Eric Johnson

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Eric Johnson

Tours
Metallica

“Becoming a tour manager was not something I had set out to do. It discovered me,” Johnson says. “I had booked a Soundgarden show in 1987 at my school, and ran into the guitar player, Kim Thayil, a couple months after I graduated. What started out as an offer to screen print shirts for their first tour ended up being the start of what I have done since then.” Johnson, in addition to Soundgarden, has gone on to tour manage major artists like Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Alice In Chains, Modest Mouse and others, including Metallica, with whom he’s been on the road for about two years on the band’s monster “WorldWired” world tour, which he calls a “fantastic experience.” 

“Their organization, and the fact that they surround themselves with an incredibly competent, and capable crew and production, makes working for them something to be proud of. That, and their philanthropic endeavors…those make me proudest of all.”

His advice to those in the field is practical: “Understand that this job is not about you. … You will find yourself greatly disappointed if you don’t understand that there is very little ‘me time’ as a tour manager.” Meanwhile, maybe his biggest challenge is personal: “Being able to be available, physically, and emotionally available for my beautiful wife of 25 years. Without her patience and dedication, I would never have been successful at this job.”