They traveled and lived in eight tour buses, followed by 12 18-wheelers, stopping in 41 different cities in 30 different states. They rubbed elbows with the stars and found out what it takes to produce a nationwide tour. Such was the summer internship for two Lyndon State College students, Joel Mariani of Bennington, Vt., and Ryan Imhoff of Columbia, N.J., as they worked on “The Troubadour Reunion” tour of James Taylor and Carole King.

Both students are back now and reflected on their experience.

LSC: How did you land such a great summer job?

Joel: I had already been working for James Taylor’s production manager, Ralph Perkins, of and on for about two years when I learned of this opportunity. So I applied and was selected.

Ryan: I was a little apprehensive about applying to begin with, not knowing where I would be going, and the tour was already in Japan. However, Britt Moore [Lyndon music business instructor] encouraged me, and I finally applied. Before I knew it, I had a plan ticket for Boise, Idaho, in my hand, and about two weeks later, I started the tour.

LSC: Did you meet James Taylor and Carole King?

Joel: We did—they are incredible people to work for.

Ryan: Agreed. Each one was very nice to me. I also got to meet the band and back–up singers. There were times where I really had to step back from what I was doing, look at it, and I would just be in shock about what we were all accomplishing. When you are selling out arenas to 15,000 people every night, life gets pretty hectic pretty fast. It is amazing how it all comes together.

LSC: What were your main responsibilities? Did you work together?

Ryan: Not all the time. I was mainly responsible for doing the dressing rooms for James, Carole, the band and the female singers. I also did day sheets, which are the itineraries for the next day, ice and water on the buses, making passes with the security chief and James and Carole, hanging signs at each venue and loading out.

Joel: Right. We mostly helped the production manager and assistant production manager take care of the crew. We traveled with a lot of furniture, so the dressing rooms took a lot of work at each stop. Another one of our main jobs was to make sure we had Internet connections and phone lines for the offices, which involved building contacts and working with them to get our production offices up and running.

LSC: What did you get out of this internship?

Joel: I feel like the most important thing I got out of this is an understanding and respect for a production of this size. I will never see a concert the same way again.

Ryan: That’s for sure. I learned a lot about the industry, myself. One of the more important things is going through the right people to get what you need. You need to go to certain people on the tour, because there are certain departments. You need to learn how to coordinate with people so they can be satisfied, and so you can do your job.

LSC: Were you fans of James Taylor and Carole King before the tour?

Joel: I admit I have never really liked folk/rock. I think I would rather do work like this, though, with an artist I am not a big fan of. There are a lot fewer distractions. Through the whole tour, I don’t think I ever saw the concert all the way through.

Ryan: I did enjoy James Taylor’s music beforehand, but I really had no idea how many famous songs Carole King actually wrote. For instance, “Natural Woman” and “The Loco-Motion.” When they came on in a show, I remember thinking, ‘no way she wrote these,’ then I realized how big this was and what I was doing. It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget.

LSC: Any stories to share?

Ryan: At the Hollywood Bowl in LA, I had to get around Pierce Brosnan, who was in my way as I was trying to move a dressing room box out of the room. There were a lot of days that famous celebrities were “in the way,” but they were guests, so you had to wait and, of course, be respectful. I mean, it did feel a little odd to go into a room filled with people you see on TV and in the movies and start pushing wardrobe cases out of it.

Note – The concert tour attracted 700,000 attendees and raised over $1.5 million for the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and 81 other national and local charities.

Source: Lyndon State College