Not About the Licks: Tim Stewart on Being a Touring and Session Guitarist (Episode 46)

Reliability beats virtuosity.

Lady Gaga. Rihanna. Jessica Simpson. Britney Spears. The Backstreet Boys. The American Idol tour. All of them have one thing in common: Tim Stewart has been their guitarist at one point or another, and he has been in Gaga's band since 2011.

In Episode 46 of The Career Musician, Tim sat down with Nomad in the studio and talked about how a session guitarist and touring guitarist actually keeps working at that level. They also talked about something most of us never say out loud, the days you think about quitting.

Gig to gig is the job

Tim grew up in the East Bay, caught the guitar bug around 12,. He came to LA to join a band that had a deal with Interscope. Like a lot of deals, it crashed. But while he was in town, he kept playing and meeting people, and his first real professional gig turned out to be Jessica Simpson around 2003. On that tour he met the man who became his production partner for close to 20 years.

From there it was the way it always goes: gig to gig, TV shows, the American Idol tour, which he did for four or five years, then Britney, then the Backstreet Boys. Gaga came through a friend he had met years earlier at a church event connected to producer Rodney Jerkins, whom Tim used to work for. Years later that friend called while Tim was in Mexico playing with a Latin artist. That is Work begets work. Every gig is a door to the next one, and the hang counts as much as the playing.

What he figured out along the way surprised him.

"Not a lot of it was about my technical prowess on the instrument. A lot of it was just learning the material, being friendly, being on time, just being the responsible person, because at the end of the day it's a business."

Tim Stewart, 20:33

Learn the songs in stages, and don't cram

Tim was blunt about this one: some people just choose not to learn the songs, and that is crazy to him. On big tours there are usually no charts. You get the material, and you are expected to own it.

His method is stages. First the notes. Then the time, the pocket, the tone and the song forms. Then being able to perform it, not just play it. That is a lot of work before rehearsal ever starts, so he spreads it out: two hours a day for ten days beats cramming the night before.

"I've always approached it like, if I gotta go fight somebody, I'm gonna train... It's less anxiety for me. I'd rather just be there and know what's happening."

Tim Stewart, 35:40

And know the gig you are walking into. For Gaga he is not sitting on a stool; he is out front performing, so he has to know the material well enough to move. Another artist might want you chilling in the back. Show up on time, with the gear that fits the gig, knowing what is likely to be asked of you. That is Reliability beats virtuosity, in a single paragraph.

Sometimes the best part is no part

On the Rihanna tour, Tim listened to the record they were touring and noticed a lot of the songs didn't have much guitar. He saw three options: turn it into a rock song with distortion, soul it out with ethereal stuff, or just let it be the record. He chose the third and played maybe half the show.

His reasoning: somebody spent hours upon hours in the studio making those decisions. If a song is literally a drum machine and a keyboard bass, what are you going to add? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. He gave credit to the music director on that tour for staying as close to the record as possible.

Gear for Gaga follows the same logic. The band started on Axe-Fx units, moved to Kempers around 2013 or 2014, and Tim runs only two or three amp models. With dancers, lights and pyro on every show, the goal is to keep the guitar rig tight, even and consistent for everybody. He leans on his tech heavily and is the first to laugh about it.

In the studio, the producer is the boss

Tim spends a lot of time producing, so he sees sessions from both chairs. His rule: understand the hierarchy. The producer has the vision, even if you think you are the better musician. Go in humble, play your part and find the sounds they want.

A lot of the time they won't say it in musical terms. "Make it sound like an ocean." Your job is to interpret that, maybe as a lot of delay, and to keep the mood of the session right. Nomad's version: keep your eyes and ears wide open and your mouth shut, and when they ask, offer your take and show them. And if you tell the producer "you can't play that, it's a dominant seventh over a major seven," as Nomad put it, you just lost a session. That is Low maintenance / no drama.

Tim's view on parts is just as simple. Some of the greatest guitar parts in history are three open chords. Playing them so they feel right is not easy.

"When you place yourself into a place where you're trying to make a presentation, it's very detached... Communication is so imperfect. It is related to what's going on in the conversation."

Tim Stewart, 55:42

Do it all, and don't get boxed in

Both men agreed the pure session cat or pure touring cat barely exists anymore. Tim's take: you play guitar, so you do sessions, give lessons, tour, do a TV show, learn to demo, learn to write. Nomad, who spent eight years doing sessions in Nashville, said even the top players there are doing it all now. That is the pillar Nomad calls Diversify or Die.

Tim also told a story about the flip side. He once got passed over for a gig because the person hiring had him filed as an R&B guy and needed a rock guy. Both he and Nomad came up loving metal and ended up working the R&B circuit, and both think being open to everything makes you a better player, not a weaker one.

The highs, the lows, and the walk back to the hotel

Tim was honest about the swing of this life. One night with Rihanna he played to what had to be 100,000 people. He flew home the next morning and stood in the grocery store figuring out how to afford the rest of his groceries. Within 24 hours. He used to blame music when the bills were hard. Now he doesn't. Musicians, as Nomad put it, might be the inventors of grit.

Keeping the love for it takes work too. For years the only music Tim listened to was music he had to learn. His 16-year-old daughter, who is all in on music, brought that old feeling back, and he is making a point of going to shows again just to enjoy them. He is also back in band mode with his own projects, singing and writing again, and said a show in France for maybe 50 people blew his mind.

His favorite moment says it all. After playing the Super Bowl halftime show, he and two bandmates couldn't find their runner and walked a mile and a half or two back to the hotel, dragging their bags, while people refused to believe they had just played the Super Bowl. That got him right back down to earth. Nomad's summary: stay humble. That is the H in ETHOS, Energy, Talent, Humility, Objectivity, Savvy.

The takeaway

Tim Stewart's career at the top is built on the unglamorous stuff: learn the material in stages, show up on time with the right gear, serve the record and the producer, and stay humble when the lights go off. The chops got him in the room. Being the responsible person kept him there. If you are working on how to land work like this, start with the free Get the Gig guide.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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