A Bus, a Grammy and a Side Door into Warped Tour

The Grammy experience was predictably weird.

Bowling for Soup showed up in powder-blue tuxedo jackets from the Drunk Enough to Dance cover—but now complemented by navy cutoff Dickies and matching Pumas.

They landed on more than one worst-dressed list.

They met everyone from Dave Grohl to B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt and Michael J. Fox. Brad Paisley, still early in his own career, encountered the band on the red carpet and decided they looked fun enough to stick near.

No Doubt eventually won the category.

Bowling for Soup still left New York as a Grammy-nominated band.

By 2003, the band finally had a bus.

The crew was growing too. The originals were all characters themselves: Justin “Sweet Charlie” Yates, Greg “The Geenger” Lobdell, sound engineer Edo Levi and tour manager Sean “Baggins” Bailey became part of a small traveling family.

Then came the Vans Warped Tour.

The punk-rock front door was not exactly wide open.

Jaret’s Ernie Ball rep Derek Brooks offered another entrance.

Ernie Ball operated a touring stage largely built around local and regional acts. What it didn't have was a flagship band that could play every day.

Bowling for Soup said yes.

Jive provided tour support—the one time the label ever did—because the band also needed to leave Warped constantly for radio promotion.

The reception within the Warped community was mixed at first.

Bowling for Soup had a pop-radio hit.

Some bands and crew were welcoming.

Others were skeptical.

So the band did what it had done during those early years throughout Texas.

It worked.

Bowling for Soup spent all day at its merch tent telling people when it played. The Ernie Ball stage wasn't even listed on the main inflatable schedule board. So they had to earn every face in front of them.

The band began outdrawing acts on bigger stages.

Merch sales exploded.

Kevin Lyman noticed.

Other bands noticed.

Eventually Bowling for Soup was organizing backstage parties, playing poker and dice with everyone else and sitting at the metaphorical cool-kids table.

Once again, Bowling for Soup had earned its way into the room.