On the road doing pyro for Kiss' "Creatures of the Night" tour in the early-80s, Marc Parnell reached a conclusion: "All this catering food and fast food and truck-stop food, it all tastes the same after a while. It's just frickin' boring. And you long for something homemade."

Some 20 years and a few careers later, Parnell, a 1977 Huntsville High grad, was living in Bend, Ore. and working at the Mt. Bachelor ski resort. He would bake banana bread and cut the bread up into slices to give to his friends, on the chairlift. "Because we ski bums don't eat right," Parnell says with a laugh. "We're in such a hurry to get on the mountain and go skiing that we often miss breakfast, so I would hand out a little banana nut bread."

One day around 2004 or 2005, Parnell happened to have an extra loaf of banana bread. A band was performing in the area, he believes it was jammy ensemble Leftover Salmon, so he took the spare loaf to the band. "And they were so enthusiastic about it, the next band that came into town I made them a loaf of banana nut bread," he says

Parnell started calling his homemade baked gifts for touring bands "road loaf." Soon he was working-in fruit pies, giving those to musicians as well. "Bands were so stoked," Parnell says, "It tastes different than something you get in a restaurant." Parnell, who relocated back to Huntsville about two years ago to help take care of his elderly parents, now estimates he's made around a thousand or so road loaves and pies for touring bands and local musicians. He's made pies for Bob Dylan. Breads for Earth, Wind & Fire and for Gov't Mule. Other well-known artists to have received a road loaf include Widespread Panic, Lyle Lovett, ZZ Top and Blues Traveler, just to name a few.

Widespread Panic guitarist Jimmy Herring is shown holding a road loaf. (Courtesy photo)

This summer, Parnell baked a batch of 18 road loaves, loaded them in a box in his Honda Odyssey minivan to give to a variety of acts at Oregon's 4 Peaks Music Festival. When he's giving out numerous road loaves in one swoop like that, the rectangular-cuboid-shaped bread is smaller - about the size of a guitarist's effects pedal. Larger, standalone road loaf weighs about a kilo. There's a low-hanging drug joke to make there if you want, but in green Sharpie, Parnell writes on each plastic bag containing his foil-wrapped goods that "no illicit substances were used in the production" of that particular bread or pie. "There's nothing in it that's going to mess you up, Parnell says. "I don't supply any kind of drugs or weed or anything else for musicians. Musicians can self-medicate, they don't need my help, you know?"

On the bag of each road loaf or pie, Parnell also writes down all the ingredients because of food allergies, dietary restrictions and, well, pickiness. For example, he says Karl Denson, the Rolling Stones saxophonist and leader of jazz-funk combo Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, is allergic to walnuts. Parnell uses up to 35 ingredients for a pie and 55 for bread. He bakes now in the kitchen of his family's airy early-80's-built South Huntsville home: one hour at 350 degrees. The entire process though, including assembling all those ingredients, can take more than three hours. The pies are typically an apple-pear base, although sometimes he'll switch things up there with a peach-apricot base. His banana nut bread is extra sticky and moist by design, "so the crumbs don't go down between the seat cushions in the van or something like that."

A batch of smaller, festival-ready road loaves. (Courtesy photo)

If an act's musical reputation proceeds them, sometimes they'll receive a road loaf the first time Parnell attends one of their concerts. Other instances, particularly with local bands, he may see that group or solo musician perform up to six or so times before gifting them. "It doesn't happen every time," Parnell says. "Sometimes I just don't have the time or economic means to make them one. [Laughs]" By day he works for the Huntsville/Madison County Health Department. In the past, Parnell, who stands about 6-foot-4, says he's worked as a tow-truck driver and ambulance attendant.

Singer/guitarist Mike Roberts of local classic-rockers 5ive O'Clock Charlie, has received well over a dozen road loaves and pies from Parnell over the years. "They're tasty," Roberts says. "He puts so much stuff in them. Marc doesn't play music but he loves music. He loves festivals and he loves people - and he bakes his ass off. That's his part."

Singer/guitarist Mike Roberts of Huntsville classic-rockers 5ive O'Clock Charlie holds a pie baked by Marc Parnell. (Courtesy photo)

Roberts, also owner of Sports Page Lounge & Deli, met Parnell through a mutual friend, a Sports Page regular and former guitar student of Roberts'. On occasion Parnell has surprised Roberts by bringing him an entire homecooked dinner, like chicken cacciatore, to the Page. "He loves to feed people," Roberts says. "It's always good food too. I've had people in the past go, 'I'm not eating that.' That's cool. I'm going to eat it all. [Laughs]" Other North Alabama musicians to receive road loaves or pies include Daikaiju, Dawn Osborne, Belle Adair and Chris Simmons.

Of course, it's much easier delivering baked gifts to local artists than to a huge touring act. Sometimes, fate smiles on Parnell, as when he was trying to get a pie to Paul Simon recently and happened to recognize the gig's caterer, a friend of Parnell's. "If I don't know anybody I'll wait until I see someone with a badge," Parnell says, "and ask them to come over and I'll explain what it is." Of course, sometimes security staff or tour personnel are suspicious of some random dude bringing a famous artist food. That's where the ingredients listing and a "no illicit substances" disclaimer on the plastic bags come in. Parnell says, "Security has rarely ever hassled me or stopped a road loaf. As long as you're polite and everything, I can't remember being snubbed by anyone or anyone turning one down." Funnily enough one of the few times he was rebuked - at least temporarily - was when a well-known alt-country singer's tour manager asked Parnell if there was weed in the road loaf and when informed there was not, exclaimed "Well, we don't want it then!" A sound engineer stepped in and accepted the gift.

A photo of packaging for a road loaf Marc Parnell baked for R&B/funk band Earth, Wind & Fire. (Courtesy photo)

Parnell's backstory is filled with food. He worked for years in the restaurant business in various cities, including pizza, Chinese and deli gigs, and an Italian restaurant where he baked bread. In the late-80s, his mom, Liz Parnell, founded Belle Chevre, the Elkmont creamery that's wares were carried by upscale New York grocer Dean & Deluca and served at the White House during the Bill Clinton administration. "My mom was really proud of the company and she had a lot of international success," Parnell says. Liz sold Belle Chevre around 2007. Growing up in the Monte Sano and Blossomwood neighborhoods, Parnell says friends of his father, now a retired naval aviator, also were early culinary influences. "My parents had a lot of international friends when my dad was in graduate school, and they would come over and cook. Guys from India. They had friends from Vietnam and Chinese friends. So l earned how to cook quite a bit from them."

Years later, while doing pyro for Kiss, Parnell learned how to deal with larger-than-life situations and personalities. The 1982 to 1983 "Creatures of the Night" tour would be the band's last trek wearing their trademark makeup for about 15 years. By this point, frontman Paul Stanley and bassist Gene Simmons were the only original members though, having replaced drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley with Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent respectively. The "Creatures" stage set was fashioned to look like a giant tank. The drum riser was a rotating gun turret. When the entire band gathered on top of the turret while performing riffy 1974 song "Black Diamond," the canon would "fire" at an above-stage speaker cabinet which would then release confetti to simulate being blasted.

This bombastic environment was Parnell's first job after attending University of Montevallo. He has a funny Gene Simmons story from working on the Kiss tour. It involves a concert at a Minnesota coliseum. The roadies had installed "mortars with loud concussion bangs up high on a lift, so you get the most echo effect in there." As scripted during Kiss' performance, Parnell blew the charges. Simmons, a battle-axe-shaped bass guitar over his shoulder, stomped in platform boots over to Parnell offstage. Simmons leaned over to Parnell and said something along the lines of, "The bombs are wimpy tonight." Except using a word other than "wimpy" as the adjective. Parnell replied, "Well, Gene I put a whole ounce of quarterflash in the mortar. We don't make them any bigger than that. I'm sorry." Simmons reiterated his earlier negative assessment, walked back onstage and began playing the rat-a-tat intro to "Detroit Rock City."

Parnell never charges musicians for a road loaf. The baked gift recipients, including Grammy-winning roots band The SteelDrivers, sometimes him a shout out on social media after receiving a bread or pie. He's also received autographed albums and concert posters over the years as thank you's. His other interests including kayaking and fishing - still it's music that's his true passion. On a recent evening, Parnell shows me photo after photo of local, regional and national bands holding road loaves.

Since returning to Huntsville, a few bands he used to bake for out West have played Huntsville venues like Copper Top and were surprised to see him here, and receive another road loaf across the country. As much baking as he's done for musicians, there are still a few favorites, like guitarist Mark Knopfler, he's yet to bestow a loaf or pie to. After watching Parnell give foil-wrapped goodies to bands at shows, several fans have suggested he sell his breads and pies too. If he ever decides to try making road loaves a business venture Parnell's adamant "it would still be free to the musicians." He has however used his baking as a bribe before to get the band to play one more encore.

"The band's putting out their energy to the crowd and when they get something back, especially if they didn't expect it, it really energizes them," Parnell says. "And sometime you'll get a better performance because they're jazzed. They're happy. You do anything you can so they want to come back to your town. And you get to see them again." After more than a dozen years of doing this, Parnell has earned a nickname from the musicians he's fed. He no longer just bakes road loaf. He is Road Loaf.