Patrik Jean – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the pop artist, Patrik Jean, shares one of his stories from being on the road. You can check out the story, after the break.

A few years back I used to travel around doing various company gigs. It was a great way to save up money to be able to release my first EP since I wanted to release it on my own label. My story takes place at one of those shows. Wintertime, in a small ski resort in the north of Sweden.

This was an intimate show with just me and my guitar so the band, that usually backed me up, stayed home. As there weren’t any airports near this small town where I was playing, I had to take a coach from Stockholm. The further north we got, the more it snowed and after four hours we were in a full blizzard. Luckily we were just a 10-minute drive from the destination. But then, somewhere on a narrow road in the middle of the woods in the snowy north, the bus driver faced a slippery uphill followed by a tight left curve. I felt him stepping on the gas to get enough speed to make it up the hill. At that speed, however, making that left turn was impossible so he had to pull the breaks with half of the bus still standing on the slope. Eventually, we started slipping backward, down into a ditch and ended up with the bus standing on its tail in someone’s backyard.

We all climbed the seats to get out of the bus, which was stuck there until it could be towed out. I couldn’t get a hold of the booker so I decided to walk to the venue. That 10-minute drive that was left took about an hour to walk in the blizzard. But I got there.

Because of the blizzard, the PA system that the venue had booked could not be delivered. After the wild ride I experienced to get there I was determined to play my set anyways. I got help to gather all the guests in a smaller lounge in front of a fireplace. We were all squeezed together, and they had to be really quiet to hear me, but it ended up being very cozy and one of my favorite shows so far.

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