The End Of Tour: Onto The Next Adventure

Thoughts from my hotel in London.

Hello everybody! How’s everyone holding up out there? I am currently writing to you from London on a sunny Friday morning while listening to The Clash on a little turntable & admiring a stunning view of the Marble Arch from my hotel room. And yes, you heard correctly: it’s sunny in the UK. The fine folks at Hard Rock Hotel London were gracious enough to put me up (or put up with me) while I spend some extra solo time in London before heading onto my next adventure. You might be asking yourself, “Aren’t you going home? Tour is over, Nick.” I’m not going home quite yet. I’ll save that for upcoming Substack posts.

Thanks to Hard Rock Hotel London for having me.

Marble Arch. This view is unreal from Hard Rock London.

It’s been such an incredible few days here in London recharging my batteries, roaming around the city, loving Hyde Park, and drinking copious amounts of coffee along the way. I should rewind a bit though. We played our last show of the tour in Glasgow and what an amazing way for us to finish off the run. Scotland always brings their A-game and the show on Tuesday was nothing short of that. I realized after leaving Glasgow that I forgot to eat haggis while I was there! I will spare you the ingredients of what haggis is comprised of, for you will have to consult Google on that one.

Anyways, I had spoken in a previous post about tour exhaustion and how it had been setting in the final week of shows. I don’t know what came over me, but I had a miraculous second wind going into that last show. I don’t know where it came from, but I’m not going to ask questions. I reckon it was the insanely awesome crowd we played to who gave me all the energy I needed. We’ll go with that.

The end of tour is always a mixed bag of emotions for me. There's the part of me that is so proud of what we’ve accomplished, but so ready to be back home, in my own bed, doing my everyday “normal” routine, and hibernating from the outside world for a bit. The other part of me gets a wee bit bummed. Not seeing my friends until the next tour. We all live in different states and Matty lives in a different country altogether. I love being onstage and meeting the amazing people who come out to our shows. I miss that a lot, as well. It’s always a bittersweet moment at the end, especially when it has been a little longer than most. The everyday human contact I have with everyone in our band and crew just get relegated to text messages, FaceTime, and sending each other DM’s of funny shit we find on the internet every day - which I still very much appreciate.

Photo: Nick Stafford

Touring is such a depleting job. And I say that in the most positive way possible. The main component; the common denominator is playing music every single night of our lives (minus those key days off, of course). That’s what we love doing. It’s what we love sharing together. Finding those very specific people to do that with has been such a long journey for me. But holy shit, I am so grateful that I found that. Expelling every ounce of energy we have for this together is kind of fucked up in the most beautiful way possible. It’s out of a shared love & passion. I was speaking to my Uber driver yesterday who had a million questions about being a touring musician. I told him it’s the best drug in the world; being onstage with my best friends, connecting with our audience, and leaving every bit of myself I possibly can on that stage every night.

You can never put a price on that.

This tour has been nothing but humbling & fucking incredible. I’ve been asked countless times throughout this run what my favorite show has been. I truly cannot pick just one. They've all had their unique standout traits and they’ve all left a positive, long-lasting mark on me. We’re already talking about our return and I couldn’t be more excited about coming back - and I haven’t even left yet!

To anyone reading this who came out to a show on this tour, I want to personally thank you for being a part of it. Every night that we got offstage, we all had the biggest smiles on our faces; truly happy. The love & support that you show us does not go unnoticed. It just feeds our passion and love for what we do even more than it already does. Your stories & your connection to us is what adds immense value to what we do. You’re a part of our family.

That is something you can never put a price on.

Much love,

Nick

Much Love Collection just dropped. Photo taken right before stage in Glasgow.

P.S. - I just dropped new limited edition Much Love jewelry + bottle opener pieces! There’s only a few left of each, so if you’re digging any of them, I suggest getting something before they’re gone!