As tour manager, Adkins is responsible for ensuring that life out on the road goes as smoothly as possible.
"There's no black and white set parameters to what my responsibilities are," he says of his duties. "They continue to change and you just have to adapt to your particular situation every day. You're expected to make the day run smooth. Any time it doesn't, it's your fault."
That isn't entirely easy when you're dealing with the unknown on a regular basis.
"With live entertainment, there's always going to be issues," Coplan says. "You're always finding solutions for problems."
Coplan works closely with Dennis and Adkins' booking agency, William Morris, to coordinate life on the road. Once he receives the tour schedule, Coplan sets up the day schedule for each show, which covers areas such as sound checks, meet and greets and media obligations. He is responsible for show reports, which detail revenues from each tour date. He also handles accounting, dishing out payroll, per diems and taking care of all the bills while the crew is traveling. He also coordinates all of the travel arrangements, which are mostly by bus.
"When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing," he recalls. "It was all self-taught. I create my own systems and automate as much as I can. I try to use technology to help me work less. 90 percent of my work is done before I step foot on the bus to get to that show. It's done through phone conversations and emails and then on the day of the show, I'm just making sure everything is running smooth at that point and putting out the little fires that might pop up."
Coplan says that he takes pride in having built this current road crew from the ground up. Out of the 18 members of the team, he has hired all but one of them. He says that he is required to wear many hats on a regular basis.
"I'm almost like a psychologist at times," he says. "I've got 18 guys out on the road that I'm responsible for. With that comes 18 different personalities and different problems. You're always trying to find solutions for conflict. You have to make sure everyone gets along and everything moves along on schedule."
Coplan's crew uses three tour buses while out on the road. Adkins' seven-member band takes up one bus, and the crewmembers take up the second bus. That leaves Coplan and Adkins to share the last bus to themselves. Those alone times are an opportunity for Coplan to learn how to make life on the road easier for Adkins.
"You develop an intimate relationship of sorts," he says. "My job is also to anticipate and realize what he's going to need and what he expects, so you only get that by familiarity with somebody.
"It's a unique relationship. I try with my artists to keep it on a professional level, but at the same time, it's different from any other type of profession, because anyone that works in an office 9 to 5, at 5 o'clock they leave their boss and they go home. Out on the road, there is no getting away from your boss. He and I share a bus, we live together. He spends more time with me in a year than he does with his wife over the course of the same year."
As for the future, Coplan has thoughts of someday moving into artist management or working for a record label in the hometown that he rarely sees. He is thankful for the many friendships that he has developed over the years all across the world. A self-proclaimed food fanatic, he considers himself lucky to be able to taste each region's delicacies and specialties. He has seen every state in the U.S. except for Hawaii and Alaska, every province in Canada, and close to ten different countries over the years. And he says that he has no desire to slow down any time soon.
"I've always stuck with an artist as long as possible if it all works," he says. "I kind of evaluate it year by year, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing right now. The level that I'm touring with Trace is pretty good. As far as travel now, it's pretty comfortable."
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