On January 31st, 2017 I was invited to a full moon gathering of sorts where a bunch of my friends would be. The location was across town though so I decided to check out Wax's latest podcast during the drive. At around the 14 minute mark of Episode 164 he makes the slightest, off the cuff mention that he's still looking for tour staff. This was by no means an open invitation to the public to submit their applications but it still caught my ear because after I'd thought about it for a minute I realized that given my past experience, I was actually somewhat qualified. I've toured across the country several times and know what to expect on the road. Granted, my experience consists exclusively of shitty DIY tours but in a way I think that prepares you more than anything for a legitimate one.
I took the chance and sent him an email at like 4AM that night. Basically I said I was down to drive, film, sell merch, or whatever really. We already kind of knew each other so it wasn't like a complete cold call but I still sent that shit expecting a no. Much to my surprise though I woke up the next day to a phone call from him. When I looked at the caller ID I actually said to myself, "no fucking way". I knew that there was no other reason he'd call especially since I'd just sent that email. We talked for like ten minutes and he confirmed my spot. I was officially the merch guy for his 2018 Spring Tour across the U.S. with Mac Lethal and DJ IFTW. Shortly after this was confirmed, he made me the tour manager as well. The part that trips me out how is this entire thing went from an idea to reality in like twelve hours. It's arguably the biggest break I'd ever caught too. As a rapper or artist you're always scheming on how to gain support. Is it videos, low budget tours, retweets? What's the answer? You write songs and go to open mics just trying to solve the puzzle. Some people spend their entire lives trying to figure it out to no avail. Ironically Wax has a pretty good song about this subject called "We Can't All Be Heroes". Up to this point I was diligently working on a new album and videos thinking I could potentially tip the scale by stepping up my internet presence. For this to come out of absolutely nowhere though just goes to show that you never really know what's going to happen. It completely changed the course of my year.
Feeling grateful as shit and writing this from the road actually. Currently I'm in Kansas City, Missouri enjoying one of our few days off. Possibly the most helpful part about all of this is that Wax encouraged me to promote my own music during this tour so just before leaving Texas I invested $1,400 on CD's to give away for free. I'd never thrown that much money down, especially on something that wouldn't yield a tangible and immediate financial return. Plus I don't really have money like that. This was basically fourteen hundred dollars worth of seeds that I hoped would grow into fans. After traveling around for half the tour I can say with certainty that it was a smart move as I've seen my follower count increase sharply. There's also a solid possibility now that I'll be the opener for Wax on his next tour.
All in all I'm pretty fucking stoked about everything. I've always been enthusiastic about touring so being apart of a legitimate 50 show run across the entire country is an honor. Just trying to enjoy everything while killing my responsibilities as the tour manager and merch guy.
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