Ask for the Gig You Want: Kevin Glendinning on SNL, Super Bowls, and 25 Years on the Road

Monitor engineer Kevin “KG” Glendinning joins you live from a Roman amphitheater in Pula, Croatia: eight countries in seven days into the Lorde world tour…and he’s got the receipts. You’ll hear how fifteen trips through the SNL stage started with a Carson Daly taping, why the rooms that treat you well are the rooms you remember, and what happens when a 32-year veteran finally plugs in a source expander and realizes the “new guys” were right. That’s the through-line: always be learning, always be open-minded, and never let a get-off-my-lawn attitude about new tech be the reason your phone stops ringing. Then it gets into the real in-ear monitor conversations: recreating a Celestion cab with a 2.6mm armature, the one-ear trick that quietly costs Adam Levine and John Mayer another 25% of volume, and why ear fatigue deserves the same respect a pitcher gives his arm.

The road stories land hard from there. Super Bowl XLV in Dallas with snow, the Black Eyed Peas, and a lesson in letting the pros run their own show. Red Rocks (aka “Wet Rocks”) and why a mountain full of shuttle trucks is worth every minute. A locked-up console mid-residency and telling Christina Aguilera the audio will come back, all while genuinely hoping it would. A charter plane struck by lightning over the Amazon, an emergency landing at a decommissioned airfield, and waking up to the news about Taylor Hawkins. Plus the covert phone call that became seven years with Justin Timberlake, and the soft ask years earlier that made it happen. Rehearse enough that nerves turn into muscle memory, thank the people who opened doors for you, ask for the gig you want…and Always Be Performing.

00:00:00 Gig Gab 549 – Monday, August 31st, 2026

August 31st: Eat Outside Day

Guest co-host: Kevin Glendinning

00:02:38 Pula, Croatia. 8 countries in 7 days

00:04:36 SNL stage for The Deftones with the Carson Daly show

00:06:20 Making an impression on touring musicians with

00:08:35 Always be learning about the new tech

Learning from the “new” guys

Neve 5045 Primary Source Expander

Waves PSE Plugin