Julia Logan - CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the singer-songwriter, Julia Logan, shares one of her stories from being on the road. You can check out the story below:

I haven’t been on many tours, but my friend Olof Grind (aka Luminous Kid) asked me if I wanted to go on tour with him, opening for Swedish artist Iamamiwhoami (Ionna Lee) on her U.S. and Canada tour. He asked me when we randomly met at a concert, and with the U.S. visas and all, he realized I had an American passport, so it would be easy for me to tag along.

It was a very low-budget tour, and Olof had rented a family van from Turo for the west-side portion of the shows. So far, the tour had been smooth sailing—no missed flights, trains, or car troubles—yet.

We were driving through the beautiful surroundings of Oregon, listening to music in the car and just having a great time on our way to our gig in Portland. We stayed in a Twin Peaks-style hotel in the mountains with a jacuzzi in the middle of the room and old DVDs to watch movies—it was wild. The next day, we stopped in a small town and visited some second-hand shops. At the last store we went to, I found a box with old vinyl, and to my utter surprise, I found a signed Joni Mitchell Court and Spark album. It was only $4! I went up to the counter and stupidly asked if the clerk knew it was signed. Obviously, I shouldn’t have said anything—she could have increased the price or sold it for thousands of dollars—but she just shrugged and said she didn’t know.

With my $4 signed Joni Mitchell album in hand, we were en route to Portland. We were driving downhill in slow traffic, and it was only a 10-minute drive to the venue. As I was driving the car on the highway, I felt it slowly shutting down. We were lucky to be in the outer lane, so I could swerve to the right. There was something wrong with the electricity in the car, and the only way to open the back doors was with the car key. We had to carry all of our gear and belongings from the back to the front door and out onto the curb.

I also had an ear infection at this point and was talking on the phone with my family doctor to get medicine between soundcheck and the concert. It was a strange experience ordering an Uber from the highway—the drivers kept canceling because they didn’t believe we were actually there. Finally, I got in touch with a driver who believed us. It turned out he was a radio DJ in Portland back in the day, so we had a good chat.

We arrived late to soundcheck, with no idea how we would get to Seattle the next day. After the gig, we booked an Uber back to our hotel; the towing company still hadn’t picked up our car from the highway. Apparently, everyone in Portland knew about it, as the Uber driver asked if our van was white and on the side of the highway. He said he had passed it a few times that day.

Moral of the story: don’t rent a family van from a guy named Logan. The car proceeded to break down again a week later.

Keep up with Julia Logan on her Instagram, TikTok, website, and Facebook.