Most of the time backstage on the Madness Tour, Abel would be in a room with people—either managers, the vocal coach, his best friends, or his girlfriend—but there’d be a gap when he’d be alone. Once, in New York, I caught him in a gap and we were sitting down, eating crackers and talking about pictures and my career and life overall. We got to a point in the conversation when he was like, "If you're not going to be you, then somebody else is going to be you." In that moment, I felt like I could see how his mind worked—how he set bigger goals for himself and then accomplished them. I could see that he was this [Madness Tour] version of him is because he chose it, you know?

Abel handles himself very well on tour. He’s very disciplined, for one. Second, he really takes care of his health. He has a daily routine to get ready. He’ll do a voice warm-up to get ready. A lot of physical exercise—it could be going to the arena gym or boxing, or anything that can really get him going.



He’s always drinking tea and water. A lot of water. He was always practicing his vocals every day, making sure his voice was on point. I met his vocal coaches. They’re really good people, and they seem to really take care of him when they’re there. Other than that, he does everything by himself. The warm up, everything. He’s his own vocal coach, at some points. I only saw the vocal coaches for two or three days. The rest of the time, he was always doing his own thing. He always had a routine. Most nights around 8, no one can go around him because he’s working on his vocals or training.