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Tim Scott was interviewed by Stella Hemmings for her book:
"The
Musician's Survival Guide to Life on the Road"
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Musician's Survival Guide |
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"The Musicians Survival Guide to Life on the
Road" by PC Publishing. Tim speaks candidly about the challenges of being a professional
musician and the experience of performing on stage at the
96 Summer Olympics when a terrorists bomb caused
death and injuries, cutting short a celebration of the world
at Centennial Park.
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The
following is an excerpt from Tim's interview. |
Pro-file Musician: Tim Scott
Instrument: bass
Tours: Jack Mack & the Heart Attack, Tower of Power
What are the good bits of touring?
For me, I still enjoy traveling. I know people that get burned out on it but I just
like seeing other places - I like going to other towns. With your schedule though, you're
usually just in and out so if you want to see a town, you've got to have a plan about how
much time you've got and what you want to see. Take cabs and go to places of interest.
What are the bad bits?
For one thing, it's really hard on one's health. The wear and tear ... you usually
don't eat as well as one should on the road so, nutritionally speaking, it can be a bad
deal. Like for me in particular, I have back problems. When I fly I'm always in a cramped
seat for long hours and it's real hard on me, and I'm packing an instrument - my bass, I
carry it in a bag on my back, and it sets my back out of alignment if I'm walking across
an airport for long distances with that. So I always come back just a little beat up from
the experience. That and not getting enough sleep, with timetables and stuff; jet lag;
losing hours.
How do you cope with living in hotels?
I dont mind it. I really don't mind it 'cos I don't have to make the bed ... I
don't have to clean up. And I don't live like a pig in hotels either, 'cos I don't like to
but it's pretty cool that you don't have to clean up.
What do you take with you on tour?
I travel lightly. On the bigger tours people take all kinds of stuff and actually some
of the guys in my band will take golf clubs with them. We're going to Park City, Utah for
the World Cup Skiing and everybody in the band ... I think everybody but me skis, so
they'll have their ski gear with them, but for me I like to travel really light. Sometimes
I'll take ... I think music's really important. You'll be on the road and most everybody
has a portable cassette or CD player with headphones that they can use on the plane and in
their room. And I'll take some books.
What's the worst thing that's happened to you on the road? You had an unusual
experience at the Atlanta Olympics.
Yeah, I would say that one gig was probably
the best and worst experience that I've ever had as a musician. Being that it
was the Olympics, it was really an exciting and joyful time for the band (Jack
Mack & the Heart Attack) because we were entertaining the world, basically.
People from all over the world were coming and we were playing for audiences of
fifteen to twenty thousand a night, and it just felt like it could have gone on
forever. We were playing on the AT&T stage in the Centennial Park and every
night there would be a headliner like Santana or Joan Osborne, Little Feat, and
then they would shut down the stage and do the nightly news, NBC news feed for a
recap of the day’s Olympic events and then we would come on and do a party after
that and we had some huge crowds. It was the biggest sound system, biggest stage
that we've ever played on. There was a room underneath us ... this was an
incredible stage and there were just racks and racks and racks of amplifiers -
I've never seen so many. The stage was built over soundproof booths, for all the
NBC affiliates. Each one had a booth and that's where they did their broadcast.
When the bomb went off it was extremely loud because it was so close to us - it
was like a hundred and fifty feet from the stage. It was the sound tower, there
were two towers out in front of the stage, and one of them they were running
lights from and the other they were running sound from. And it was the sound
tower that blew up. And it was incredibly loud because the sound fed-back
through the PA system and came right at us through the monitors. Actually my
cars rang for about two weeks after that, and I felt the concussion - it kind of
knocked me back a little bit and thumped in my chest, and it blew debris up on
stage. The tower was covered with corrugated metal and it threw bits of corrugated metal up there.
Was anybody on stage hurt?
No, the drummer had his arm brushed by some stuff, the FBI pulled out some - it was a
pipe bomb with nails and screws in it, they dug some of that stuff out of the stage. We
were extremely lucky. It was just the trajectory of it that it didn't get us.
Something like that would take a while to get over.
Yeah. It happened and some of us knew exactly what it was. I looked up and saw smoke,
that's all I saw and I saw some people running and a stagehand came up and said 'Okay,
we've gotta get you off the stage right now. And they just rushed us off the stage and out
the back, and it was pandemonium out on the street. All the news crews that were leaving
for the night were running back towards the Centennial Park ... and our producer who was
with us was actually out at the tower, and he was helping some people doing triage when
the emergency crews got there. And so we were walking to the van and some policeman heard
that he had been there and witnessed the whole thing, and grabbed him and took him off to
be interviewed by the FBI.
Did you play there again after that?
That was the end of our gig. I actually played there the next week with another band
from Los Angeles. But they decided not to have any more night events so we played during
the day.
What's been the most alarming technical problem you've ever had on stage?
This
didn't involve my equipment but ... originally I'm from Seattle and I had a band up there.
We used to back up a lot of national artists and we got to play with the late Big Joe
Turner, the blues singer, and ... but this was right toward the end of his life and he had
some real serious physical problems. He had diabetes and he had circulation problems in
both legs, a heart condition ... and so he didn't stand on stage he would sit. He walked
with two crutches and he just had a microphone right there in front of him. And so we
played this set for him, in this little club, and when the show was over we would play
what they call a 'chaser' which is just background music that we vamp on while the artist
would walk off the stage. So he went to get out of that chair and um ... his legs buckled
under him and he fell back into the drum set and completely wiped it out ... and we're all
trying to play ... it was one of the more embarrassing moments in my life. I felt very bad
for him. He passed away about a year later.
How come you get to play with so many diverse artists?
Well, for me, I love all different kinds of music, and 1 love the challenge of playing
different kinds of music. And I've also found it's really helpful for trying to stay
working, and stay busy. The more versatile I can become then the more sought after I am.
You played with Eric Clapton once.
I played with him once, yeah. I was doing a gig with Dr. John and Eric was there and we
got him to come up and sit in. And that was a wonderful gig; it took me a week to come
down from that one. I got to stand right next to him ... he was just great. I asked him
... I said, 'Do you wanna sing something?' and he said 'Well, I don't know what I'd sing,'
and I'm thinkin, "Well I don't know, maybe one of your millions of hits,
anything". But you know how he is; he just wants to stand at the back and noodle.
Chaka Khan was in that list as well.
She's great. She's like one of the guys. She's been in the business for so long and
she's used to being in bands that are almost all guys. She really comes in and takes
charge. She knows what she wants, and she's great ... she's great fun.
Musicians are often renowned for being practical jokers as well, has that been your
experience on tours?
I've had a few jokes played on me. It usually involves ruining the bed that you plan on
sleeping in. Someone poured beer into my bed once. It was soggy and it smelled bad. I've
also had some shaving cream put in my bed and I actually had someone take some cheese and
jam it into the lock on my hotel room door and so I couldn't get in.
What advice would you give to people regarding drugs and alcohol?
It's an area that I'm pretty well versed in. I've been in recovery for over four years
now. It's really hard to say. Because I'm a member of a twelve-step group, I do a lot of
speaking to people about that and especially to adolescents. And it's really hard to tell
kids, you know, "Don't do this". At that age I know that I wouldn't listen to
anybody about it. 'Cos I was just getting started, and I had to do about twenty-five years
of research before I found out that it didn't work for me anymore. I guess the only advice
I could give is '"Be careful. Don't let it get out of hand."
Is it easier for it to get out of hand when you are on tour?
Towards the end of my using I acquired a nasty habit, and when you're out on the road
it's very difficult to acquire and stay well. It was a problem for me on many occasions.
So you just end up being sick, and it really detracts from the whole experience. You want
to be conscious, do the job and enjoy yourself'. What happened for me was my band did
what's called an 'intervention' with me and they said that I was out of control and they
were concerned about me, and they wanted me to get some help. They had this guy named
Buddy Arnold - Buddy Arnold is the Head of the Musicians Assistance Program and he came
and facilitated the intervention and got me into a treatment program. What MAP does is
they get funds from the record companies to support drug rehabilitation programs for
musicians because most musicians - by the time they get to the point where they need help,
they can't afford it - because there's no health insurance for us. We get nothing to fall
back on, so this group probably saved my life, and I know that they have for a whole bunch
of my friends, people that I know. And so it's well worth mentioning that if there's
anybody out there in music and they're having a tough time and they don't know what to do,
they should call them.
Were you resistant to getting that help at the time or were you ready for it?
I was ready. I was really beat up and I was ready, I just didn't know what to do or
where to turn.
How did the organization help?
They have a couple of facilities out in the desert that they refer people to and they
provide as much funding as they can for it. In my case they did a co-pay with Riverside
County, and sent me out to the desert. And it was the best thing that I ever did for
myself. And afterwards, they've got a private aftercare program where they have sober
living facilities you can go to if you're not quite ready to come home, or go wherever
you're gonna go, or if you've lost everything and you have nowhere to go, you can go
there. And they have an encounter kind of therapy group twice a week. They work out of the
musicians union. They have some licensed therapists that facilitate these groups, and they
hold benefits around town. They've had some at The House of Blues and Billboard Live, with
people like Bonnie Raitt and Natalie Cole performing and it's a really great organization.
I'm very grateful to them.
©1994 - 2020, Tim Scott /Act Rite Music. All rights
reserved.
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