Zak Downtown – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the hip-hop artist, Zak Downtown, talks about some of his crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

I was the opening act on The Chainsmokers’ “Friendzone Tour,” so we weren’t getting paid very much. It was me, my DJ, tour manager, and photographer. So we were trying to cut some costs and stay in cheaper hotels.

We were doing a show in Royal Oak, MI and we get to our hotel and it’s on 9-mile road. Initially, I’m thinking, “Cool, this is right where Eminem grew up.” We check in and we’re on the ground floor facing the road and the door to my room looks like the lock had been broken 5 times. I’m in one room with my DJ and we’re slightly grossed out, but we’re both like, “We do this all the time, we’re barely going to be here and we’ve done worse.”

All of a sudden, we hear a crazy bang noise and look out the window and see a car crash and people start yelling. Five minutes later, there’s 20 kids on BMX bikes circling around the parking lot looking extra shady. Cop cars start coming.

My photographer and tour manager come to our room and we’re like, “Yeah, this is crazy!” The room gets silent and I could tell we’re all like, “Fuck! We don’t want to stay here, we may die.” So, I say, “Fuck it” and I’m like, “Let’s go stay in the Metro City hotel,” which is the giant casino hotel. I booked us a giant suite cause I felt bad even dragging the guys to that shit hole.

Sure enough, after the show, I’m hammered in the casino start playing roulette and end up winning $3,000. Ended up paying for the room and more. Lesson learned on when and where to try and save money

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