Walker Lukens – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the singer-songwriter, Walker Lukens, talks about some of his crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

The time we played Prince’s wake, sort of.

On April 21, 2016, I woke up very early on a floor in Omaha where a cat had peed a long time ago and no one had dealt with it. I did not shower. We went to a diner. We went to a sex shop. I drank too much coffee. Typical tour time-killing activities for Walker Lukens & The Side Arms. That night, we were playing at 1st Avenue & 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis so we had to get on the road.

When I started getting texts from friends saying ‘omg Prince,’ ‘dude omg,’ I assumed that they’d seen that we were playing at 1st Ave that night and were excited for me because I’m such a huge Prince fan. Prince was not an actual human to me. He didn’t eat or sleep or drink coffee or get into silly fights with his girlfriend about where to have dinner (although obviously had sex….) He didn’t feel bad about not picking up his dog’s shit or worry if he’d missed a spot when shaving. I think that is how Prince wanted it…to be otherworldly. When he died, he became human to me all at once. Now, I don’t believe in fate and I’m not superstitious. But, let’s say for the sake of argument, that I’m having a manic episode or I’m a record label looking for a way to market my music and am trying to look back on when I received my magical musical gifts (let’s also assume for the sake of argument that I have otherworldly musical talent.) Perhaps it was on April 21st when I drove into the Twin Cities to play a show and that show happened to turn into a wake for my hero, Prince.

Every radio station between Omaha and Minneapolis was playing his music. Every. Single. One. I got a trial subscription to Tidal so we could listen to this catalog. We learned ‘Kiss’ in the car. I don’t remember eating lunch or dinner or stopping for coffee. There were literally thousands of people mobbing 1st Avenue by the time we arrived. multiple parade-style trucks drove by with tribute bands. We parked the van in the 1st Ave private garage next to Prince’s reserved spot. The entire staff was wearing purple.

1st Avenue had announced that there would be an all night dance party after the Corey Taylor show in the big room. Corey Taylor a.k.a lead singer of Slipknot. Imagine 1500 nu metal fans trying to leave at the same time as 10,000 people try to get in line to be there for the dance party. Madness. A local news reporter danced on the roof of the station van as she reported the happenings.

Our set was a blur. Our haphazard “kiss’ cover was well received. Afterward, I talked to the bass player from Mumford & Sons who was in town and at the show? After we loaded out, we danced for a few hours with the lucky 1500 who made it in The DJ played ‘Sexy M.F.’ two times in a row by mistake and no one cared. We had a Daytrotter session in Davenport, Iowa in the early afternoon so we left 1st Ave around 3 a.m. and drove all night. I didn’t drive, I slept. Others drove.

On April 22, 2016, I woke up in Davenport to the sound of a bunch of strangers tapping on the windows. The windows were tinted. I had no clothes on and they were trying to peak in. The first thing I listened to was one of the music journalists on NPR reading a tearful tribute. I didn’t shower. We went to a diner…

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(Photo credit: Chris Corona)