In the music industry, a road manager is a person who works with small to mid-size tours (in terms of personnel involved, based on the size of the production). Job responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

• advancing show dates

• making travel and hotel arrangements (for all group members)

• hiring backline techs or recommending techs to be hired (depending on authority given by artist management)

• coordinating artist media obligations (normally while on tour, but could be anytime)

• ensuring artist rider requirements are met

• collecting payments due to the artist at showtime (or signing off on amount due to be sent via wire, depending on arrangements made by artist management)

• making vendor payments (or submission of amounts due to vendors to artist management)

• handling personnel issues

• distributing per diem (depending on per diem schedule, approved by artist management)

Road managers can be confused with tour managers. Generally speaking, though, tour managers work with upper-mid to large scale tours and are often granted a much greater degree of authority in tour operations.

Notable people

• Bob Adams, 1960s and 1970s British road manager (retired 1981)

See also

• Road crew

• Body man

References