Jeff Alder

I recently spent too many years writing "How to be a Lighting Guy (During the Pirate Years of Concert Touring)", a book about my experiences during the development of rock concert lighting. It covers running liquid lightshows in the early '70s, once for Grand Funk when they were still a railroad, to working with the first analog moving lights, the Cyklops, when I designed lights for a War tour with Fantasee Lighting in the mid '70s, to suggesting to Morpheus Lights that we should R&D the mass production of computer-controlled moving lights in the late '70s/early '80s. I got fired for taking the blame for technical difficulties from Morpheus Light's first big tour with Devo where Panaspots were predominant. I've directed lighting on tours with Warren Zevon Jimmy Buffett, Pablo Cruise, Steve Miller Band and I directed and designed lighting for Huey Lewis and the News, Santana, Cyndi Lauper, Aerosmith, Ozzie, Alice, Grand Funk, who bookended my career, which collapsed by the mid '90s due to a collapsed vertebrae.

I enjoy listening to my old friends on your podcasts, It's like catching up with the ones I lost touch with.

March 4, 2026

The Pirate Years of Concert Touring - Rock Lighting Legend with Jeff Alder

Episode 345 Today we’re joined by Jeff, a true pioneer from the wild, formative years of rock concert touring — what he calls the “pirate years.” Jeff recently published his book, How to Be a Lighting Guy (During the Pirate Years of Concert Touring), a firsthand account of building a career during the birth of modern concert lighting. From running liquid light shows in the early 1970s — including for Grand Funk before they were even Grand Funk Railroad — to experimenting with the first analog ...

Guest: Jeff Alder

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