Tour/Road Imbalance, Even Addiction?

Read an EXcellent piece in Facebook (yep, it happens on occasion) about touring and the life it offers musicians, road crews and techies. It can actually become an addiction. One comment included discussion of not finding peace, dealing with the everyday when off the road, the lack of stimulation if not on tour.

Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health are reality issues for musicians or would-be tour travel folks.

Negotiating my own life over many decades of being a musician both in terms of recording, live shows and touring in general I realized early-on that learning how to be a PERSON and not merely a commodity as a musician, preacher or in some peep's minds some sort of "celebrity" came down to an intentional relationship with the real, risen Jesus Christ, greatly fueled and embellished by my incredible wife Wendi, child-raising and pastoral duties as well as regular accountability and non-music related serving, thinking and doing with a team -not just the band or in my solo work as a musician. At home I'm on a toilet-cleaning rotation because I need to stay grounded and not simply hear how "cool" someone thinks my music or ministry is, know what I mean? You don't get that on tour whether a musician, stage crew, light or sound tech. Balance and "give yourself to humble tasks" as Paul writes in Romans.

The "high" of travel isn't real life.

The balance of NOT touring and all I've just noted here kept and keeps me sane and links me with the "real world" rather than off-road "Uhhhh, I'm not getting my fix doing dishes, garbage, running family errands or dealing with a cranky self-centered person or three in ministry at home". In fact all that as well as the will and desire to simply stop, rest, smell the flowers, get out of self-self-self focus is a gift from God!

"Stoked to get out and play an' travel" and the like is a common phrase I hear and read all the time. It can be truly intoxicating but of course that's a drug term too isn't it?

Studying scripture each day, really praying "without ceasing" became and long has been my link to inner and outer peace, sanity and both receiving and sharing GRACE to LIVE due to the Living Water of the Spirit in my life. Again, please consider the word I used earlier here: "intentional".

I LOVE touring, being a musician, singing, playing- but most of all meeting people and when possible, my dear Wendi wife comes so that's a major pleasure. And yet, all I said here is important in order to be balanced, to truly be more than a one-dimensional human being.

So I have created a -safe- short link to the article from the This Tour Life Facebook site I've referenced here, worth your time indeed: For the touring peeps or their significant others, family and such: https://tinyurl.com/mwk6z2dn

And as always, thanks for stopping by. -Glenn