Current:Home > InvestTaylor Swift gives Eras Tour truck drivers $100,000 bonuses, handwritten letters of appreciation -MoneyMatrix
Taylor Swift gives Eras Tour truck drivers $100,000 bonuses, handwritten letters of appreciation
View
Date:2025-04-15 02:07:24
There's no bad blood between Taylor Swift and the people driving the trucks carrying the equipment for her tour: Swift recently gifted every driver a $100,000 bonus.
Swift gave drivers the bonus ahead of finishing the U.S. leg of her The Eras Tour, which has been touring the country since March.
Two companies, Upstaging Inc. and Shomotion LLC, are in charge of transporting Swift's equipment for the tour, including the stage, lights, guitars, microphones, speakers and more.
Mike Scherkenbach, the CEO of Shomotion, told USA TODAY that the drivers were called into a production meeting where they assumed the topic of conversation would be the tour schedule. The last shows of the U.S. leg of the tour are coming up, with Swift performing in Los Angeles over the next week before heading to Mexico at the end of the month.
More on the tour:Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour surprise songs plus what she sang with Haim
Instead, the drivers were surprised by Swift's father, Scott Swift.
'A life-changing sum'
"Scott gave a short speech and said how much he appreciated the service and what they've done for the tour for the last 24 weeks," Scherkenbach said. "They've been out there nonstop, the men and women that drive for us have been away from their families for 24 weeks."
Then, each driver was given a letter that the singer had handwritten and addressed to the individual thanking them for their service during the tour. The amount of the bonus was included at the bottom of the letter, but some drivers didn't pay it much attention, Scherkenbach said.
"The funny part is, they just glanced at the letter quickly and didn't look at the amount, so one driver read it as $1,000, another driver read it as $10,000. And then another driver said, 'Oh, this has to be a joke. $100,000?' which then made the other ones reopen their letters," he said.
While Scherkenbach said he could not disclose the exact number of truck drivers or trucks that were included in the bonuses for safety reasons, the money is greatly appreciated by everyone involved.
"It's a life-changing sum of money for somebody to be able to become a homeowner and for drivers that have children are starting at the age that they're going off to college. It's a game changer," he said.
The Swift quake:Taylor Swift's Seattle concert caused the ground to shake like a small earthquake
He added that it's a group effort to get a production like Swift's tour up and running every weekend in spots across the country.
"It's a small city that moves all different disciplines from lighting technicians and video technicians and guitar technicians, all these little disciplines that come together to create this massive production, down to the chefs and catering and pastry chefs and it's no small feat what goes into putting out a production of this magnitude," he said.
As the show moves toward the end of its run in the U.S., Scherkenbach said his team is looking forward to the future. The company will continue to move Swift's equipment while she is performing in Mexico, with dates in Mexico City on Aug. 24, 25, 26 and 27.
"We never expected our staff to receive any bonus of this [magnitude]. We were just grateful to be part of what we think will be a record-breaking tour on all fronts," Scherkenbach said. "We've only been to North America. It's now heading into Mexico, and then South America and Europe, so this is just the start."
Upstaging, Inc. and Swift's representatives did not respond immediately to USA TODAY's request for comment.
Post-concert blues:What post-concert sadness means for people with depression and the healthy ways to cope
veryGood! (3484)
Related
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Sister Wives' Christine Brown Says She's So Blessed After Wedding to David Woolley
- Bills LB Matt Milano sustains knee injury in 1st-quarter pileup, won’t return vs Jaguars
- A healing culture: Alaska Natives use tradition to battle influx of drugs, addiction
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- A former Goldman Sachs banker convicted in looting 1MDB fund back in Malaysia to help recover assets
- New York, New Jersey leaders condemn unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel
- An autopsy rules that an Atlanta church deacon’s death during his arrest was a homicide
- Moving abroad can be expensive: These 5 countries will 'pay' you to move there
- Sister Wives' Christine Brown Says She's So Blessed After Wedding to David Woolley
Ranking
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- UK Supreme Court weighs if it’s lawful for Britain to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda
- Food Network Star Michael Chiarello Dead at 61
- Jobs report shows payrolls grew by 336K jobs in September while unemployment held at 3.8%
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Luxembourg’s coalition under Bettel collapses due to Green losses in tight elections
- Heavy flooding in southern Myanmar displaces more than 10,000 people
- The auto workers’ strike enters its 4th week. The union president urges members to keep up the fight
Recommendation
Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes bill aimed at limiting the price of insulin
Carlos Correa stars against former team as Twins beat Astros in Game 2 to tie ALDS
Simone Biles wins something more important than medals at world championships
See you latte: Starbucks plans to cut 30% of its menu
US demands condemnation of Hamas at UN meeting, but Security Council takes no immediate action
Hamas attack at music festival led to chaos and frantic attempts to escape or hide
Michael B. Jordan, Steve Harvey hug it out at NBA game a year after Lori Harvey breakup