Touring is hardly environmentally friendly, but artists like Dan Deacon are working to leave a smaller footprint.
1. Willie Nelson
Lots of artists power their tour vehicles with alternative fuels these days, but country legend Willie Nelson took it a step further and founded the Willie Nelson Biodiesel company to produce and sell BioWillie biofuel. In spring 2012, it even launched its first retail pumps.
2. Neil Young
A long-time environmentalist, Neil Young started using biofuel for his buses and equipment trucks on the 2004 Greendale tour. In 2009 he released Fork In The Road, an album about the hybrid-engine 1959 Lincoln Continental he’s still trying to perfect (and that some say he’s obsessed with).
3. Radiohead
These guys not only use biofuel for the trucks and buses, they also refuse to ship their gear by air freight. Other bands touring with them have described how disposable cups and plastic bottles are treated as illegal contraband backstage, and Radiohead are still threatening to stop touring if it can’t be done cleaner.
4. Bonnie Raitt
The blues guitarist started her environmental activist work early in her career, helping found Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979. It goes without saying that she’s long been on the biofuel bandwagon, but she also works closely with groups like Green Highway and the Guacamole Fund to raise fans’ awareness at shows for her many, many causes.
5. Old Man Luedecke
What’s greener than biofuel? How about touring on a bicycle? A few years ago the banjo-picking singer did a two-week tour of Nova Scotia using only his own leg power. Maybe Deacon could rig up his next school bus with pedals under every seat?
