My Time as Jackson Browne's Roadie

Hello again everyone. I want to thank you all quickly for the nice feedback I’ve gotten on the last two columns, on Monmouth vs. Rutgers and New Year’s Resolutions for college students. These have been a pleasure to write and hope you all have been enjoying reading them.

This story is perhaps one of my favorites from my brief time at Monmouth University. When I started at the school in May, I was taking a bit of a gamble. I had a full time job working for a local newspaper, with an annual salary and health insurance. In choosing to go back to school for my Master’s Degree, I seemingly tossed my journalistic career out the window in order to work toward a career in education.

This felt like the right thing to do, and I am looking forward to completing the program, but there was one small problem with what I was doing. With my job at the newspaper, I was happily making a nice chunk of money on a weekly basis. Now, not only would I not be making money, but also soon I would have to owe a lot of money via student loans. So getting a job was a priority once I got to Monmouth, and one of the first positions I found was in the performing arts department.

I successfully interviewed for and received this part-time job. It was all right; I worked with some good people in the performing arts department and was tasked with typing up music history of the day factoids to be published on Facebook. However, one perk of this job was that I would get the chance to work alongside artists who came to the school to perform.

I took full advantage of this opportunity in September, when Jackson Browne came to perform at the MAC at Monmouth University. I was never the biggest fan of Mr. Browne, though I knew of him from the “Running on Empty” song played when Forrest Gump ran across country, as well as a quick cameo he had on The Simpsons serenading Marge several years ago.

My boss explained I would be able to work as a go-fer of sorts for the show, helping out wherever I was needed. I was asked to come to the school at 9 a.m. to help set up for the show.

Once I got there, my boss gave me the job of setting up Mr. Browne’s dressing room. He was to have four rooms: one for him, one for his manager, one for his band and one for families of the band. Each room needed a sofa, two chairs, and an array of food. For three hours, three other students and myself scoured the MAC for furniture for these dressing rooms.

Following the furnishing of the rooms, my job was to help put together a tray of snacks for Mr. Browne and his band. At this point I learned that he is a strict vegan, so not only did the food have to be nutritious, but it also had to be unwrapped, as he did not want any garbage from wrappers on his specialized candy bars.

We set up his food and helped out with the seating on the floor, and then all of us were ushered out of the concert area as Jackson Browne would be doing his sound check for the concert that night. Most of us were still able to eavesdrop in on the sound check, and we knew the audience would be in for a great concert.

Unfortunately, after the sound check, I was given the task of standing by the VIP parking lot and making sure that only cars with VIP stickers came into the lot, so that sound check was the last I heard of Jackson Browne for about 5 hours.

It was also at this time that I heard over my walkie-talkie that Mr. Browne’s manager wanted a Chinese food menu so the band could get some chicken and broccoli, so all that work on making a nice fruit salad for the band went to waste. I should have grabbed a kiwi and banana for myself!

The concert then goes on as scheduled, everyone seems to enjoy it, and I become a Jackson Browne fan in just one night. Seeing him live perform hits like “Running on Empty” and “The Pretender” was a sight to behold, and I had a nice birds-eye view of the concert from a third floor suite with some fellow classmates who also worked throughout the concert.

Following the show, the band made a beeline out of the MAC and got right on their tour bus to leave. We now had to put back all of the furniture placed in all four dressing rooms, as well as help clean up afterwards. I left about 2 a.m. that evening, meaning I put in a solid 17-hour day working for Jackson Browne.

However, it was an awesome experience, and I have been a big Jackson Browne fan since the show. Not only did I get a behind the scenes look at this music icon, but I bonded with friends and hung out with some real roadies, who may be some of the most down to earth people I have ever met. I probably would have worked at the show for just the bottle of Perrier water I took from his dressing room after the show (shhh…don’t tell anyone please!)

Oh, and I met Bruce Springsteen that night as well, but that’s another story for another time.