PipemanRadio Discusses Roadie: My Documentary with TJ Hoffman

0:00 Hi, you have done to censure. Wow for you. Young wacome of America. It's time for the Adventures of Hipeman. I'll te you four c Why do com list pomp Beats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the light Man. Yeah, questions probably, Yeah, we're just a little bit. Give me a quick synopsis of your day when you get to the venue. Okay, I got a serious like, I mean, not lying, like what my day consists of what I do.

0:54 This world of that victory Man is this little bubble. We can do whatever we want. And there's lots of times. Where we did. The touring world went from a bunch of outlaws to totally professional. Everybody's replaceable in this business unless your name's. On the ticket. Well sex dog sex sex. When people go, oh, you're a roadie, I go yes, but it's not quite what you think of this. You know, they don't get the glory. But these shows wouldn't happen without these guys. This is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man w four CY Radio. And I'm very excited about the next guest for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is I got this email about the documentary, and I was like, now, that's an interview I want to do, because that's got to have some really cool stories. Because if you're gonna get the best stories, it's gonna be from the roadies. So let's welcome to the show, TJ. Hoffman, and let's talk about your documentary or my documentary, but it's yours, so it's not mine.

2:11 How you doing today, Piper? Hey, how's it going? Awesome? Thanks? So first of all, tell me what how the first time you ever rodi? How did that happen? Oh? Geez, you know, it was kind of more or less some friends of mine, we're working for a local band in Jersey, and there was a club, actually a couple of clubs at the time, but they had a lot of gear. They had like double Marshall stacks, big refrigerator cases, and they needed help getting the gear up the steps. So more or less was teach, can you come help us lug these things up the steps, muscle them up and you get to drink for free, and then after the show just help them help us carry it down. And it was a pretty decent club. It was eighties, it was hair bands, it was a lot of girls and free beer and I was in.

3:10 So I'm a Jersey boy. Which club was it? So it was a club called Sneakers. In the day, I remember. I remember that North. Jersey and then that led to like Studio One, Cricket Club, Birch Hill Club in Ay. You know, it was the whole you know, East coast, Central Jersey circuit at the time. So here's a trip. Okay. So I grew up. I was born New York, grew up in Jersey till nineteen eighty when I was about to enter high school and my dad comes to me and goes, pack your bags. We're moving to California in three days, and so we did. And then funny, after high school, I went back to Jersey to go to Rutgers and because I missed Jersey and and then I'm manager of this place on Route nine called Harrows and so yes, I'm very familiar with the whole Old Bridge scene there too. But it's interesting because for me what happened to me was the first show I ever went to in a club in my life was at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip. Had to be eighty maybe eighty one, and it was Motley Crue Wow before they had an album. There wasn't even an album yet.

4:38 Cool. And I remember going into this club to watch this show and I'm like, oh my god, I'm never going to a real concert ever again. This is the best shit ever. Yeah. Yeah. And then you walked out of that club and you walked up with them, like a whole entourage of the fans that were there, and you went up to the Rainbow and I was like, I don't know, thirteen fourteen and I'm hanging out at the Rainbow with Motley Cruze and with Lemmy and Ron Jeremy. Yeah. And as you can imagine, the women that were in that in that night.

5:20 Absolutely absolutely so that was stripped for me. You know, ironically, there's a club with the Roxy in New Brunswick, That's true. And I went to I went to high school in New Brunswick and one of my first shows that I paid attention to and really got into it was Billy Idol and it was at this Rutger Student Center and I believe that was eighty five or eighty six, and that was my first shock to wow, this is pretty fucking cool. Right. And then, as you know, and maybe a lot of people don't know that are listening or watching like I ended up after that show, like going to the Sunset Strip all the time, or the Troubadour or the country club in Resida, and I would just like offer to help and be roadie, just just to be there and to go backstage, and like, like, there's so many things that I probably don't remember, because you know what they say, if you were in the Sunset Strip in the eighties and you remember remember it, you weren't really there, but it was like, you know, it was so cool.

6:31 I went to Metallica one of their first shows ever in la like probably their first like real show ever. Same with Slayer, but the Metallica one sits out in my mind. I've told the story before, but I think it's very apropos for this is so I'm saying out there, and the guitarist gets off stage after playing and comes up to me, introduces himself and starts talking to me. In hand to me, it's business card and it said Metallica, Power Metal, Dave Mustain And the next thing I knew, me and all my friends were headbanging to Whiplash at their house and partying all night long.

7:16 Awesome. That's a great story. You know, yes, and I'm sure you have ten million stories. That's why I wanted to do this interview, because the Roadies definitely have the stories, and then the whole journey of your whole career to this day, and then to come out with this documentary. I think it's amazing. Now. I appreciate that, you know, started as a more or less an unscripted type of series that we were pitching in the LA scene going back fifteen years or so ago already, and I music, television, legal, licensing, the whole thing kind of would bang heads constantly, and I had a I had a shelf that idea for a little while, and in the meantime, I decided if all the footage and all the work and money that I put into it, I just started to build the documentary. And what I wanted to do was paint a picture. And I was kind of want to be that Michael Moore type of investigative guy that goes to a venue and come follow me and let's go see what's going on, you know, peek behind the curtain. And as my interviews progressed and the story evolved and my story, a lot of my footage that I had from the eighties and nineties were placeholders as we were, you know, building the timeline of the film, and my producer, my editor, Andy Stroll, and a couple other guys saw it and said, this is the way to go, you know, more TJ in the story.

8:47 And I didn't want that at all. So it evolved to what is now my documentary, which you know, as you know, in the film business, other things take left and right turns constantly. Yeah, just like the music business does. And this is the best that I could do at the time with what I have. And that's it. And you know, I gotta say, like one of the things I thought was really cool because it is like that, like unlike the debauchery that I experienced when I was a teenager of the roadie backstage life. Man, it's such a professional industry now. And I thank god you weren't there filming me, because I don't want any record of anything that went on from at least nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty five. Yeah.

9:39 Yeah, the you know, I made this film starting with my friends and family and peers in the business. They trust me with the camera. I mean, I very easily could have made a really smutty film probably made a lot of money, but i'd I'd never be involved in the music business again. I'd lose a lot of friends, and that's not what this was about. So I got the trust of my friends and family on the road, and they introduced me to other people and more professional techs and roadies and tour managers and people in the business. That evolved to getting to the level and the access that I did. So without that, I don't think I could have made this film because nobody really wants to hear just my story about me being a punk kid from Jersey, carrying you know, cabinets up drinking beer and then getting clean on the road, and then you know, trying to tell my story. It's not that interesting. But the whole encompassing roadie profession I think people are are interested in.

10:44 Yeah, because I don't think a lot of people even really know what that entails. You know. I think, as Eddie Trunk put it, they're like the most important people to make the show go down. Yeah, Yeah, And that was part of my goal I set out to do this, is to really paint a pictures so when people pay that money one hundred, two hundred and even at festivals now where it could be over thousands of dollars to go see a show. They have a little better understanding that. You know, it's just not the band making millions of dollars, the production aspect of it. And these guys are true professionals that earn their pay, you know, every single show. You know, these tours start months and months before the first concert per se in a in a venue or at a theater, and you know they're they're leaving their families and wives and everything way earlier than the actual in the first show.

11:44 So it's it's a profession that's not for everybody. And I wanted to give them accolades and uh and and humanize the profession as well. And I love that because it is a profession. It's a lot of hard work without a lot of accolades. And nowadays, okay, like thank god it's professional because what went on way back in the eighties probably wouldn't survive today because there's no record labels just throwing like millions of dollars at these bands to go party, you know nowadays, So it's like me, it really did change the image of the music and the industry, and I think that's pretty cool.

12:28 Yeah, that's another reason that I wanted to tell my story of getting clean and getting sober on the road. You know, a lot of these guys that have great stories and did battle some demons on the road. You know, there's still they're still in the business, they're still working, so to come out and say that it might have tainted some of their future work, right, So I kept it as professionals I can with those people, and I'm not afraid to tell my story. It's just part of my life now. And I hope through this film it would paint a picture of the music industry but also people that might be struggling about, you know, recovering and overdoing it, whether in the music business or not. I hope that maybe I could help them a little bit as well.

13:14 That's amazing And as we can see in the back my background here, you have got received like not only you know, mentions of awards, but actually won awards, and there's quite a few. So that's pretty amazing. How did that feel? Yeah, No, that's it was great. So a lot of those awards and festivals were for the trailer also, so the very first trailer that we did it was kind of a mix between the the unscripted series that I was producing and the film any interviews. We just threw all the stuff together. So I was trying to get some some financial help right in the beginning, right, and it just took off and it was it was well received, and you know, after you get a couple of mentions in film festivals or screenings, you know, I started getting the calls and then it was okay, I got to finish this film. People really want to see what's going on.

14:13 And it was released about five years ago. We debuted at the Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park and it won for Best Documentary Homegrown from a Jersey Filmmaker. And from there I just entered it in a couple of more again with the with the idea of trying to get it noticed, because what I really wanted this film to be was the pilot episode for a recurring series to continue to follow these guys on the road, because it's it's it's really interesting, and it's it's pretty easy to do from a music guy making a series or a TV show, you know, in the Hollywood scene, as opposed to a Hollywood guy jumping into the music scene.

15:02 It's always, uh, it's always a difficult thing to take direction from. Hey listen. It's no different than like when I do all these festivals as and I hear other press people there that I can totally tell or not metal heads when they're interviewing metal bands, and I'm like, man, if I were in a band right now, I'd want to slip my throat. Yeah, I know nothing about the band. They're just there. They wanted they got the free pass for the weekend, and they're just kind of hanging out. Yeah, I'm with you on that. That's that's frustrating, right, you know, especially in this genre because like it's a passion. We're a family. Like I love when people say to me, Okay, I'm fifty eight years old, and when people say to me I used to like mettle, I'm like, then you didn't like metal, Like metal is not something you used to like. It's a thing that's in you that never leaves you no matter where you head in life.

15:58 That's true. That's true. And the same thing with punk rockers and kids and and all that stuff. It's it's in your blood. No doubt. And that's another thing too. What I am really happy about today is I was a long hair in the eighties that wanted to go to punk shows and couldn't because you'd get your ass beat just you know. And it's funny because, like like a couple of years ago at Hellfest, I was interviewing Discharge and like, I loved you guys my whole life, and this is the first time I got to be in one of your pits, you know, you know, because you just couldn't do that then.

16:43 So I love how it's come like this the way I always thought it was stupid back then because the metal heads and the punks, at least in LA we're always getting you know, picked on and bullied and beat up at school. But yet we were against each other. We should have banded together. And it's the same kind of similar attitude type of music. So I love that here in twenty twenty five, we're all one big, happy family. Whether you're hardcore punk metal doesn't matter. Yeah, And I think you see that, you know, at a lot of the festivals I remember, and you know, nineteen ninety nine were I was with Agnostic Front and we're playing the smaller stages. But you know, Eminem was on that that year Black Eyed Peas. The eclectic mix of music, you know, to just to cross pollinate different genres was amazing, and I, you know, I think that you know, mister Liman did an amazing job in those early years of really getting the youth and the kids involved in you know, the skateboards and all that stuff with you know, and crossing over to different types of music for these kids. It was brilliant. And yeah, you said, fast forward twenty twenty five. The music really keeps a lot of us together, and people really drop a lot of the bullshit when it comes to seeing a band, right.

18:05 It brings us all together. No doubt. It's so funny. Like just a few days ago, Bonneru promoters sent me, you know, stuff for covering it and the lineup, and I'm looking at the lineup and I don't do Bonneroo because not my like. I won't interview bands that I don't like. Okay, that's just dumb. My job is to promote it. If I don't like it, I can't promote it. So I looked under it. I looked at the list. Megadath. I'm like Megadath at Bonnerou. That says it all. Right there you know, great, that's great. I mean you would never imagine then, you know, all the Dandy Wimmer festivals here is masterfully like combining genres and putting bands together. And then you go to these festivals and there's like one hundred thousand people and nobody's an outsider. We're all one big family. It doesn't matter what we like.

19:01 Absolutely and it goes. That's the same thing with the road crews too. A lot of these guys will bounce around from from you know, from jazz to some R and B and work for many different bands. And that another thing too, that just keeps us all together as one family. You know. Yeah, there's never a broken bond when it comes to music. So tell everybody how they can reach out to the website socials where they can watch the documentary all that good stuff. It's pretty much on everywhere you can watch it. Yeah, it pretty much is these days out you know. Roadifilm dot com is the website that'll link you to all the avenues of where you can watch it. Facebook and Instagram is Roadyfilm, and Amazon the easiest way to see it right now is on Amazon freeb Nice.

19:51 What would you say is your favorite piece of feedback that you got from somebody on this documentary. Wow, that's a that's an interesting question because I do get a lot of feedback. Very rarely do I get something negative. I think that's shocking in twenty twenty five, to tell the truth, that says a lot about how great it is. Yeah, I wanted to be I wanted to I wanted to be honest with myself and with the profession. And again, you know I said in the movie, I did it for a long time, but I did it part time. You know, there's guys that spent their whole life out there.

20:34 Those are the guys that really deserve it. But those guys that I think maybe could have made a better movie and maybe told some things that I missed, can't do what I did because they're outworking, right. So I got the thank yous from a lot of peers in the industry, other roadies and texts that said thank you for giving us a light because I can't do it. I have to work right. Their tours are ten eleven months year. They go home and they want to just focus on the family when they're home, so they don't have the time. So I think the best you know, reward that I got for making this film was just that of other you know, real professional roadies and texts thanking me for what I was doing, which you know, I still get goosebumps to this day with some of these guys who were my idols as a roadie. Uh, you know, thanking me. So that was pretty cool.

21:27 See, I love it. I was getting goosebumps just here and you say it, so I love that. You know, what would you say, is there any story, good or bad, crazy or not that sticks out in your mind most of your whole life? In this music area. There's there's so many. It's so blessed and fortunate to have experienced what I've experienced. So I, you know, started in like the Big Hair I worked for bands, you know it was. They were called American Angel They started about the same time skid Row did, and they were neck and neck for a long time. And then you know the story skid Row Doc McGhee and they blew up and American Angels stayed in New Jersey and then that that kind of imploded. So I saw the metal the eighties big hair bands. Then I went to work for Mod and Billy Milano right right, over to that kind of metal core. You don't have to say anything more to Billy Milano, right, he was managing the Elastic Front.

22:26 So then I got to go work in the hardcore scene. So I was at CBGB's and the Wetlands and all the Lower East Side clubs, and then right to the festivals in Europe and I got probably I got a whole movie of stigma stories. I could tell you stories about any stigma. And then I got working for skid Row in ninety nine. They were another called another band at the time. And then Snake Rachel and Scottie and got a drummer and Johnny Sollinger and we were the opening slot on the Kiss tour in two thousand, so I went right to Arena rock. So that chapter has a bunch of stories, you know, and a lot of that I was. I was drinking and drugging during a lot of those years. I did a lot of it's sober, so it was back and forth. So every tour, every you know, venue, every different parts of the world that I've been to has a great story.

23:25 Yeah. Again, I'm just so blessed and fortunate that I got to travel the world. You know, I did I guess I got paid because I did bring some money home, but it was it was nothing. I didn't even care about the money as much as I wanted to just be out there and experience life on the road with the band. Yeah, and it is. It's not cut out for everybody, but for the people it is cut out for, it's freaking amazing. Like my youngest daughter, I'll bring her sometimes to festivals and after the first day, halfway through the first she'll be like, Dad, I don't know how you do this. Every weekend I'm done, and I'm like, I don't know how. I don't you know. It's like right now, I'm about to go out and do coverage on ship Rocked in a few days. But I've been in the off season and I'm kind of like Jones, and I don't think I've left my house like most of the month, because you know, you know what that feels like.

24:27 Absolutely, And I'll see it on ship Rocked. I'm part of the team out there, so I do it every year. It's it's it's it keeps me, you know, engaged in the scene. And a lot of my friends that not only play on the boat but are on the same crew of year after year, and towards the end of my touring career, you know, I was working for Ignite out of Orange County and we were planning tours around our vacation time. So it was you know, a festival, a couple of clubs, and then Brett would say, we got two days off in Vienna and or you know, a day off in Paris and we're going to the Louver and he worked it in where it was it was fun. And when you're touring with a band who is your friends, it's it makes it so much easier to go away for two, three four weeks at a time.

25:20 So I was I was really blessed to be a part of that as well with those guys, and uh, there's there's just nothing like it in the world. Yeah, I mean, and it is important that your friends because like you, spending twenty four to seven on the road, you better be really close. I said in the movie, you can't. You can't be a punisher, you know, especially on a tour bus, you know, across America or you know, you go wherever, even in Europe, it's it's tight close quarters and your your home is a bus and you have to get along with people and adapt, and nobody wants to be that guy on the road. And I've spent a lot of time, you know, interviewing different other texts and roadies, and I would sacrifice musical skill or roady capabilities for somebody that I could really live with and get along with that didn't, you know, drive everybody crazy, and not only me but the band.

26:23 If you have a guy who's just doesn't get along with people and is miserable or got problems at home or whatever, is always complaining, nobody wants that on the team and you know that they gotta go. Yeah, I wouldn't want that, not even for five minutes. Yeah, exactly. So I have a trivia question for you. Oh boy, I do this a lot, and it is kind of fun, and so I'm going to use a little jersey in it and a little music in it. So I went to this show at the We used to call it the pig Pen, but arts Dock Playpen. Okay, that's right.

27:03 I lived right by the like right by there, and at the time I didn't know what I know now, but there was this band playing there and their name was Soft White Underbelly. Wow, do you know who that band is. I do not. You know, there was a lot of touring bands in that time. You're like, Edgar Casey was a great cover band. Xenon came out of that. So I think you're leading towards that this the name of this band was an undercover name for a major act.

27:45 You are right, And so it was their original name when they first started, and then they changed it to the name everybody knows them by. And I didn't even know. And I walked in there and I heard this song. I'm like, oh my god, it was Blue Oyster Colt. Oh wow. See I never would have guessed that right. And then down here in South Florida, at this girl who's dating and there's this place down Fort Laurdell. It's called Cheers, and they have what's called scaraoke there, which is like punk metal karaoke, but they have live bands there. And so she's outside the club one night and she calls me up and she's like, man, there's this Maiden cover band. They sound exactly like them. And then she walked in and she calls me back. She's like, it's fucking them. Oh wow. Because Nico has a restaurant here in Boca and so before they would go or iron Man would go out on tour, they would go play a show like that, and there's some pseudonym as you know, and it's like this place was smaller and the Troubadour or CBGB's or Lamor's or any of those places, and they were playing there, but you wouldn't know. You would just of course again it'd be like, oh my god.

29:12 That's great for the band, that's great for press. It's a nightmare for the roadie. I'll tell you that. I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is. And I tend to think with the bands maybe they kind of like it because it's our only like connection back to old times playing clubs and having that intimate thing going on. Yeah, you know, Motley just did those couple of days at the Whiskey, you know, bringing it back, and uh I I went through all the phases. So I saw the club scene. You know, I've been in VFW halls and played for the seventy five kids, and then you know Lowlands in Europe and rock am Ring and all these Dynamo, the big giant festivals where it's one hundred thousand plus. Yeah, there's nothing like the intimate shows where you're no doubt really part of the crowd and you know you're getting beers thrown at you, you're that close to smell their breath type of thing. You know.

30:08 Yeah, totally like that. So is there anything else you want to let the viewers and listeners know before you go that we haven't covered already? Oh jeez, I you know. I think that if you're curious about the profession, or you're not sure, or you're a little bit curious about me, go to Amazon. It's free, and after seven minutes, if you don't want to hear my mouth, you can always just change the channel. Let me tell you something, They're not going to change it after seven minutes. It's an amazing documentary, and I love the inside view that you give that nobody has really given before, and giving all the important people that a voice that really don't usually have a voice. They're they're the behind the scenes people that make it all happen.

30:57 Without them, there are no shows. That's true. That's true, and I think there's a lot of these bands will be the first to admit that and give kudos to their crew. They work hard, absolutely, and that's why I thank somebody like you, because you've made it possible, and people like you have made it possible for all of us to enjoy live music. And to me, live music's the best therapy there is. And so thank god we have everybody that's involved in a live show from wherever part they are. And thank you for making this documentary because I gotta tell you, it's amazing, and I think everybody will more appreciate all that goes into a live show and maybe stop bitching about it.

31:49 Yeah we lis. I appreciate your time and for having me and letting me, letting me talk my shit here a little bit. Much appreciated, Piper always, and I'll are you on ship Rocked Yes see you in a couple next week. Wow. Yeah, it's not not even a week like we're leaving this coming weekend. Yeah, that's right. Who goes fast there it is. Thank you so much, my friend, you got it. Cheers. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Patemn on w for c u I Radio.