Silverlight Express Also Wants Executive Clientele : Luxury Buses Pamper Rock Stars
It’s difficult to imagine what a group of business executives might have in common with the heavy-metal rock group Twisted Sister. But Phil Kovac thinks he’s found something.
Kovac, 27, is the managing partner of Los Angeles-based Silverlight Express, which designs and builds luxurious buses that carry Twisted Sister, Van Halen, Tina Turner, Tom Petty and other rock stars on concert tours across the country.
Having cut its teeth catering to the often extravagant tastes of rock stars, Silverlight now wants to expand into the corporate world, offering to pamper business executives in similar fashion.
Offering an Extra
Although there are other luxury bus services that already offer to transport executives, Silverlight plans to offer something extra--a fancy “living room” on wheels equipped with everything from microwave ovens to state-of-the-art audio-visual systems.
Silverlight has a fleet of 26 buses that each log 100,000 miles operating an average of 300 days a year and is considered among the biggest in its very specialized field. The buses cost anywhere from $250,000 to $450,000 to build and they rent for about $750 a day, including fuel cost, a driver and the driver’s lodging.
For the price, Silverlight’s rock ‘n’ roll clients get such on-the-road creature comforts as cellular phones, king size beds, computer centers and front and rear lounges complete with televisions, compact disc players and videocassette recorders.
“These buses are an efficient way for a rock band to travel--you don’t lose your luggage or miss your plane,” Kovac said. “But comfort is the main selling point with our rock clients, because some bands like Twisted Sister are on the road upwards of a year at a time and these coaches literally become their home.”
According to Kovac, privately owned Silverlight will have revenue of about $5 million in 1985--compared to just a few hundred thousand when the company started with two buses eight years ago.
Although nearly all of that business came from rock bands, the company currently is designing two new buses for the corporate-carriage trade.
“We call them the limousines of the ‘90s, or yachts on wheels. Basically, they are one large living room outfitted with gray-flannel, three-piece couches,” he joked.
Kovac sees the new coaches--Belgian-built Vanhools with about $200,000 worth of interior design and gadgetry added by Silverlight--as the perfect setting for everything from sales conferences to office Christmas parties. “They’ll have bars, kitchens, blackboards and video systems to do presentations. We can even provide a stewardess for serving lunch while you ride up the coast to Santa Barbara.”
The cost for corporate clients will be $200 an hour with a four-hour minimum, or $1,250 a day.
Kovac figures the corporate trade will “be simpler than rock ‘n’ roll because we’ll have more control of the buses; we’ll see them every day as opposed to every year. And there won’t be the problem of screaming kids trying to jump on the buses leaving a concert.”
But Kovac claims that catering to a rock ‘n’ roll clientele isn’t as chaotic as might be expected. “Rock bands might trash hotel rooms because they’re never going to see them again, but they may be living on one of our coaches for months at a time and, consequently, they treat them with a great deal of respect.”
In fact, the list of special features that Silverlight’s rock clients have requested for their buses over the years suggest a rather sedate existence on the road.
“It seems like everyone wants a computer now,” he said. “Van Halen even had us design a center office for their manager. John Cafferty had us put in a recording studio in the back so he could work while he was on the road. Ozzie Osbourne got basinets with heat lamps and changing tables so he could take his children on tour.”
Fully Equipped Gym
One group got a fully equipped gym. Twisted Sister had two buses designed with a side aisle instead of the usual center aisle in order to accommodate four king size beds. “All the guys in our band are big, over six feet tall,” explained the group’s bassist, Mark Mendoza.
Kovac said Silverlight will honor any reasonable request, with any extra cost paid by the customer over the standard rental. “We had a request for a kennel, which we didn’t do. David Lee Roth asked for and got a coach decorated in zebra skin, but we said no to a 20-foot sunroof.”
The company’s most unusual customer wasn’t a rocker at all but rather “a Saudi prince who rented a coach for a few days during the Olympics,” Kovac said. “I can’t remember his name, but I’ll never forget all the guns, the automatic weapons. His people had us put all these fresh flowers in the back lounge and none of us were allowed to meet him or even see him. It was a very strange situation. But he definitely paid a premium price.”
