Photo credit: Kaelan Barowsky
Tell us about your tour vehicle.
Since 1997, praise be to god and good luck, we’ve been on tour buses. Prevost buses which are 40 feet long, 12 bunks, two lounges one or two bathrooms and all the fixings. We have leased these buses from a variety of different bus companies over the years and are currently with Breeze Coach.
Now don’t act like I’m all soft, you know G.Love paid his dues plenty on the come up. Back in the day we had a Maroon Ford F-150 cargo van which I bought for 3k from an oil company in Boston. We drove that thing coast to coast to coast. I can’t stress enough how important it is for longevity, mental health and pure sight-seeing reasons it is for bands to get out of the van and into a bus. It will help keep your show in the road.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
I try to get one solid meal a day. I call it main meal and it’s usually right before or right after sound check. I don’t like to eat too close to the show as I can’t be playing on a full stomach that just weighs me down. I also start my day with a scoop of each, protein powder – Fit For Life and a powdered greens – Green Vibrance along with my vitamins.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I will break multiple strings on every show if the strings are not fresh. In order to mitigate this, I change my main guitar’s strings before every show. I am sponsored by D’addario Strings and they’ve been supporting a brother for a long time. My main guitar influence is Blues legend John Hammond. John breaks strings like it’s going out of style and changes them in between songs on stage. I always thought this was just the thing to do so I play hard.
Where do you rehearse?
We don’t have a rehearsal space these days but we rehearse at sound check. I guess my personal rehearsal space is the old dining room of our old 1812 farmhouse on Cape Cod. Or also the man cave, which is this 200 year old garden shed where we can hang out, smoke and jam.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
The song was called “Me and You”. It was both written for my best friend (who is now my manager) and my first true love girlfriend. I was 15 and my friend was going to boring school. I was bummed out to be missing my friend however I was in young love with my gf so all these different sentiments were in it. Really it was a knee jerk reaction to life and written from a very pure place “We’ve shared the best we’ve had the worst but we’ve always been together just the two of us”
Describe your first gig.
I played the Crossroads Cafe in Wilmington DE. It was like a little strip mall coffee shop. This was the summer of 1991. I remember practicing all summer for this one gig, my only gig. I was fully prepared and maybe there were 25 or 40 people there. I played solo acoustic and I rocked it.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
I was a dishwasher, a short order cook and a garbage man before I became G. Love. These days when I’m off the road I enjoy working in the yard and tending to my garden and family and that’s like a job and I love it.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
My income has been quite good. We grind hard but we make good money. Some years are up and some are down, some years you play for more people than others but we are so fortunate to have an extreme supportive fan base which keeps our show on the road. I hope the next 5-10 years sees me playing all sold out shows and making the best recordings of my career.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
I wish I would’ve been more in tune with the business side of the biz when I was younger. It’s important to be able to balance the business and creative/spiritual sides to make professional music. If you can find the balance, you can have great success. I made plenty of mistakes along the way but I’m still rocking 27 years deep in this game. Here’s to 50 more and please peep my new record G. Love The Juice.