How we 
came to be

Hello, I am Erika Pinkley, the Founder and President of the newly formed nonprofit, TheRoadie Family Foundation. In the touring industry, many nonprofits help touring roadie crews, specifically regarding their mental health and medical needs from the road and beyond. While those are important to the well-being of the industry crew, there is yet another unmet challenge to roadies. It’s the reason I started this nonprofit.

 

Roadies are sometimes and unexpectedly called home, whether for illness, a funeral, or afamily tragedy. It’s a journey that’s never easy for anyone, especially for someone thousands of miles away from home. The roadie must get themself home – and later back on the job. Adding to that stress is the additional responsibility of finding your replacement, funding their travel path to wherever you are, and putting them up in a hotel. There’s no fund or nonprofit for any of that. The road tour crew member must foot that bill—all of it. On a personal note, in 2018, my husband, a 26-year veteran of the touring industry, received one of those calls that we all dread. My mother lost her battle with cancer, and he needed to get home, and that meant he also needed a replacement. He, and not the industry, was required to find that person as well as get himself home. Immediately after hanging up with me, he started making dozens of phone calls and sending endless texts to find his relief and get home.

 

Just then, something amazing happened. Fellow crew within earshot of my husband opened billfolds without hesitation. Knowing the bind these emergencies create, they handed him whatever cash they had. My husband heard, “It’s not much, but please let me help get you home,” and, “Last minute airline tickets are a fortune, here, let me help,” and “When you’re ready to rejoin us, I hope this makes your way back to us.” Years later, we had other tragedies when my husband had appendicitis on the road, and again when his father died mid-tour. As horrifying as those events were, I knew we were not alone. We, like other roadies, faced exorbitant costs to get home and back to the tour. These episodes were the early seeds for The Roadie Family Foundation.

 

There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of over-the-road touring crew out, day and night, all year. They come with countless stories of crew who need to temporarily vacate positions to handle family matters, whatever the cost. That is where The Roadie Family Foundation comes in. This nonprofit will build a community wallet, or piggy bank if you will, to help. With potential donations from fellow roadies, artists, industry leaders, and general music-loving fans, we will help relieve the financial burdens of the road crew members when they must temporarily leave.