Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack reveals his ultimate tour tales, from fracturing his skull to performing in front of armed guards…
Lifting the lid on the highs, lows, creature comforts and touring weirdness of a travelling band…
“I’m so high-maintenance that picking just one thing is actually very difficult. When I got sober and started getting healthy, I suddenly had so many fucking things that I need. There is one specific blue vocal spray I use during shows that’s incredibly useful if I get hoarse from screaming. We buy palettes of it and travel with it at all times.”
“The time we were in Germany and got booked to do a festival in Tokyo mid-tour, so the plan was to take two days off, fly to Tokyo and play the festival. We missed our connecting flight and got stuck in Frankfurt, and shuttled with a million other people to a Holiday Inn that was total chaos and overbooked, and we didn’t get a room until 2am. We barely slept, got back on the plane – no TVs, knees in your face, it was brutal – and flew what felt like a billion hours to Tokyo. We were exhausted and miserable, and then found out our gear was still in Europe. We had to borrow equipment from local artists at what turned out to be a mostly pop festival. Then I had to do an interview where the interviewer only asked about make-up, and when I begged for literally any other question, she finished by asking what I thought about other bands that wear make-up, which put me in a foul mood. I walked out into the hallway and Michael Monroe from Hanoi Rocks asked why I was so sad, and I said, ‘Fuck you, Michael Monroe,’ which remains my only interaction with him…”
“In Toulouse, France, at a venue with just one bathroom for the entire room – and it was on the stage. It was a decent-sized space, about 1,000-capacity, but the only way to get to the bathroom was to step onto the stage and walk behind us. So, throughout the entire show, people were constantly walking past CC [drummer], behind our backdrop, heading to the bathroom. We’ve also performed in parts of Eastern Europe where there were armed guards separating dignitaries from everyone else. It’s incredibly difficult to play in that context. I grew up believing a rock show is for everybody, so stepping onstage and realising there’s a completely different cultural reality in front of you can be unsettling. You try to power through, but it’s uncomfortable to witness.”
“I’m extremely regimented now because I had so many injuries when I was younger from drinking. I work out every day, focusing on consistency and things that are actually possible on the road, like resistance bands and bodyweight exercises. The goal isn’t vanity – it’s being able to do the show properly without being exhausted or in pain.”
“We played a venue in Italy where the bathroom was one of those metal holes in the ground, which isn’t uncommon. That was a pretty rough realisation for me as a teenager visiting Europe for the first time. It was my first real encounter with a cultural difference I wasn’t prepared for: a metal hole in the floor instead of an actual, flushing toilet…”
“The U.S. is unparalleled when it comes to truck stops, and Buc-ee’s feels like the final evolution. It’s an actual utopia of service stations with everything you could possibly need. Back in the van-tour days you stopped at every truck stop because it was the only relief from the misery of being in a van.”
“Wonderful! I’m high-needs and very specific, and I’ve had my own dressing room both times we’ve played there. I’m a big fan of the digs, as they say. It’s good place to have your own space.”
“Well, the hardest part of the show is usually the first song – you’re performing, you’re excited, but you’re also analysing the space you have to work with and how you need to pace yourself. My favourite moment is the stretch after the mid-set drum solo, because you’ve had a moment to reset and then we usually hit a run of crowd favourites, so the energy lifts and everything starts clicking. That’s when the show really takes off.”
“In 2012 in Luxembourg, I turned to our tour manager and said, ‘Want to see how many barrel rolls I can do?’ and then immediately fractured my skull. That led to a late-night hospital visit, followed by a drive through the night to London, four days bedridden in a hotel, and then playing a show with my entire face bruised and destroyed…”
This interview originally appeared in the spring 2026 issue. BVB appear at Download Festival this month.
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