Excited about the opportunity, I talked to Jenny about it. And she said it was impossible because:
- I didn't have what it took to be a tour manager
- A tour manager had to be expert on all aspects of production, including technical stuff
- Tour manager had to be hired by the promoter, not the artist, so that in case of any problems, Jenny could argue with another party
To me, all these were complete, utter bullshit.
But I just couldn't convince Jenny. She also told me that she didn't need an assistant anymore, so she cut off my pay by half.
It felt like she was trying to make me quit. At the end of that conversation, while I was trying to digest what I'd just heard, she told that this was just business, and if I didn't want to work as backstage assistant, I was free to go. Knowing that I was attached to everyone in the crew and this job much more beyond than "just business", I couldn't believe how she could offer me something like this.
I didn't even think of quitting, I felt like I had no other choice, and accepted to work as a backstage assistant.
As Jenny was still on maternity leave, she appointed the assistant of another artist manager to work on this tour on her behalf, and the promoter company hired a tour manager. Two complete strangers to the crew.
On the morning of the first day of the tour, while I was getting ready to leave for airport, I received a bulk sms from Jenny, informing everyone that I was just a backstage assistant, other two people would be responsible for everything. I avoided even having eye contact to anyone from the crew at the airport, because the moment someone would have told me something about that sms, my chin would start trembling.
As a habit from last year, everyone was still asking everything to me on the first days of the tour. And telling them I didn't know, that it was not my job anymore made me feel terrible.
The assistant girl was as unprepared as I told I was in this post, and the tour manager was the most annoying person on earth. He always wore suits, had a terrible attitude especially towards technical crew, and he liked drinking the band's Jack Daniels during concerts.
I confirmed how appropriate my rule of never drinking while working was, as I watched him every night, trying to have a decent conversation with important industry people and sponsors backstage, unable to even pronounce his name.
One day, the artist said she needed to go to sauna after the show, and when we went back to the hotel, she found out that sauna was closed, such a request wasn't made to the hotel manager. She just said to the assistant girl: "I will be at the sauna in 10 minutes, fix this" and walked away.
While the assistant was struggling to convince the reception guy to open the sauna, and getting the same answer everytime she asked, I approached another hotel worker, told how urgent the situation was, he put me through to the night manager, I convinced him, found out where sauna key was and who could open it, and 10 minutes later, I met the artist in sauna entrance. For the first time in a long time, I didn't feel useless.
Just a couple of days later, the tour manager had a terrible arrangement about transportation, and a band member had to drive 15 hours by himself and play a show that same night.
After this, as I also knew Jenny was receiving complaints from the crew, I told her I wanted my old responsibilities back. She said she couldn't pay me for this, I accepted to work for backstage assistant salary anyway.
During the rest of the tour, the other two became best friends, enjoyed touring life without working, and I kept arranging everything, answering every question with a huge smile on my face.
