Musicians on tour spend plenty of time on the road, traveling from venue to venue. And it’s Justin Ward’s job to ensure they get to their destination as quickly and comfortably as possible.
Ward is CEO of Encore Luxury Coaches, a tour bus manufacturing firm he runs with his partner, company president Amanda Williams. The Charlotte Observer toured Encore’s new factory in Cornelius on Tuesday, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the first two buses on the production line at that site.
When completed, each bus weighs about 60,000 pounds — more than four and a half fully-grown African elephants.
“They’re beasts of a machine,” Ward said.
A typical bus designed for a musician’s crew sleeps six to eight people and includes amenities like a lounge, shower and television. The sleeping area has bunk beds stacked against the walls.
On buses designed for the musicians themselves — Encore’s highest-end product, called a star coach — artists can get a full-size bed. They can request a variety of other amenities, too: some have asked for recording studios, stripper poles, cedar-lined closets and even fireplaces.
An Encore bus could sell for over $1 million, Ward said, although the company only leases them. Ward declined to say how much they cost to build or how much they’re leased out for.
Careful construction
Encore is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, but last year decided to move its construction operations to Cornelius when a property that fit the company’s needs became available close to Ward’s home.
Construction on the first buses at the Cornelius factory began last month. About a dozen people are employed there, in fields like carpentry, electricity and plumbing.
At peak capacity, it will take about five weeks to transform a bus from a shell into a finished product, Ward said. But as the construction team adjusts to the new site, that number is still at about eight to 10 weeks per bus.
It’s a complex process to assemble each bus. Encore focuses exclusively on the interior — they get the outer shell delivered directly from Canadian bus manufacturer Prevost, and Encore does the rest.
While most Encore buses are nearly identical, star coaches are custom-made to an artist’s specifications.
Encore won’t build one until they have a lease on the books. Once that lease is signed, the construction team does its best to accommodate the artist’s requests.
“We do everything we can do inside of a 45-foot tube,” Ward said. “But, no matter how crazy the request, we’ll never disclose them or call anybody out.”
While Encore was founded in 2020, its leadership team has been in the entertainment industry for over 20 years.
That experience made it relatively easy to build a steady customer base of touring musicians, Ward said, including country music artists like Gabby Barrett and Joe Nichols.
Mr. ‘American Pie’
One Encore customer is “American Pie” singer Don McLean, who, in an interview with The Charlotte Observer, said being on his bus is “kind of an ongoing party.”
Back on the road after a concert, McLean said, “out will come the drinks and the food, and the TV will be on, and we’ll be telling stories and thinking about what happened at the show that night. It’s like a movable feast.”
He said his aversion to flying has nothing to do with his 1971 classic song about “the day the music died” — referring to a 1959 plane crash that killed three musicians.
For McLean, the appeal of the bus is simply avoiding the hassle of airports.
Though it’s a slower way of getting from venue to venue, “it’s an infinitely better experience to be on the bus,” McLean said. “The whole operation is very first-class.”
Supply chain concerns
Encore operates 15 buses right now. While the company plans to double that number by the end of the year, the growing pains of moving into a new factory combined with widespread supply chain disruptions are making that goal look more aspirational than practical.
One area where Ward is feeling supply chain delays is in the wood that forms the interior structure of each bus. Encore uses Baltic birch plywood, which Ward said is the most durable type of wood for buses that average 15 years on the road.
But Encore’s Baltic birch comes from Russia.
Amid the steep economic penalties imposed on Russia by Western nations in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the price of that wood has more than doubled in recent months, Ward said. Shipments of it have been slower to arrive, too.
For the wood that is available, though, it’s chief carpenter Nestor Rondon who makes sure it gets put to good use.
“This man is the mastermind behind all this,” Ward said, grasping Rondon’s shoulder and gesturing at the buses under construction.
Another key player at the factory is Auggie, a mini goldendoodle with boundless energy and a seeming curiosity for power tools. He scampered from bus to bus and around the factory floor during the Observer’s tour, accepting belly rubs from any person whose attention he could get.
Drivers included
Encore doesn’t only supply clients with a bus. It also supplies the driver.
To Ward, that’s one of the key components of Encore’s business, and one of the least appreciated.
Encore employs about 25 drivers right now, Ward said, though he expects that number will grow alongside the fleet of buses over the coming years.
Regrouping after COVID
When the pandemic hit, the music industry shut down.
“It was scary,” Ward said. “Whether you’re a supplier or you’re actually the artist, everybody’s world stopped.”
With no artists on tour, business collapsed. But while the leasing company Ward worked at previously didn’t make it through the pandemic, he and other leaders there regrouped and founded Encore.
Now, there’s more demand for buses than what Encore can supply, Ward said, especially in the country music scene, which is where its business is concentrated.
Ultimately, Encore’s role is to help artists make their fans happy, Ward said.
“Hopefully,” he said, “not only are they demanding an encore for the artists, but the artist is demanding an Encore from us.”
