Lonnie Stoner Profile

The Hardest Working Stoner in Eugene
The “Blurse” of the Man, the Music and the Industry
By Alison Chriss

Step inside and instantly see the visually bombarding, personal Hall of Fame, covering the biggest wall of his home. Look closely and see his face coming out of Gene Simmons ass in one photo, another of him four people away from Dave Matthews, one with his arm around local radio-lady, Downtown Deb, and another with close, personal friends, the Zen Tricksters. He may just be the hardest working Stoner in Eugene, Oregon. Dubbed by the Barenaked Ladies as “The Best Name in Rock and Roll,” Lonnie Stoner, roadie-extraordinaire and video technician sits amidst the hidden talent of the city. He returns home to rejoin his life in progress, as he says, and claims Eugene is also where, “I come to lick my wounds.”
Stoner sits on his couch with his long, gray, stringy hair tied back behind him, wearing black cargo pants, boots and a plain, inconspicuous t-shirt peering through his glasses at his huge flat screen and watching the final product of his video work with Mariah Carey. He jokes about Carey’s stylist telling him what shampoo to use. Then he talked about being home saying that, for him, Eugene is just the place to be. Originally from California, he was drawn to the area for the annual Country Fair. By the time he left, he said “Yep, this is where I’m comin’.” He says his stuff has been in Eugene for about three years, but he’s only really been here for about a year and a half, on and off. The rest of his time has been spent on the road with musicians and a who’s who of random celebrities. He refers to his life in the industry a “Blurse,” which he describes as both a blessing and a curse.
Puff Daddy spat Cristal in his face and Brad Pitt requested where to get condoms from him – with a spit clause in his contract and safe-sex knowledge, he has toured the world with and recorded the epic and crazy moments of Eminem, Journey, Heart, Cheap Trick and The Who, to name a few. His collaged walls and collection of concert DVD’s with his name racing by in the credits, serve as proof of his proximity to fame, but leave out the amazing tale of just how he got there.
“I was one of those kids that got yelled at for watching too much TV, and all I can tell parents is, ‘Hey, bear with your kids because they will get something out of it,’” he said. As a teenager he would sneak out at night to work the graveyard shift at a local radio station. He was in the military for three years, where he received his GED. According to Stoner, the military contributed to helping him prepare for the regimen of the whole “get up and do it again.” He moved into radio promotion as he joined the Bill Graham organization, not to be confused with the Evangelist, Billy Graham, working with him for 12 years.
Stoner called Bill Graham quite the promoter and said he was a great inspiration to him. Graham is credited with setting the standard for large-scale, well-produced rock shows and he connected Stoner with The Pretenders, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Jesus Jones and countless others for a few shows or a leg of a tour. He worked as a production assistant until Bill Graham died in 1991, leaving an absence and loss of a strong figure in Stoner’s life. After Graham’s death, he said, “I kicked around for about a year and did anything and everything I possibly could do that wasn’t involved with music.”
Anything and everything included being a cab driver for a few years, but he said, “Everything I’ve done has always come back to music.” This inevitably led him to a friend who owned a tour and video warehouse. Stoner said he made a “tacky comment” about how unorganized the facility was and he was hired to fix it, spending three years as a “warehouse rat.” He explained his frustration during his tenure at the warehouse: “I kept watching Tina Turner go out the door; Paul McCartney went out the door, all these tours that they were doing and constantly promising me, promising me, then finally I quit,” he said, “and then I got Kiss.” Working with Kiss, he explained, “That was basically my college. Doin’ Kiss for five years I could basically go just about anywhere I wanted in the video business…only because it was like surviving a war. I was still mentally intact, sort of.”
During his five year position with Kiss, Stoner was on his way to bachelor-hood, divorcing his wife, from which he adopted his wonderful last name. He says it’s never too late to reinvent yourself, and since he was born without knowing who his father was, the name on his birth certificate was fictitious to him. “It’s a name that doesn’t exist with anything,” he explained. When he met, fell in love with and married Mary Anne Stoner, her father became more of a father to him than any other male in his life. He thought, “Hey, why can’t I? She can take my name so why can’t I take hers?” And he took it, and kept it.
Post-Kiss, applying for other “roadie” positions became much easier. During an interview for a job he applied for, he said, “The guy paused after I told him I did Kiss for five years and he said, ‘Oh my God, are you ok?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he goes, ‘Ok, how soon can you start?” With new jobs at his disposal he continued to grow professionally and expand his video education and capabilities. With no previous, formal training, just a love of video and music, he explained, “It’s not that I know what a good shot is, so much as I know what a bad shot is.” He continued, “You can look at any television and you know when something is being presented to you as an art form or whether it’s just being thrown at you.”
Stoner most recently returned to home from working on the Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick Tour. Other great acts on his resume, and some featured on his wall, include Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and the Dave Matthews Band. He’s worked with a few other rap acts including, Fat Joe, for whom he contributed to a video, and Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim, who he witnessed get into a “knock-down drag-out dispute.” He also worked at Lollapalooza and the Tibetan Freedom Fest, which is where he met and spoke with Brad Pitt.
At the Tibetan Freedom Fest, “My job was to sit backstage with the stationary camera,” he said, “And they would bring people in to interview them; I was the sound guy.” He explained that Brad Pitt had just started dating Jennifer Aniston and at one point during the middle of the interview, they stop and take a break and “He leans in and he asks me my name and if I know where to get any condoms,” said Stoner. “Knowing that there was a safe sex booth, Planned Parenthood thing right down the row I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be back in a minute’ and I went and got him some condoms. I tell the story to my friends at home and they’re like ‘Yeah, sure.’ About a week later, headlines of the National Inquirer said ‘Brad Pitt Seeks Condoms at Tibetan Freedom Fest and Can’t Find Them.’ Now, I myself wanted to call and say ‘Hello! Get your story straight because I’m the one who gave them to him.’”
Stoner has many backstage tales but admits, “A lot of it I’ve forgotten about; the short attention span helps. There are very few tours where you don’t have at least one meltdown,” he said. Although it can be a tough, arduous working environment, being a roadie affords him a unique brand of luxury. He admits it can be a lonely life and he can’t really keep relationships with a significant other, but touring gives him the opportunity to come home to Eugene and do whatever he wants to do, even if it’s more video work.
It’s hard for him to find a local job, as he says there’s not a whole lot of video stuff outside of sports in Eugene. He works with the theatrical stagehand union locally, recently working as an electrician for the Hult Center’s production of Annie. “Realistically, in this business, unless you have a job already lined up that’s the next step – you’re looking for another job,” he said. “Fortunately, there are hundreds of bands out there.”
In terms of industry insight he says, “You make damn good money when you’re on the road but you have to balance it because when you come home, you’re not making anything,” he said. “You have to be able to support whatever you have going on at home.” However, he stressed that “If you’re chasing the dollar sign, you’re probably in the business for the wrong reason.” Stoner said his reason for being a part of the business is, “I loved going to concerts, but I didn’t like paying for tickets,” he said.
Besides the perks of free shows, he elaborates on music being such a huge part of his life. He explains that the music drives him, opens new doors, and keeps him going. The music is his motivation. He said, “I guess the thing that I love about music is its universal – no matter where you go, there’s a sound there’s a noise, there’s a resonance. Music does soothe the savage beast; it’s an infinite thing, it’s always been here and will always be here.”
Knowing that music is the constant in his life, Stoner reflects on where it will take him next. “I just gotta try everything ‘til I find something I jive with,” he said, “I still don’t feel like I’ve found it.” While looking, his next move is exploring a new area of video; he will be shifting over to director soon. He directed some of the filming for Heart but hasn’t been credited, which has happened with other past projects as well. This year he’s pushing to become a “fledgling director,” as he calls it. Meanwhile, he enjoys being home. He visits friends, shares souvenirs, and continues to plaster his walls and photo album pages with concert paraphernalia.
For now, he said, “I’m on a list of fresh meat that knows how to curl a cable; they call me and ask if I’m available, and when I’m not working, I call them and say, ‘I’m available.’” The two-way street, as he explains, of being on the list of availability, got him a job on tour with Keith Urban again. Cherishing his last moments off the road, he’s ready and excited to get back to work.
After all he’s seen and done, Stoner says he lives just one minute at a time and one day at a time, and that “It’s not twelve steps, its life.” His life has taken him from the bottom to the top with music as his inspiration and the driving factor for his occupation. With aspirations of video directing, his next steps are sure to create even more legendary stories, pictures and media to fill his Eugene home. For now, he’s “On the road again…”