TJ’s story originally started in the late 1980’s as a roadie for several New Jersey club bands. After a brief time at New Jersey’s legendary Trax East Recording studio, he spent most of the 1990’s and 2000’s crisscrossing the planet with bands like M.O.D, Agnostic Front, Ignite and many more. Along the way, he formalized his work with the creation Iron Sound Productions; a company providing back line, sound re-enforcement and tour logistics. By 2000, he was pulling triple duty as Tour Manager, Drum Tech and Guitar Tech for Skid Row, who was opening on the legendary KISS Farewell Tour (last tour with the original members of the band), and included a set by Ted Nugent. As the miles and years on the road continued to stack up, he further earned the respect and trust of peers in the industry.

Coming off his last tour, after spending over 20 years on the road, was a time of reflection for TJ; the realization that he was just a local kid from Jersey who had the honor to travel and share a stage with some of the biggest bands in the world. There were more than enough All Access stories to fill the pages of a book, but this wasn’t a story to just be seen through the interpreted imagination of a reader. Throughout all his travels, he had been compiling video footage of life on the road. There wasn’t a story to be written. It was a story that had to be seen. First hand.

Using his video archive as a basis, he starting from the ground up recording new footage. Talking directly to Roadies; helping his peers to open up to the camera, so he could capture the film in reality. In the life that it is lived, not just as it could be filmed. He knew the business first hand. He knew the life first hand. He had lived that life. His production would be at a level never infiltrated or presented. Without this bonding of a brotherhood he shared, this film and other related projects could never have happened. But they have.

ROADIE INTERVIEWS MONTE A. MELNICK