Something for the weekend: Offering employees mental health support has risen in popularity, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s just what American pop singer Olivia Rodrigo has done, by paying for every member of her band and crew to access therapy both on and off her last tour.
This was revealed in an episode of The StageLeft Podcast, that went live at the end of June, by Rodrigo’s guitarist Daisy Spencer, a member of her all-female on-stage team.
Spencer explained that during the Guts world tour, which ran from February 2024 until the final show earlier this month, the 22-year old singer and tour manager, Marty Hom, provided accessible and free mental health support for the entire touring team across 102 shows played on multiple continents.
The guitarist, who called Rodrigo “literally the dreamiest boss ever”, said that it was largely “unheard of” to provide free therapy for every member of a touring team.
She said: “I have never had anything like that. And that reignited the importance of therapy to me because I had just kind of fallen off for so long. Suddenly I had this free resource of incredible therapists, and I utilised the c**p out of that. I was going, you know, once a week, once every other week, whenever I could. And it was even during the off time, we also still had access to this resource.
”So honestly, that was one of the coolest things that has ever happened on tour. It’s not very heard of. It was the coolest thing ever.”
This sounds like an incredibly kind and generous gesture from Rodrigo in order to support her band and crew’s mental health!
