During Radiohead's European tour last fall, the crew had a confidential channel that let members connect directly with therapists from the Music Industry Therapy Collective (MITC). Drummer Philip Selway later described how even a "tight-knit, well-resourced, experienced" touring team couldn't fully guard against the risks that come with life on the road — a realization that became his reason for backing the new fund.
MITC has just launched the Pay It Forward Fund, aiming to give artists and crew on small and mid-sized tours access to professional mental health support. According to the official announcement, more large-scale tours are now building wellness and pastoral care into their production budgets — but smaller touring operations often run on tighter budgets and leaner staff, facing harsher working and travel conditions, with little room left to offer the same kind of space for talking, reflection, or rest.
Backers of the fund include Selway alongside Live Nation, AEG International, and Live Free 999 — the charitable foundation founded by Carmela Wallace, mother of rapper Juice WRLD (born Jarad Anthony Higgins), who died of an accidental overdose in 2019.
"Over the years I've noticed a gap between the reality of touring and the way it's often imagined," Selway said. "It can be full of excitement, wonder and camaraderie, but it can also be an unstable, breathless environment to live and work in — one that can deepen feelings of emotional and geographic isolation, leading to exhaustion, isolation and self-destructive behavior." He noted that knowing this pressure is felt even more acutely by teams with fewer resources is what drove him to invest in making this kind of support more widely accessible.
The program includes round-the-clock, multilingual confidential online conversations called "Tour Check-Ins," available to any member of a touring team who needs to process a rough day, work through a decision, talk through tension within the team, or plan next steps; a 90-minute occupational health consultation led by MITC's touring welfare officer Sascha Heeney, who has previously supported Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism tour crew; plus wellness-focused touring workshops and MITC's published audiobook, Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual.
MITC founder Tamsin Embleton said the fund "is about making professional support accessible even on tight touring budgets," while also pushing back against the idea that "support should only be sought once something has gone wrong." "We want to help forward-thinking teams build the capacity to manage stress, recognize the early signs that things are starting to slip, and step in before problems snowball," she said.
Research from mental health charity Mind shows that people working in the music industry are more likely to experience mental health issues than the general public, with musicians potentially up to three times more likely to suffer from depression. Financial stress, isolation, lifestyle factors, packed schedules and substance issues are frequently cited as key contributing causes. Details on how to apply for the fund and its opening timeline were not provided in the source material; eligible touring teams can inquire further through MITC's official channels.
