Julie Duffy

Tour Accountant / Tour Manager

Counting Crows / Peppa Pig

CHANGEOVER: To begin, talk about who you are, where you’re from and your history in the industry.

Julie Duffy: I started 32 years ago, in 1988, as an intern at WBCN in Boston. I was eighteen or nineteen. I just walked in the door and got an internship and that started it all. I always knew I was going to be in the music business. I didn't know what that was going to be, but I just knew this was it.

I went from BCN interning to working with Aerosmith with Collins Management as an assistant in 1992. I worked with them until the end of ‘94 and then moved to L.A. to be a talent booker for Westwood One Radio. I was there until 2000 when I made the move to Columbia Records in Manhattan as a director of broadcasting. I was there for two years and that's where I met John Mellencamp at a recording session when we were doing an acoustic version of “Jack and Diane.” That's also where I met Harry Sandler, who is one of the best tour managers in the entire world.

About two weeks after the session with John, our entire division got laid off. It was right around when Napster was happening and everybody in the music business was ignoring it and we thought our jobs were safe. Well, we weren't so we all got laid off. To this day, I still have no idea how Harry Sandler found out but he called me up and said, “how would you like to go on the road?” I told him that I've always wanted to go on the road so at the beginning of 2002, I started with John and I've been on the road ever since. What I thought was going to be just a five week tour for the hell of it turned into almost nineteen years.

I started as an assistant tour manager and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had never gone on a tour bus and, of course, Mellencamp’s crew saw right through me in about two seconds. Luckily, I bonded with certain people who showed me where to put my luggage and taught me all the rules. I was a deer in headlights and Bob Quandt was my tour manager, also one of the best in the business, and If it wasn't for him, I would not be on the road. Sometimes you'll be out on the road and you meet people who aren't so happy to teach you, and aren’t very patient, but he was amazing and taught me everything.

On the road you learn to do many jobs if you want to be indisposable. I did ticketing and meet and greets and all that stuff before there was VIP meet and greets. Then Harry Sandler came back into my life. He reached out to me when we were ending the tour with John and said he was putting me on the Christina Aguilera tour the next year. I did Christina's world tour as an assistant tour manager and then did the Van Halen tour the following year with Harry and was road manager. Then I went back to Mellencamp and worked Aerosmith after that. Then I became a Live Nation tour accountant because I wanted to learn something besides just being an assistant tour manager where you're basically a glorified babysitter in the best case scenario.

I wanted to learn the money side of it. I had a whole list of tours I could take that were on the wall. The person who was in charge just looked at me and said,“just pick a tour, whatever you want to do. We'll put you on it.” I saw Counting Crows and Goo Goo Dolls on the list. I had lived with the drummer from the Goo Goo Dolls for five years in Hollywood as a roommate. I love Mike [Malinin] so I picked the Counting Crows/Goo Goo Dolls tour.

I went on that tour not knowing what I was doing again, but this time on the money side. I had an amazing tour accountant, Pete Merluzzi, who was handling the Counting Crows and the Goo Goo Dolls and, just like Bob, was very patient. He taught me as we went and I learned to just shut up and pay attention. When that tour ended, the Counting Crows tour manager, Tom Mullally, called and said they wanted me on their side and that they wanted me working with the band. That was in 2007 and I've been with them ever since. It's a family. It's tight. There's seven of us. I'm one of the babies and I started in 2007.

When the Crows weren’t on tour, I did a bunch of other tours instead. I worked as the tour accountant with Roger Waters on the Live Nation tour and Linkin Park on their European tours. I also worked with Stone Temple Pilots for two and a half years as the assistant tour manager/tour accountant. I also did Maroon 5 as a tour accountant and Fresh Beat Band, which is also when I started getting involved in kids touring, which I had never done before.

I remember getting the call when I was on tour with Maroon 5. I pulled up info on Fresh Beat Band and noticed their schedule and that they did six to twelve shows in a row and two on the weekends. I thought, no way. I'm never doing these tours. Then I made an offer that they accepted and started with kids touring. Fresh Beat Band led to Peppa Pig. I've been the tour manager of Peppa Pig since 2015 and it is just one of my favorites in the world. I just love it. It has coincided perfectly with Counting Crows because kids tour is normally in the spring and the fall and Counting Crows would do summer, and occasionally in the spring or fall, but not a lot in the past five years.

I’m the tour manager and I just love it. We did around 68 shows in 72 days on the last leg. You load-in around 10:30 in the morning and you're done around 8:30 at night. I had never toured with actors before, so that was new to me, but they are the kindest, sweetest people. I love it all so that's where I am. That's what I'm doing. It's what I've always wanted to do.

Photo Credit: Kelly Quill

Let's go all the way back to the very beginning and talk about Aerosmith. For you to start out with them must have been incredible. Can you share some of the more memorable touring stories from those early beginnings?

By the time I got to work with Aerosmith, I was 22. I was engrossed in the Boston music scene from 1987 or ‘88 to when I left for Hollywood in ‘95. I was out every night in the hardcore scene so the music life was always what I did. When I was interning at BCN I was a nanny, so I dropped out of college and there was no Plan B. I was going to do this and get to work with Aerosmith? I was so blown away and just so honored. I was taught at BCN what I still do to this day: get to know the top guys. Carter Allen, who is a program manager, got me the interview with Aerosmith. I interviewed for two years until I got that job because they were recording Get a Grip. When I got that job I knew I was on the right path and that this was what I was going to do with my life.

I wasn't on the road with them, I was in management. I would go to Cambridge every morning and we would do insane hours. All we did was handle Aerosmith. They would come walking in the door and we would have all of their interviews set up. I was never blown away by rock stars or celebrities, and you can't be in this business, you just can't. Was the twenty-two year old inside of me when Joe Perry walked in the door thinking, “oh my God, this is Joe Perry” and screaming inside? Of course I was!

I worked my ass off and just learned to do so many different things there. I helped work on their videos, and by help I mean I made sure their hair stylist was there and made sure the interviews ended on time. I had nothing to do with setting them up. I was just a little assistant. That's all I was. To be in Boston and to be with the biggest band, not only in Boston, but in the world, I just can't describe. I was just so honored. It was amazing. I also realized after that experience that I didn't want to be in management and that I wanted to do something else. I didn't know what that something else was. I'll forever be grateful to Collins Management and to that band.

Everybody knows accounting. Everybody knows what that word means and that it deals with money, however, what exactly does a tour accountant do? Do you have any other responsibilities related to Counting Crows? 

It's so funny and ironic that I handle people's money. I'm just so meticulous, obviously, because you have to be meticulous. I was the girl in high school who would take people's change at lunch. I opened up a bank account with my girlfriend and we kept track of every single penny and it paid for all of our kegs for the senior year party. I think we still have that frigging bank account open. I found the ledger from 1986. I kept track of everything by hand and my ledgers that are keeping track of bands still look the same.

The main goal is to make sure your band is getting every penny they deserve and to know how to make that happen without being an asshole. I truly believe you can tour and be in a position of power and not be that asshole. Maybe I'm wrong but it's worked for me and I've had a little bit of success doing it. It's also nightly settlements that we do and that's everything from ticket counts to how many porta potties there were that day. Besides the major settlement, you've also got the day to day receipts, the day to day accounting that you have to keep track of with your runners and production assistants. It's keeping an eye on bus expenses. Your bus drivers all come back to you once a week and you do receipts with everybody. It's being meticulous all the time.

I also think it's about cultivating relationships. I know every single person at every Live Nation venue and AEG. I know who I'm dealing with because I've dealt with them in the past however many years. I love that. I don't really find that there's that ‘old school, they're just trying to fuck you’ attitude or that anyone is trying to steal from you. On our level, I haven't found that.

Explain exactly what Peppa Pig is so that people who aren’t familiar can get a better understanding.

Peppa Pig is one of the largest children's television shows in the world and it’s based out of London. It's a Nickelodeon cartoon and it's about a little pig named Peppa. She's got her mommy and her daddy and they're just these cartoon characters that we bring to life on stage. The demographic that I've found is generally two to five year olds in the audience. They're two and three years old and they show up dressed like Peppa. It's amazing. It's just so different to do a kid's tour because with rock tours you're used to seeing the jocks and the chicks and everybody's screaming and people are drinking. With this tour, just watching their little faces is so cute. You're bringing such joy to people and it’s so much fun. It was one of the most successful children's tours in the United States. We were supposed to go back out in March and when it ended in November, we had hit our fourth biggest show. It’s theater so we never do more than a five thousand seat venue. We keep it small because we can't do big. It's not fair with the kids being so little.

I had more ticket requests for Peppa Pig than I had for any tour I’ve ever done. More than Van Halen, more than Aerosmith, more than Christina. Peppa Pig. I had more of my friends come out of the woodwork and ask for tickets. It really is a civil way to tour. I mean, yes, you only get one day off a week, but you have every night off. It's just a really nice way to tour.

Photo Credit: Jim “Dawg” Bogios

What is it like going from wrangling the cast of characters in the Counting Crows to wrangling the crew for Peppa Pig because they are very different productions? 

It's one hundred percent different. Of course I love live music and Peppa's great. It's cute and it's sweet but you're not getting that rock and roll music outlet that we all love to have on tour. For Counting Crows, there's nothing like it. Wrangling them is hilarious. There's three of us to do it so I'm not the only one. There’s the stage manager, myself and the tour manager. It's always about timing. The Counting Crows have never gone on stage late - I don't think ever. They're meticulous, and that's awesome, because I've toured with bands who I won't name and you're sitting around for an hour, two hours. It's horrible and stressful. As the tour accountant you're getting screamed at because we're going into union battles now. It's wonderful to be with a band that is responsible and so professional. We always do these shots before we go on stage, like that elevator shot. They're just goofy guys. They're all in their 50’s. They're pros, they're brothers. Every single one of them has a different personality and I just love them. They treat me with such respect, such dignity. I've never had an issue once on that tour, and that's pretty amazing.

Besides tour accounting, I also do other ticketing. I handle their meet and greets. I overlook the VIP program. I'll be the first one to get you coffee. I will help our production coordinators. If you need help loading the bus, I’ll load the bus. At Peppa Pig, I am the production coordinator. I put ice on the bus. I don't care. You're not your title. You’re family and you do what you have to do to make the day work. That's the way it's always been.

Getting the band on stage is a ritual. Everybody has a handshake and they do not get on that stage until all those handshakes are done. Adam [Duritz], the lead singer, is very ritualistic. He has an order to everything and that's just the way it is. I just love them. In between doing them, I loved doing Stone Temple Pilots. I loved Maroon 5. There's so many others that I loved but Counting Crows are my family. We're all still in touch, of course, during this horrible time. We've had two dear friends who passed away, one of them the night before a show and one of them when we were on break. That's when you see the true side of people. It's just family.

Switching gears, how has COVID-19 affected your job? What have you been doing during this downtime? 

It has affected every sense of my being. My boyfriend lives in Tennessee and he tours too. I had flown to Tennessee in early March and was going to see him for one week. He was about to head out on tour and I was about to head out on Peppa Pig. I was going to be with Peppa from mid-March to mid-May and then was going with the Black Crowes, which I was so excited about, from June until October. Then I was going straight to Counting Crows, who were planning on touring from October to December. Those dates hadn't been booked and, obviously, they're not now, but that was the plan. I was so excited for this year.

The day it all happened was so odd. I was about to fly back to Boston for one day. My tour bags were already packed. I was only flying to see my boyfriend for the week, then flying back to Boston for 24 hours and then flying to L.A. and that was it. I was supposed to be gone until November and I was ready for that. Just like everyone else with tours, we heard “we're going to push it a week. We're going to push it a couple of weeks, we're going to push three weeks.” Then they called Peppa. In my heart, I knew Peppa was going to get pushed. It was children. It was grandparents. You have to be safe. This is before we really knew what was going on, but I knew in my heart it wasn’t going to happen.

I just kept saying to everyone that It'll be fine. Black Crowes are going to happen in June. We'll be fine. Then June went away. You could just feel all of our hearts sink. Then I thought that the Counting Crows were going to do October or November. Then we were just like, “oh, shit.” This year is gone and it's shocking. Financially, it is devastating. Mentally, I'm really having a hard time with it. I remember when this all started in March and immediately my boyfriend and I had a conversation. We thought, “where is the best place to isolate because now we're looking at isolation. What are we going to do?” He lives in Tennessee on 11 acres. I live in a townhouse in a small town, but it's crowded. We decided that I was going to stay in Tennessee and figure it out.

It was really great in the beginning. I was kayaking, doing yoga every day and I started volunteering at a local dog shelter. I have a bunch of friends there and it's all cows and farmland. I looked at it like, “OK, this is never going to happen again. We're never going to have this time off again. Take advantage of it.” I stayed there for four months and then it was time to come home. In early July, I flew back home to Massachusetts. I've never had a summer off. I haven’t not worked since I was 12 in the summer. I was just going to swim every day and had all these plans. Then my boyfriend came up to work and immediately started doing construction. He's a worker so he's off working. I got here and just kind of sunk a little. Sometimes it was just really hard to get out of bed. Financially, you go from making a great salary to zero. Yes, I collect and that's fine, but It's a joke. It can't compare to what I make as a normal touring person.

I started volunteering in a place called WHEAT, which is an amazing organization that's been opened since 1982. We make meals and anyone and everyone can get a free meal every day, lunch or dinner. I go in the morning and yesterday I made over three hundred tacos. It gives me a sense of purpose. I've always loved to cook and it's run by a dear friend. Some days there's just two of us and some days there are more. I've been volunteering pretty much Monday through Friday. I need a sense of purpose. We're roadies. I'm used to working a 14 hour day. Me being home with no purpose is not smart and it's not good. I have to do something. I try to stay as positive as I possibly can. People who aren't in our position don't understand. They just don't understand.

I know people are trying to be kind when they say things like, “just find something else to do. Maybe this is the time for you to have a new career and new vision.” I don't want a new career. I love what I do and I am not changing. I am not going to stop touring. The minute that we can get on that bus, I'm on it. I'm 51 years old. This is what I do. It’s just trying to maintain a balance - physically and mentally - but I’m trying. I think I'm going to start fostering dogs. I think that's the next thing to do. I would just prefer to be touring.

What do you feel is the future of this industry? 

That is such a hard question because who would have ever thought we'd be in this position in the first place. This is a huge social experiment like we've never seen, so I don't know. I do know that we're going to get back on the road. I don't know when and I don't know what that's going to look like for us. For who we are, we're strong and we're smart and it's going to happen. We just have to hold on. I know people are going to want to go back to live events, and I know people are going to want to hear music again, so we just need to hold on.

So far, what has been your most memorable moment on any tour? Is there anything that sticks out?

That's a hard question. As an ‘aha moment’ there are a few. The one that always stands out takes me back to 16 years old when I had Van Halen posters on the wall in high school. When I was on tour with Van Halen, we flew on private jets and I was one of the assistant tour managers. I was 100% professional but I remember one night being on the plane, looking around and thinking, “ok, there’s Eddie, there’s Alex, there's Michael.” That was definitely a pretty cool moment.

Another was when I met Robert Plant. Counting Crows were doing a session in London with Jools Holland, which is similar to Jimmy Fallon. There's four bands on the show and they go live. It was us, two other bands that I don't remember, and Robert Plant. I remember sitting in a room with about 12 people. He was doing “Black Dog” with his solo band. I think the Counting Crows crew were laughing at me because I couldn't stop staring. I was just so blown away by him. Then he came over and was talking to the band. I took a photo because I thought the guys would love a shot of Robert with them. Then Robert Plant turned, looked right at me and I was like, “oh shit” because I don't take photos with artists. His tour manager came up to me laughing and asked if I wanted to meet him and I said “no, no I do not.”

There are just so many moments of standing on stage. I remember being with Stone Temple Pilots in Rio de Janeiro in front of ten thousand people and getting goosebumps. I remember Linkin Park in Red Square. They shut down Red Square. That was amazing. Then there was the time when Counting Crows opened up for The Who on an Australian tour. Incredible! To be able to do that in your life is pretty fantastic. Yes, you give up having children. You give up having a normal relationship, let's be honest, but it's so worth it for those moments and hundreds more.

Photo Credit: Doug Thoms

What do you miss the most about touring?

Family. I think it's important to create a family vibe. I think it's important to treat everyone with respect. I am never going to complain about 11 smelly guys on a tour bus ever again. I miss the bus. I miss so much. I miss settlements after a show. I miss the adrenaline of seeing your band get on stage and hearing the audience scream. I miss sitting up front with my drivers. I miss adult dinners. I miss figuring out who’s sleeping with who on the big tours. There's so much to miss.

To wrap this up, what is the best piece of advice you think you've ever received? 

Oh, that's easy. No Plan B. Nothing else to fall back on, period. That's it.