Travis Ryan

Travis Ryan, singer with Cattle Decapitation, says he smuggles band merchandise (shirts, stickers, and more) into shows when he is on tour so that the band doesn't have to pay the traditional 20 percent cut to the promoters.

"They count you in at the beginning, and they count you out at the end. Let's say you have 30 shirts less, you pay them 20 percent of what those shirts sold for."

Ryan admits that with the recent murder of guitarist Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott, he thought security would be tighter. "We were playing at this place in Cleveland two days after Dimebag got killed.... I was worried they would search my backpack and I would get busted. I said, 'Fuck it, I'm going to try it anyway.' So I walked in with my backpack full of shirts. I walked past three or four different security guards, and they didn't say a damn thing. I did have my [backstage] pass on, but I could have walked in there with a knife, a bomb, or a gun. I went in there [with a backpack full of shirts] three different times."