Are High Fuel Prices Effecting Touring?

With record sales plummeting touring is touted as the savior of music. After all, bands can still make money on the road. Or can they? Hypebot is asking artists how high fuel prices are effecting them. Perhaps you have a story to share? First up is an artist who always has something interesting to say in song or on paper – Michelle Shocked.

"I always thought that commuting to work by airplane was excessive, but Southwest and JetBlue fares just made it too tempting…It’s possible that summer traffic is responsible, but in general I’m assuming that when the fall comes around the prices won’t go back down to their ‘cheaper to fly than drive’ rates…I thought about converting my tour bus to biodiesel, but in the end I just donated it to the church for a building fundraiser.

I’ve had to develop orbit rhythm sections for the regions of the country…

instead of one band that goes with me everywhere. A west coast rhythm
section, an east coast rhythm section and a southern rhythm section.
It’s funny, because each one has a slightly different flavor even
though they’re all playing the same material.

I remember twenty years ago, as a debut artist, my agent, Steve Martin,
put me in a hotel room at the Four Seasons and told me ‘enjoy it now,
it’ll be all downhill from here’ but I don’t think even he anticipated
Peak Oil. I’ve always tried to pace my touring with economical
cost-saving measures because I wanted to be in this for the long haul,
not a quick rocket ride to the stars and back down to earth but there
are one too many nights in a Motel 6 that can feel like things have
come down to this."