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Just One of the Guys: Life as a Female Guitar Tech

(from Planet Verge issue 13)

By Joelle Caputa

Most kids living in middle America are caught in a small town trap with dreams of breaking out. Alicia Simmons not only managed to break free of the boredom-filled town of Grain Valley, Missouri that she grew up in, but has been traveling the world ever since with a six string in her hand. 

Twenty-one year old Simmons spends about eight to ten months out of the year on the road, working as a guitar tech. Yes, a girl guitar tech. Got a problem with that?

As a child, Simmons often watched her musician father perform.  When she was 11 years-old, she began playing nonstop and really started playing for herself. “My parents used to ground me from my guitar/bass when I was in trouble. It was pretty hilarious,” she says.

When her friend’s bands rolled into town, Simmons offered a helping hand at the shows.  “Eventually they realized I wasn’t just fucking around, and knew what I was doing and would offer to bring me out on tour to work. First for free (which is not easy), then the pay goes up from there. It was a slow process.”

Since she began, Simmons has been on the road with Avenged Sevenfold, Fall Out Boy, Straylight Run, Evanescence, and The Transplants. She even took the stage herself, playing bass with From First to Last until the end of 2005.  “They're my family, and I love them to little pieces can never thank them enough for giving me that experience,” she raves.

It may seem like all play and little work to tune guitars for a living, but Simmons has survived a three month trek through musical hell for it--Warped Tour. “It’s probably the hardest thing any human can go through,” she explains.  “It’s the most grueling thing ever. Everyday seems like the worst one yet. I don't really recommend it to many people. Sure, it’s all fine and dandy. You get to hang out with so many bands in the parking lot at the end of the night, and some of those people will be people you really look up to and can’t even believe you have the opportunity to meet them. But honestly, you are more concerned about being in your bus in the air conditioning or taking a shower than giving two shits about who's hanging out where and on what bus. Trust me, its not all fun and games. At all.”

Females on Warped Tour have something in addition to deal with.  “A lot of dudes and chicks are lonely on that tour, and are all about summer lovin’ and 90% of girls on the tour end up seeing someone by the end. It’s a long three months to spend alone.  It’s natural, people. You’re gonna put 20 girls with 600 guys, good luck staying single even if it is a summer fling.  I’ll tell you straight up... If you stay to yourself the whole tour and just befriend everyone and not hook up with anyone, at the end of the tour, everyone and their mom wants to be your best friend and you'll get 385,734,085 job offers. Think of it as the ultimate test. It’s tough, and a lot of days you need a shoulder to cry on. Yes, cry. If you ever end up on Warped, stay strong and it pays off.”

One would think a woman doing a “man’s job” would not be taken seriously.  But that really hasn’t happened to Simmons. “Then again, we all make fun of each other 24/7 anyway, so I don't really think it would be that strange to get some shit every now and then. The amount of inside jokes on a tour is ridiculous. I feed them just as much shit as they feed me. It’s a love/love/hate/hate relationship and I wouldn't trade it for the world.”

Touring, in fact, is the best way for her to score her next gig.  “Once you are out on the road you meet other bands, maybe the other bands on the tour with you offer you jobs or refer you to their friends and so on. It’s one big circle,” Simmons reveals.

From the days when she taught herself to play every Drain STH album from end to beginning, to today, where the roles are reversed and young girls can look up to her for inspiration, Simmons has learned a lot. On the top of that list is staying tough.  Simmons elaborates, “how to move on and put things behind you, prepare for worst case scenarios, be one of the guys, respect peoples space and belongings, pack a suitcase better than anyone else in the entire world, handle a lot of real life situations outside of touring. It’s kinda like Survival Skills 101, but all bunched into a very small chunk of time. You learn fast. You have to.”

So what’s on the agenda for the future?  “This past year, I was only home for 30 days. It was pure insanity. Hopefully, I’ll be out touring for a little bit longer, preferably playing. We'll see. I also wouldn’t mind getting into working for some magazines and/or TV shows (MTV, Fuse, etc).”

To those looking to follow in her footsteps, Simmons advises, “Stay tough girls. It’s not all as glamorous as it all may look. It’s still a real job and it’s hard. Especially when it feels like everything is going the right direction, something can happen to knock you back down to square one. Stick to it; be stubborn. It pays off. Trust me.”