Roadie (film)

Roadie is a 1980 film directed by Alan Rudolph about a truck driver who becomes a roadie for a traveling rock and roll show. The film stars Meat Loaf and marks his first starring role in a film. There are also cameo appearances by musicians such as Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Jr., and supporting roles played by Alice Cooper and the members of Blondie. The film was marketed with the tagline "Bands make it rock...Roadies make it roll." There is also a 2011 film with the same name.

Plot

Travis W. Redfish (Meat Loaf) is a beer-drinking, bar-brawling, fun-loving distributor of Shiner beer. He also helps his father, Corpus C. Redfish (Art Carney) with the family salvage company, whose motto is "Everything will work if you let it!" B.B. Muldoon (Gailard Sartain) is both his best friend and business partner.

In the opening scene, B.B., driving their Shiner beer truck, arrives at the Redfish family home and business to pick Travis up for work. A short time later, after embarking on their daily delivery route, they notice an RV that has broken down on the side of the road. At first, they laugh at the thought of helping the stranded motorists. Until, that is, Travis sees wannabee groupie Lola Bouliabaise (Kaki Hunter) smile at him through the rear window of the RV. Redfish slams on the brakes and decides to help, hoping to get a closer look at Lola. Lola is a big Alice Cooper fan and Travis has never heard of "her". 'Ace' (Joe Spano), a road manager, and his assistant George, try to talk Travis into driving them to Austin for a show to be played by Hank Williams Jr. and put on by music mogul Mohammed Johnson. He meets Bird Lockhart, a hippie and lifelong roadie in the music business. After repairing the RV Lola is able to talk Travis into coming along where he ends up becoming the "greatest roadie that ever lived" with his unusual techniques on fixing things.