Kevin “Dugie” Dugan inducted into the RFL Hall of Fame
Tonight at Roadie Palooza 8, held this year on the opening night of Tour Link Conference in Scottsdale AZ, Kevin “Dugie” Dugan was inducted into the Roadie For Life Hall of Fame. Dugie is the 4th annual inductee into this prestigious group joining Ben “Lovey” Dorcy III, “Pyro Pete” Cappadocia, and Chuck Randall. Dugie was first honored as Roadie.net “Roadie of the Month” in May of 2008. Here was the original article writted by Brenda “Chiefbear” Long back then. Please help us celebrate Dugie’s award as he prepares to head to Afganistan for a USO tour in a few days.
Dugie receives his RFL Hall of Fame award from Karl Kuenning RFL – Owner of Roadie.net
Here is the original article….
The night I first met Dugie I was behind the scenes of a Sammy Hagar concert in Akron, Ohio, ready to present a Roadie of the Month award to Sammy Bones. I walked in to the venue and there was Dugie. I had no idea who he was until a little later when he introduced himself and told me, rather sarcastically, he was the “Slightly overweight bass tech” in Tale of Two Vermin, a story many of you have already read but if not, you can get to it by clicking here.
“Chiefbear,” said Dugie, “I have been looking forward to meeting you. I know why you’re here too! Tell me — how do I get to be nominated for Roadie of the Month?” “You have to be nominated,” I told him, but what he didn’t know was that Sammy Bones had already nominated him. It’s an honor to meet a roadie who has been in the business as long as Dugie.
Later, Dugie invited me to the Palace Theater in Cleveland, Ohio, for a show with The Raspberries. But what he didn’t know was that I was also going to make him Roadie of the Month while I was at the show!
When I arrived at the Palace Theater I got the crew together and filled them in. Separately, I told Dugie I needed a crew picture for the website. We took several pictures and I asked everyone to stick around. I then made a phone call to Sammy Bones in Nashville, Tennessee, and once Sammy was on the line I handed the phone to Dugie so Sammy could break the news to him! You should have seen the look on Dugie’s face — it was priceless!
Dugie truly deserves to be honored as Roadie of the Month for May 2008.
I sat down with Dugie and asked him if he could tell our readers a little bit about himself.
Chiefbear: How did you get started in the business and what has the ride been like?
Dugie: My brother, Brian James Patrick Dugan, influenced me to get into this business as he turned me onto music when I was a little kid. He turned me onto the Who when I was 11 years old. You know what is funny was 40 years later my brother told me, “You have done alright Dugie!”
I started into the business when I was 13 years old running my own bands. My parents would take me to the backyard parties and I would get there first and set up all the gear. But as I got older and got a van I would do it myself. I started to book the bands and paid everybody. Now when I was in high school I had the opportunity to open up for a band from Cleveland, Ohio called the James Gang.
Jimmy Fox [drummer for the James Gang] told me I was more organized than their road crew. So I fired myself from my own band when I had the opportunity to fill in for a guy from the James Gang that was ill. So then I started working for a and called The Raspberries, which Eric Carmen was also a part of. And just recently, The Raspberries did a reunion after 31 years. That band charted nine top ten singles from 1970 – 1973. [Point of interest: at the time, it was Elton John’s favorite band.]
Getting started, years ago when I was 17, if you wanted to be in the business you had to live in New York or L.A.
This was before we had fax machines and computers. Later that year, in New York City, I got robbed by a 6 foot 2 African American. The people who were there watching said “You didn’t do that right,” because I wouldn’t give this guy my wallet. Now let me tell you that perdiem was only $10 a day. I only had $70.00 and a driver’s license in my wallet. I didn’t have any credit cards back then. It was bad enough that he took my money but I was not going to give him my wallet. So three days later I went out to L.A. to do Don Kirshner. On my way back to my hotel room I met these two blondes and we went back to my room and wrestled all night. Do the math — I moved to L.A. So I have lived in L.A., but do occasionally go back to Cleveland, Ohio.
I did take a year off the road to start a production company. After that I had the opportunity to work for George Duke, Stanley Clark and Ndugu Chancellor, who was the best drummer who ever lived and still is! I also did a lot of 80’s bands while they were still working in clubs. I also worked for Poison, Ratt, Mr. Big, Great White and Billy Sheen. My jobs on these tours consisted of guitar tech, bass tech and stage manager. I also worked for Van Halen. I have also worked for Michael Anthony for 27 years.
I was Van Halen’s Crew Chief for 26 years. You know, if you’re not good at what you do, and you can’t say that you are, then why not find something you aregood at? I amgood at what I do. I am a good stage manager and a hell of a good bass tech, maybe not great but I am damn good as I have been doing this for a long time. You know I didn’t get a chance to do the James Gang reunion tour but I did do the Raspberries tour after 31 years. I also did the Joe Walsh solo tour.
You know, Chiefbear, I have worked for so many bands since I started into this business as a roadie. I did have the opportunity to work four years in the Fleetwood Mac camp. People will say to me, “Wow, you have been around Van Halen so long you must have seen a lot of drugs!” You know I worked for Fleetwood Mac for four years and they made Van Halen look like little kids! Now I expect everyone on Roadie.Net to get that! Back then, champagne &cocaine were very big! Now Fleetwood Mac are clean and sober!
Here’s something that people ask me all the time: “So, you have worked for this artist, but have you ever met them?” I tell them, “It is really good pot you are smoking, isn’t it?”
Chiefbear: How has the business changed over the years?
Dugie: The music business has changed so much. The record companies are always continuing to screw things up. Management is totally screwed up too. Management doesn’t care about us at all. We don’t have any health benefits or retirement fund. They pull this on us: you are going to be in rehearsal for two weeks and you’re only gonna get half pay. But everyone knows that you are gonna work twice as hard during rehearsal as you do on tour.
Management does everything they can to keep road crews salaries down. Half the time they want us to double up on hotel rooms. You know I am 50 years old – well, a little older than that, but I don’t share hotel rooms anymore! Luckily I don’t have to do tours like when I was younger. When you’re younger you have the energy, the wanderlust and the spirit to do it. Some of us have been around long enough that we don’t have to do that.
Now back your question. It is a great business but not a lot of consideration is given to us. Not unless you are lucky enough to work for someone like Michael Anthony, who is the nicest guy in rock n roll! Michael has never mistreated me. I would never consider letting anyone else go out with him. He is a great boss and I work for him year round.
Chiefbear: Any advice for newbies wanting to get into the business?
Dugie: First, find a local company to work for. For example, a lighting company or sound company. Cut your teeth a little bit. Start going out with local bands and then you get your first major tour.
Chiefbear: Special memories?
Dugie: The first show with Eric Carmen and the Raspberries after 31 years was great. You wouldn’t believe who was there: Gene Simmons; Paul Stanley; Todd Rundgren; Rick Springfield… It was such a night to remember.
And just recently, I came into town after a Joe Walsh gig. I went into Cleveland and got my hotel room. At the time I was wearing a nice button down shirt with the Van Halen Logo. I walked into this book store looking for a particular Rock & Roll photography book, Roadwork: Rock & Roll Turned Inside Outby Tom Wright. So I went over and asked the store clerk if they had the book in stock. She replied, “Well sir, yes we do.”
The book was on the bookshelf right next too a new Van Halen book called The Van Halen Saga. After seeing the shirt I was wearing she pulled out the Van Halen book as well and said, “Sir, you might be interested in this book too since you are such a big Van Halen fan.” So I immediately opened the book and went to the back to see if there were any references to myself in the book. There were six.
The sales clerk is watching me and I am saying out loud,“Oh, oh, oh, oh, this isn’t true!” The clerk asked, “How do you know it isn’t true?” To which I replied, “Because it’s about me!” The clerk said, with more than a hint of disbelief, “Right there is a story about you? Sure there is…” I said, “There are several stories about me.” She replied, “Okay.”
So she takes the book and keeps her finger in that page and goes up front to the register with it. Then she asked, “Would you like to purchase the first book?” I told her yes, I would. She asked how I would be paying for it. I gave her my credit card and then she said, “I need to see an ID.” So I gave her my driver’s license. She put the Tom Wright book down and opened the Van Halen book to the page she had marked with her finger, then looked at my license and said, “I’ll be damned! This story really is about you!” I said to her, “Did you think I was lying about it?” She replied, “Yes!” Then she asked, “Why is there a story about you here in this book?” I replied, “I was the Crew Chief for 27 years for Van Halen.” She apologized to me. I just thought that was pretty hilarious.
Chiefbear: Best Gigs?
Dugie: Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Poison, The Raspberries. My best gig has been my lifelong relationship with Michael Anthony.
Chiefbear: I’ve heard you are a practical joker. Do any particular practical jokes come to mind?
Dugie: Once I played a practical joke on someone on the crew. The reason I did this is because this guy, he was our Front of House sound guy, every night he’d come to my room and pretend like he wanted to talk to me. And as he’d walk out, and I tried to stop him from doing it every night but somehow he’d get around me, he would have a glass of water, and he’d pour it down my T.V. and blow my T.V. up! So that’s why I did what I did to him at the end of the
tour.
I went up to the hotel desk and he put my hand over my pass [to conceal his identity] and told the hotel clerk I forgot my key. I got the key and went into the guy’s room.
I took laundry detergent and dish washing liquid and mixed them together into a foamy gel. I took all the light bulbs out of the lights. I took all the drawers out of the dresser and took the mattresses off the frames and made a room with them. Then I took the laundry detergent and the dishwashing liquid concoction and put it in the bath tub, the sink and the toilet. I turned the water on hot. Then instead of going to the bar and telling everybody, I went to my room and went to sleep. The fact that I didn’t go to the bar and brag about it was what made it happen.
Well this roadie was drunk and came back to his room and his whole room was full of foam. Couldn’t find a light switch and he finally found someone with a flashlight and the room was full of suds. It was great! Now that was a practical joke! I didn’t admit it to the roadie until 20 years later. He ran into me and said, “I know you played that joke on me, didn’t you?” and finally I said, “Of course I did it!”
Chiefbear: Anything else you’d like to say?
Dugie: One of the best things about my job is that I became a part of a brotherhood, and that is the brotherhood of the road. And through this brotherhood, I’ve met many great people who have become lifelong friends. People like Wookie and people like Sammy Bones. I’d just like to say I love what I do, and I’d like to raise my glass in a toast, to the brotherhood of the road.
Chiefbear: Dugie, Chiefbear would like to be the first to congratulate you on Roadie of the Month! This is an award that you so truly deserve. It was a pleasure meeting you and spending time with you. It was an honor to write this article about you: Kevin “Dugie” Dugan, the “Slightly overweight bass tech” from Tale of Two Vermin!!!! LOL! Oh, and thank you so much for your kindness and hospitality at the Sammy Hagar show and then again at the Raspberries Show!
Your friend Brian “Wookie” Wolk would also like to congratulate you: “Kevin Dugan. The man, the myth, the skinniest guy over 200 lbs. He’s great, a really great guy. Great laugh and a sense of humor that keeps the worst day light. Great to work with. Been Michael Anthony’s guy since before Michael Anthony was born; it’s been that long!”
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