WARRANT's ROBERT MASON On Touring Lifestyle: 'The Travel Is The Only Part That Can Get On Our Nerves'

In a new interview with Larry Mac of the 96.1 KLPX radio station, WARRANT singer Robert Mason spoke about the challenges of the touring lifestyle, particularly since much of WARRANT's schedule nowadays consists of fly-in dates. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The travel is the only part, I think, that can get on our nerves. This is not like a commercial or an advertisement; it's not fantasy. That's my commute to work. So if you slug it out on the freeway with so many other people, just to get to your office or your job or wherever that is, and throughout the day you deal with that, rush hour, whatever, I wake up at two, whatever time zone I'm in, or earlier sometimes in the morning. That's when your day starts. Your alarm rings. You're, like, 'Oh.' If you're in a hotel, it's, like, shower, vans, race to an airport, hopefully get a little something to eat or relax, and then you're on a plane or two or three to either go to work or come home or to go to your next show from the last show."

He continued: "I'm not bitching by any means because I love my job — I really do love my job — but the thing that everyone else finds… This is the tie-in — the things that everyone else finds exciting, like packing your luggage, going on a trip. Like, you're going to Hawaii or you're going to whatever — you're going to Disney World or whatever you're doing, like, even growing up as a kid., those things are for a traveling salesman, which is basically what I am, those are the things that you become accustomed to that you have to do for your work. And like a delay in a flight or crap weather, and you're sitting in an airport and for how many hours before you actually get on a plane to then go to your next city, then you go there and [you check in to] a new hotel.

"I have to take cell phone pictures sometimes of the hotel door to know what room number I am," Mason admitted. "'Cause I will get in the elevator and go to floor six instead of floor eight and walk right up to my yesterday's hotel number and go, 'Oh, this is yesterday. Sorry.' And I go back to my room. It's not that I have a terrible memory, but it's that cliché of, like, 'What city am I in today to go to work?'"

"Everything runs uphill towards the culmination of your entire day, which is getting on stage," Robert added. "And as a singer, I have a little bit more maybe precaution to take, and I have to take it easy. I don't drink, and I've never been a drug guy — I was raised an athlete — and maybe that gives me somewhat of an advantage to be kind of a little bit more together by the time I have to go to work. But, yeah, man, it's funny 'cause everything leads to that… I sometimes refer to it to friends or people that don't understand your job, like, 'What do you do?' Half the time I don't wanna tell 'em, but if they ask, it's, like, the 22 and a half hours of total B.S. to get on stage for an hour and a half. And everything else is just that other time, which is hotels, a workout, the shower, warming up, show prep, all that stuff that leads up to, like I said, your day schedule from that wake-up in the morning, whenever that might be, to be able to do the flights, do the van rides, do the whatever that all leads up to, we're sitting in the dressing room and everybody's warming up and I go… I'm always looking at my watch, like, 'Eight minutes,' and that's eight minutes till the time the intro tape runs. Or Joey [Allen, WARRANT guitarist] will go, like… It's funny. He's, like, 'Mason, what time is it?' 'Cause he's been noodling and warming up, and everybody's getting ready and we're all — the five of us and very few other people, if ever… We lock down the dressing room the last little bit before the show and kind of get that last little bit of bonding and all that stuff off stage. And then we do the walkup. It all leads up to that moment where the lights go on."

This past March, Allen told the "Rimshots With Sean" podcast that there was "nothing going on" with regard to WARRANT making the follow-up to 2017's "Louder Harder Faster" album.

Last December, WARRANT guitarist Erik Turner revealed to Robert Miguel of Uvalde Radio Rocks that he and his bandmates were "not sure" what they were going to do as far as new music was concerned. "It's just been a little bit — there's just been some stuff going on where we haven't really been doing any new music," he revealed. "We have some riffs [being thrown] around. We have some half-finished songs going on. Due to some personal stuff going on, we're just kind of on hold as far as the new record goes. Nothing horrible, but just band stuff."

Three years ago, Mason told the "Thunder Underground" podcast that there wasn't "a defined schedule" for WARRANT's next studio album, but he added that he and his bandmates are "always writing."

"Louder Harder Faster" was released in May 2017. The disc was recorded with Jeff Pilson — a veteran bassist who has played with DIO, FOREIGNER, DOKKEN and T&N, among others — and was mixed by Pat Regan, except for the song "I Think I'll Just Stay Here And Drink", which was mixed by Chris "The Wizard" Collier (FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, PRONG, LAST IN LINE).

Mason replaced original WARRANT frontman Jani Lane in 2008 and has brought a degree of stability to the band after Lane's unceremonious departure and subsequent 2011 death.