John Legend - Mobile Production Pro

Personnelby Michael A. beckTravis ColemanFrom Audio Trucksto Fire TrucksAbout a year and a halfago, my wife Carolyn wokeme up in the middle ofthe night in a good deal physicaldistress. Without going into a greatdetail, suffice it to say that the nightended with the local EMS folkscoming out to the house and gettingher to the hospital.During all of the commotion of gettingCarolyn examined and onto the gurney,one of the five guys who responded to thecall looked at our coffee table and sawa stack of (Tour Guide) magazines andasked what they were. I told him about thepublication, and he showed more than apassing interest. I quickly inquired abouthis interest and he gave me the last answerI would have ever expected.It turns out that this firefighter namedTravis Coleman toured for several yearswith Showco before it became part of themonolithic Clair Brothers Audio Systems.In light of the more critical issues at hand,we didn’t take much time to discuss this atlength. But I did hang onto the notion thatthis might be a pretty interesting story. Ittook a while, but I finally wandered over tothe nearby firehouse and caught up withColeman.When he was in high school Travis had twothings that pretty much locked his touringfuture into an inevitable reality. He had afascination with all things electronic, andhe had an uncle who owned a small soundcompany. By the time Travis graduatedfrom high school his interest in audiotechnology had festered into a full blowncareer decision. So he went to Full SailUniversity and got a job with Showco uponreceiving his degree. He then wasted notime making a name for himself becomingone of the youngest crew chiefs (18 yearsold) Showco had at the time.During his five years with Showco Travislogged serious touring time with suchnames as Brooks and Dunn, Moody Blues,Smashing Pumlins, Joe Satriani and VinceGill. “I was touring 300 hundred days ayear back then andloved every minuteof it,” Travis said,“But things had tochange. I was aboutto get married and Iknew that it wouldn’tbe a very happymarriage if Iwas going to begone all the time.”Eventually Travisblew out his knee ona Vince Gill tour andsaw that as a perfecttime to hang up hisspurs. He beganworking for his father’slog cabin constructionfirm (Coleman LogHomes) where he grew upand still lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia. BlueRidge is a small town of 25,000 peoplelocated about 90 miles north of Atlantathat has an interesting demographicgroup; there are roughly 60 professionalfirefighters who live there but come intoAtlanta and its surrounding areas to work.While working for his father’s companyTravis had a chance encounter thatchanged everything. “After I had surgeryon my knee I was working with my dadand one of his guys was a GwinnettCounty firefighter.” He explained, “We gotto talking and I told him that I’d like to behome a lot more and he said, ‘come workwith us at the fire department.’ So I askedhim what he does and we talked a littlemore and I went and hung with him for acouple days. I put my application in and sixmonths later I got the call.”He started working for the Fire departmentin late 2000. Not long after that the worldchanged and though the attacks of 911took place some 850 miles away fromBlue Ridge, it affected firefighters all overthe country in a very unique way. Nowit wasn’t just about the usual things onemight have associated with the job. Therewas a new world of threats out there andwith it, a new level of seriousness, as if thejob wasn’t serious enough.As he was explaining this entire onequestion was burning a hole in my head.Finally I couldn’t wait any further. “Nowthat you are in the very serious businessof saving people’s lives and property doyou have a different opinion the touringworld? Does it seem almost frivolous bycomparison?”“Not at all.” He responded without anyhesitation, “Because of the work I do, theentertainment business is more importantto me than ever before. I work 24 hours onand 48 hours off. You need that much timeto decompress after a shift. I think it’s vitalto have an escape and entertainment is thatplace.”After nine years as a firefighter (two inGwinnett County in seven in CherokeeCounty) Travis hasn’t lost his tie tothe audio world or his work ethic. Inaddition to the work he does with thefire department, he also owns an audiocompany called Blue Ridge Sound basedout of Tucker, Georgia that works all overthe east coast from Florida to New York.One of the aspects of the company is thathe is a Meyer Sound dealer. An interestingside note is that his uncle, Rick Coleman,(you know, the guy that enticed him intothe business in the first place) is now theSoutheastern Sales Rep. for Meyer Sound.8 mobile production monthly