Olivia Rodrigo’s guitarist has revealed that the singer paid for her whole band and crew to have therapy on their last tour.
The ‘Guts World Tour’ accompanied Rodrigo’s second studio album ‘Guts’ and ran from February 2024 up until the final show in Manchester at the start of this month, a total of 102 shows across multiple continents.
Now, Rodrigo’s guitarist Daisy Spencer has revealed that professional therapy was on offer throughout the tour for all band and crew members that was “accessible and free”, as overseen by Rodrigo herself and her tour manager Marty Hom.
“I have never had anything like that,” Spencer told The Stage Left podcast. “And that reignited the importance of therapy to me because I had just kind of fallen off for so long.”
“And then suddenly I had this free resource of incredible therapists, and I utilised the crap out of that. I was going, you know, once a week, once every other week, whenever I could. And it was even during the off time, we also still had access to this resource.”
Describing Rodrigo as “the dreamiest boss of all time”, Spencer added: “So honestly, that was one of the coolest things that has ever happened on tour. It’s not very heard of. It was the coolest thing ever.”
Mental health charity Mind have reported research that shows people working in the music industry are “more prone to mental health problems than the general population”, with musicians being “up to three times more likely to suffer from depression”. Financial pressures, isolation, lifestyle, hectic schedules and addiction are often named as factors.
Recently, a 24-hour mental health support service was launched for people working in the music industry. The Music Industry Therapy Collective (MITC) set up the Online Tour Health And Welfare Coaching service, which is available now for touring professionals working in music, including artists, production staff, promoters, venues and agents.
It offers round-the-clock, expert-led coaching sessions intended to help to tackle depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia and burnout among individuals working in the high-intensity sphere of the live music business.
Rodrigo, meanwhile, had a huge Glastonbury, headlining the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night, as well as doing shots with Robert Smith and watching Pulp’s not-so-secret set.
In her set, she delivered an explosive performance that saw her channel her rock influences with pyro-infused renditions of ‘Vampire’ and ‘Obsessed’. One of the standout moments came as she introduced The Cure frontman Smith to the stage as a surprise guest, with the two performing ‘Friday I’m In Love’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’.
