Tour Support Was Always One of My Favorite Things
Today, Tour Support is delivering badly needed mental health services and assistance for touring bands and crew.
Independent artist Lauv is on tour now, bringing fans together with his awesome music and incredible Blue Box — a place to share your blue thoughts.
Musicians and crews are just like their fans — way too likely to be suffering
A long time ago… record companies made ridiculous amounts of money selling recorded music on vinyl, discs, and tapes. We bought those things at places called Record Stores, played them to death, and the music companies kept the profits. I did my time as a record company exec, I know how it worked.
Selling records was so profitable, that when an artist had a new album, the record company gave bands money to help pay for the cost of touring. It’s difficult to imagine today, but concert tickets used to be $10 to $20. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, but in general a concert was an affordable social event. Unfortunately for a lot of bands, this meant that the costs of touring were more than total ticket sales. That’s where Tour Support comes in -- its the money record labels “loaned” to artists to make sure the act could afford to tour and thus sell more albums.
45,000 Americans will kill themselves this year
Today it was announced that there is a whole new kind of Tour Support -- the type that is so desperately needed -- mental health services and support for touring bands and crew.
The launch of Tour Support coincides with World Mental Health Awareness Day, a day set aside to help break the stigma and encourage more people to seek help for their emotional well being. It’s estimated that 100 million Americans suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues every year. In 2018 more than 45,000 Americans tragically committed suicide. Half of them with guns.
Touring personnel are as vulnerable as the rest of us (perhaps more so) and because their work takes them away from home for long periods of time and to a different city every day, it’s not as if they can keep a regular schedule of therapist appointments.
Michael Rexford is the founder of Tour Support and an attorney specializing in the music business at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles. “Mental illness has long been relegated to the dark, unseen recesses of society, and isolation is the worst thing that someone who is struggling with feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness and any number of other troubling feelings or conditions can experience, which only exacerbates the underlying problems,” said Michael. “My own experience with suicidal ideation, combined with my longstanding involvement in the music industry and my time as a volunteer suicide prevention crisis line counselor, made it clear to me that I was uniquely positioned to bring a level of attention and impact to this crushing problem.”
To support the emotional health needs of touring crews and artists, Tour Support provides access to professional counseling available anytime, anywhere, via text, phone or video chat to everyone in their organization. “Online counseling is a great solution to people on-the-go and those with hectic schedules, so it’s a natural fit for musicians and the people who work with them,” said Alon Matas, Founder and President of BetterHelp. “Tour Support’s initiative can be life-changing for so many people, and it aligns perfectly with our mission to make professional counseling accessible anytime, anywhere.”
In addition to the launch of Tour Support, today also marks the release of an hour-long mental health conversation and musical performance starring best selling artist Lauv (Ari Staprans Leff) and Dr. Victor Schwarz of the JED Foundation. Lauv is currently on tour in the US and all his shows include an amped-up version of his incredible BlueBox powered by Microsoft.
Please support the incredible artists who are donating their time and voice to support mental health, including: Billie Eilish, Lauv, John Legend, Ludacris, Steve Aoki, MARINA, Grace VanderWaal, Rick Springfield, Lindsey Stirling, Hobo Johnson, Ana Tijoux, Boy Pablo, The National, AJR, Raphael Saadiq, Sofi Tukker, Mashrou Leila, Jake Shears, John Mark McMillan, Mike Birbiglia, Brett Kissel, My Morning Jacket, José González, Scott Helman, Bebel Gilberto, Frawley, Speelberg, Eddie Berman and Katell Keineg, and so many others. We are grateful to them all!
For additional information about Tour Support and LightHopeLife please contact the author or visit https://www.lighthopelife.org/
