with his thin arms over his head waving them “like he just don’t care”. I was able to share Marks 21st birthday with him in El Paso, TX. After about a three-mile walk, Mark, Hogan, Jack, Bwack, Phil and I found a small Mexican restaurant and listened to some lad sing really loud in Spanish. I hadn’t met Mark before this tour, but we had a great time getting to know each other and I can’t wait to work with him again.

f. Toni – Toni runs the show. The silent force behind the David Crowder Band, yet somehow seems to have it all together. It’s awesome to see a wife support her husband so much and be so involved with every detail. To be honest she really intimidated me on the last tour that I did with the Crowder’s. This tour I think as the entire tour got closer, I was able to relax a little and really felt comfortable hanging out with her and David. And every time I think about all the things she deals with in a day I gain more respect for her.

g. David – This guy blew me away on this tour. I had toured with him before when they opened for Third Day, but never got a chance to really know him. This tour he seemed to open up a little more and gained so much of my respect. Every idea this guy has is innovative and creative, but then there were times where he showed that he is an amazing servant as well. One thing that stuck out to me the most was the idea behind the tour. “Be the remedy”. David said every night from stage to a room full of people there to see him, “If you all lived the way you are singing tonight, this planet would be a different place”. A lot of us have heard that before, but David lived that way. Every day he would research what organizations were in the specific city that we were in and hand write an entire sheet of paper on how to get involved. Whether it be soup kitchens, homeless shelters, women’s shelters, Salvation Army shelters, then he would make copies of the paper and have people pass it out to everyone that came through the door. He was off the bus before most people and in on the stage setting up his own gear, helping out where it was needed.

Another thing that blew me away was with the bus stock (the groceries that were on the bus for the crew for after the show and off days). About once a week, after the show David and his wife Toni would go with a runner while everyone was tearing things down and go grocery shopping. Then when everyone else had finished and was winding down, they would show up at the bus with bags and bags of groceries that they had gone and bought for us. Sometimes specific things we had asked for, some things they knew we just liked. Then he would help unpack everything and help put it all away on our bus. For some reason this just seemed absurd to me. Here is a guy who is on the tour of his life. Headlining an almost completely sold out tour in some of the most amazing venues in the country and he is “the guy”. He is the guy the band is named after. He’s the guy the tour is named after and here he is making sure me and everyone else on our bus has enough macaroni and cheese, cereal and cookies.

David is truly someone that I can call a friend and it was great to get to know him better these past few months.

h. Jack – Jack is a ridiculous talent. He’s an amazing guitar player, banjo, piano, and even little black light up box thing the band made. He’s also a super nice, super quiet witty guy who never says too much, but always comes across like he cares. From what I could tell he was always on the stage setting up things, making sure to help wherever he could, and never seeming to have a problem with it if things weren’t going right. At least for me it was an encouragement every time I asked him how things were, or even if I didn’t he always had something great to say.

i. Jeremy – Jeremy is the singer for The Myriad and I was able to share a bus with him and the other guys. While reserved in most of what he says, he always came across like he was really interested in anything anyone had to say. He cared about other people and the way other people viewed him. Jeremy’s respect for the other people on the tour was obvious. He never wanted to overstep his place, and jumped in to help out wherever he could. A number of times I would see him grabbing something that someone else was struggling with and then ask if there was anything else he could do. He’s a guy that you look at and just pray that he succeeds in whatever he does. He deserves it, and has the talent to get there.

j. Rob – I have never seen someone work so hard. Rob was the lead tour manager for this entire tour. Every question you could throw at him he answered with a diplomatic, caring answer. Even if he was telling you something you didn’t want to hear, he did it in a way that made you understand that he cared about you. He was up before everyone else, and to bed after everyone else. Several times he would come on our bus just to hang out before bed, or just to check and make sure everything was going okay. I can’t even count how many times I would walk past Rob and he would look me in the eye and ask if things were going well. And I knew, that if they weren’t I could tell him and he would do everything he could to fix it. I have an unbelievable amount of respect for Rob after this tour. I don’t know how he pulled it off, and am even more clueless as to how he made it look easy. I hope he gets some time off. He deserves it.

k. Daniel – Daniel ran sound for the Crowder band as well as loaded in every morning and loaded out every night. I’m sure there were a million other things that he did, but he was always running past me so fast to do different things that I never really grasped all that he did. I do know that every night sounded great, and he took it hard when things didn’t go well. Daniel was also on our bus so there were many nights hanging out, playing Guitar Hero, and talking about families and marriage. Hopefully someday we can work together again. If there is any one reading this that needs an amazing front of house guy let me know.

l. Phil – What can I say? Phil and I knew each other from the MercyMe tour and have been friends ever since. I don’t know many people like Phil. There is something so genuine about the way he interacts with people, even down to his friends. I never saw Phil stressed out. I never saw him upset, and I never heard him say one negative thing about anyone. He is one of the most gracious, loving people I have ever met. It was an honor to work with him on this tour. There are so many things that stand out to me about Phil’s character, that I could write pages. Numerous times throughout the tour someone would mention me working for him, and he would quickly correct them and say that I was working “with” him. And that’s what it felt like. It felt like we were a team. It felt like we were in it together and no matter what happened in a night we would handle it.

I remember one night that went particularly rough, and it was my fault. There was something I overlooked and it affected the show. Phil handled the situation gracefully and went on with the show. Later that night we talked about it, but didn’t really want to dwell on it. The next day he told me that before he fell asleep that night he was concerned that I thought that he was annoyed with me. And he had every right to be. It was something I messed up, but he wanted to make it clear to me that he didn’t care and wanted to make sure I wasn’t down on myself about it. His character is rare in this business, and it’s refreshing to see.

m. Randy – Randy plays drums for The Myriad. And he plays drums hard. There was major thing that I learned about Randy throughout this tour. He is a very passionate guy. Within the first five minutes of talking to Randy you could tell how in love with his family he was. He was constantly talking about his wife and kids, and how much he loved and missed them. I loved sitting there talking to him about our kids and how much they remind us of something or how much we love it when they did something. It was great to have that connection with another guy on the tour where we were in such similar places in life that we could talk for hours about what we were missing “back home”.

n. Brad – Brad did video for the entire tour. Every day he was running around with a video camera looking for that “perfect shot”. He also has an infectious laugh. Countless times on the bus someone would be telling a story or something and Brad would be the one laughing the loudest and falling out of his seat. He’s also a pretty passionate guy. Brad would get so excited about things and you couldn’t help but get excited with him. He’s a great talent, an amazing encourager, and a good friend. I am excited to see some of his work on the Crowder DVD soon.

o. Hogan – Hogan and I were able to hang out quite a bit throughout the tour. For those of you that don’t know he plays violin and all sorts of other gadgets for the Crowder Band. He’s amazingly smart and again, inhumanly genuine. There were several times throughout the tour where Hogan would ask to see the pictures that I was able to take from the night before, and then proceed to tell him how great he thought they were and encourage me to keep it up. Again it blew me away to have a guy who has every right to be on the arrogant side of things, be completely and honestly encouraging. He made it easy to relax around and again, someone I am honored to call a friend.

p. Steven – Steven plays guitar for The Myraid and was one of the only guys that would get up and walk around a city with me in the mornings. I don’t know how many cities we walked around together, but every morning he would be up and out the door looking for an adventure. He asked so many questions about my family and seemed like he wanted to know everything there was to know about them. And then he would remember things and bring them up later because he was paying attention. That amazed me because I have a hard time doing that. Steven is another one of the guys on this tour that I can’t wait to see what life has for him. Another great friend.

q. Schofield – The tour entertainment. John Roger Schofield plays bass for The Myraid. He’s a complete history freak, and has an amazing story about once almost meeting Ving Rhames. John told stories every night on the bus. Most of the time stories that would have half of the bus crying because they were laughing so hard. I swear this is a guy that could have his own T.V. show and I would pay to watch it every time it was on. With a huge smile and child like excitement he could tell story after story and no one around could help but be captivated. We walked around Boston together when we were there, and I remember him running down a path pretending that he was in the civil war and telling me that this was the exact terrain that the soldiers marched on. That was until he realized it was crumbled asphalt. I think that took some of the excitement away for him.

r. Bwack – Smart. Bwack is the mind behind the Guitar Hero controller that actually works like a real guitar. He’s also one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. Many times I saw him in meet and greets explaining to other tech guys how he makes things work and no matter how many questions they had, he answered them. We got sick at the same time and he didn’t think twice about giving me medicine and asking multiple times how I was feeling. Bwack was also one of the guys that seemed really interested in seeing the pictures that I had taken and always had encouraging words about them. On top of building and rebuilding Guitar Hero things and rewiring other instruments, Bwack was always involved in setting up his drums and was there to help.

s. Karen – Karen was out for a good chunk of the tour, and also included in this picture so I thought I would mention her. She is Stevens (p.) wife, and was able to be out for a large amount of the tour. It was cool to get to know her and Steven as a married couple and be able to talk to them about my wife and again have people that are somewhat on the same level as you in life.

So there it is folks. The reason I wanted to sit down and do this was simply because I felt it was important to point out how many great people there were on this tour. And on top of that, it’s so cliché to hear that “everyone on the tour was great” when in actuality everyone on this tour was amazing. There is not one person on this tour that I can say that I am not blessed to know. Every single person out there brought a unique personality to the tour that needed to be there, and I am honored to be a part of it.

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