On The Road Again?

Paul Gilbert, the Eagles’ Vince Gill and Zepparella’s Gretchen Menn discuss a shift from boring to touring

- By Joe Bosso

Late winter of 2020 proved to be the great equalizer in the music business. For artists everywhere, whether they were weekend warriors playing in bar bands, name acts packing large clubs or mid-sized concert halls, or superstars plotting stadium treks across the globe, the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it the same sobering message: The show won’t, in fact, go on. One by one, itineraries were scuttled, music festivals were called off, and by the first weeks of spring the curtain came down on the entire concert industry.

“I think it’s an understatement to say it’s been a tough year,” says Eagles guitarist and country music star Vince Gill. “It’s been hard on people throughout the music business. A lot of people are hurting and struggling. On a personal level, I lost my best friend, Benny Garcia, who was also my guitar tech. He was my first music friend; we came up together and he’s taken care of me on the road for 30 years. Losing him was brutal.”

Gill notes that the forced work stoppage has been the first time he hasn’t played live on a consistent basis since he was a teenager. “It’s a mind-bender to be off the road,” he says. “From the day I started doing this, I’ve been clubbing, playing, touring — in whatever capacity I’ve been involved with, I’ve never stopped. So to go from 100 mph to zero has been strange.”