Bill Blackwell on 50 Years as Bob Seger's Tour Manager | Living for the City Full Interview

Bill Blackwell has been Bob Seger's tour manager for 50 years, a career that puts him at the center of Detroit's rock and roll story from the sock hops of the late 1960s through stadium tours decades later. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Blackwell traces Seger's regional grind, driving through the night to play shows in Florida for a broken record. He recounts the electric night Live Bullet was recorded at Cobo Hall, and the Pontiac Silverdome show that turned 80 people in Chicago into 80,000 fans almost overnight. He talks about the vanished Detroit venues that shaped the city's live music scene, and his own start as a college entertainment director booking Ted Nugent and the Pretty Things. And he explains why Seger always closed the show, even when Peter Frampton's team pushed for top billing weeks before Frampton Comes Alive turned Frampton into a superstar.

He also tells the story of the Canadian customs officer who pulled him and Seger off a routine border crossing just to get his Live Bullet album autographed. He remembers caddying for Seger's celebrity golf round with Tiger Woods at the Buick Open. And he explains how a 90-minute soundcheck before every single show became the standard, one that never changed no matter how big the tours got.

CHAPTERS

00:25 - First Time Seeing Bob Seger: The 1969 Sock Hop and the Regional Grind

03:33 - Recording Live Bullet at Cobo Hall and the Night That Changed Everything

06:41 - The Work Ethic: 90-Minute Soundchecks and "Making It Right for the Fans"

10:09 - Detroit's Lost Venues and the College Booking Days

13:56 - Staying Rooted in Detroit: Auto Worker Paydays and "The Fans Own 80 to 85% of the Setlist"

18:31 - Golfing With Tiger Woods at the Buick Open

23:11 - The Frampton Negotiation and a Drummer's Emergency Flight

25:33 - December 1975: The Month Everything Changed