Backstage Stories

Music Commentary
Music Interviews
Music History

ted bird
Trucking
Concerts
music
live concerts
transportation

Glamorous or a grind - take your pick. Life on the road as part of a concert tour crew can be either or both. From the intensity of loading in and loading out, setting up and tearing down, to the anxious, white line drudgery of highway travel in the middle of the night to get to the next city on time, it’s a roller coaster ride of sacrifice and reward. Backstage Stories: Crew Are People Too is dedicated to the unsung ranks who toil in the shadows of the live entertainment industry. Without their passion and dedication, there would be no show. These are their stories - from backstage, from the road, and from the heart.

Credits

Ted Bird
Matt Cundill
Jeff Woods

Welcome to Backstage Stories: Crew are People Too

This is Backstage Stories: Crew Are People Too.

Hosted by Ted Bird

Thanks to Ghislain Arsenault and Steve Collard from Truck 'N Roll for supplying the guests.

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Ghislain Arsenault: My Life Changed

Ghislain Arsenault was running a modest provincial trucking company out of Montreal when Celine Dion’s husband and manager, Rene Angelil, approached him in 1996 about providing transportation for Celine’s North American tour. Sensing something big was in the offing and overcoming his own self-doubt, Arsenault took the job - with three rented trucks and three used trailers. The gamble paid off. In 1997, the movie Titanic spawned Celine’s breakthrough signature song, My Heart Will Go On, and Arsenault went from three diesel-belching beaters to a state of the art fleet of trucks that’s become a concert tour backbone for some of the biggest recording artists in the world. On episode 1 of Backstage Stories: Crew Are People Too, Truck'N Roll founder, owner president Ghislain Arsenault talks about his 30 year journey to overnight success, the sacrifices and rewards of life on the road, and the behind-the-scenes entertainment industry opportunities coming out of the pandemic for anyone who’s willing to embrace the lifestyle and do what it takes.

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Myles Goodwyn, April Wine: It Was So Loud, My Hair Would Move

Truck 'N Roll sales manager Steve Traynor sat in on this week’s episode with iconic Canadian rock artist Myles Goodwyn, and reminisced about mutual backstage acquaintances, including a sound man who was notorious for being TOO loud sometimes. It’s been 50-plus years since his first girlfriend Bertha lugged his equipment (“She could carry a Marshall under one arm”), and in the intervening decades, Myles has witnessed and experienced the evolution of backstage life, from the heyday of April Wine in the 1970s and 80s to his current trio playing gigs around the Maritimes, where Myles was born and has chosen to call home once again. A talented singer/songwriter, a great storyteller and a funny man who might have made up the story about Bertha,

Myles Goodwyn is our guest on episode 2 of Backstage Stories: Crew Are People, Too.

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Terry Dimonte: Stacks and Stacks of Money on the Table

Montreal rock radio icon Terry DiMonte took an interesting detour on his way to the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame. For three years in the early 1980s - between the afternoon drive shift at CITI-FM in Winnipeg and the morning show at CHOM-FM in Montreal - Terry was a record company liaison for the Regina bands Streetheart and Queen City Kids. With his trademark gift for compelling and funny storytelling, Terry shares his music industry experiences with his longtime radio partner and Backstage Stories host Ted Bird and Truck’N Roll President Ghislain Arsenault, who to this day works with some of the industry heavyweights Terry encountered 40 years ago. (To check out the Pink and Michael Bublé documentaries mentioned and recommended by Terry and Ghislain during the podcast, visit the links below.)

In this episode - Terry made mention of the Pink Documentary called "All I Know So Far" on Amazon Prime. Feel free to check that out here.

Also Ghislain mentioned the Michael Buble Documentary which is a hard find but the best info about the episode seems to be here.

Terry and Ted have also started a podcast which you can connect with here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.