Jesse Sandler
Incredible Mentor
L Bon Jovi in Gdansk, Poland © Allison Harvey
“
Like father, like son. You don’t have to ask Jesse to get it done; it already is done. From New York to South Africa, Bulgaria to Australia, whether it was our stadium stage or our arena stage or a local stage in an exotic locale, I never had to worry it wouldn’t be sturdy or on time. Congrats Jesse! You deserve the atta boy...”
Jon Bon Jovi
Calculated Risk
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orking a few one-off shows as a PA tech for Clair Brothers in New York during the following summer, Sandler again picked up skills by simply watching more experienced roadies. But in August 2000, a place on Bon Jovi’s European stadium tour became free. “I was basically the last guy in the audio crew,” Sandler says. “I didn’t want to screw up or embarrass Rocky, but at the same time I had no idea what a European tour meant, so I just turned up and followed everyone else. But that started a real relationship with Clair Brothers and I turned out to be a pretty good audio tech.” Still plugged into the Bon Jovi grapevine, Sandler learned that the production assistant from their previous tour had not returned and he decided to take the bull by the horns. “My initial though was to call up Bugzee [Hougdahl], even though I didn’t know him well. So instead I called their head rigger Mike Farese to say I was interested in the gig. Bugzee agreed to try me out, so I called Clair and told them that I quit, because I realised that if I didn’t grasp the opportunity, it might never come back. So in 2002, I went out with Bon Jovi as production assistant.” Sandler admits it was a steep learning curve. “I’d done a few Mellencamp tours, but Bon Jovi didn’t compare to a Mellencamp tour at all – it was a major step up to the next level and I quickly realised there were a ton of things I didn’t know. But my attitude was just to get in there and do it and I soon found out there was no better place to learn.”
uckily, working with Bugzee turned out to be a fantastic move. “We hit it off straight away and Bugzee has ended up being like a second father to me,” Sandler says. “We share the same birthday (8 January) which maybe explains why we get on so well. I think the next tour we were on together was Prince’s Musicology in 2004. Certainly, persuading Bugzee to take me on was the single greatest thing that I did to get me to where I am now.” That relationship with Bugzee extends as far as his mentor getting himself ordained so that he could tie the knot for Jesse at his wedding in April 2012. “I performed the ceremony when Jesse and Courtney were married,” Bugzee tells IQ. “It was a real honour to be asked.” And looking back on his protégé’s progression in the business, Bugzee remarks, “There might be a genetic edge built into him for his job, as I’m sure his dad will concur that you need a very tough skin to succeed as a production manager on a rock tour, and Harry Sandler’s hide is legendary!” Indeed, Sandler senior believes his son could not have chosen anyone better to work with. “Rocky was great in guiding Jesse along – he was really patient with him,” Harry says. “And then Bugzee took him under his wing. He could not have asked for two better people to learn the business from.” Asked why he thinks his offspring took the PM rather than TM route in the business, Harry admits, “I had Jesse working for me on a Don Henley tour which had a 12-piece gospel choir and he was the choir’s road manager. That might have been what made him move to production...” For his part, Jesse contends that his father works in the more testing side of the business. “The production side of things is a little easier because you’re dealing with the crew and gear for the most part on a daily basis. There is still artist interaction that occurs, but for the most part the production manager’s dealings with the artists are pretty straight forward in my experience.”
Building his Reputation
I
n-between working for Bon Jovi, Sandler filled in as production coordinator for the Eagles in 2005, on which Harry was also tour manager and tour director. “I toured with Stevie Nicks and Don Henley in the same year and that led to me becoming Don’s production manager for the next few years. But I always go back to Bon Jovi when they hit the road,” he states. Addressing his other production manager duties, he says, “Working with Nickelback is also great. They called and said they liked what I was doing on Bon Jovi. It was a great feeling because it validated all my hard work – it was a great compliment for a young production manager coming up in the business.” But there was one biggie that tragically got away from him. “I was doing the Michael Jackson This Is It tour,” he laments. “Bugzee was hired by AEG as production manager. At the time I was in New York enjoying life, but Bugzee called because he needed help in Los Angeles to straighten things out. So I was lucky enough to be in rehearsals for a few weeks. But there were two Bon Jovi shows scheduled for July, so I went out for those and was supposed to go back to Jackson when they were done, but tragically Michael passed away.”
Bugzee and Jesse Munich 2008
IQ Magazine January 2014
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