Wally Kurth Spills The Day Players' Most Touching Fan Moment

Jill Johnson/jpistudios.com

From left: Wally Kurth (Justin), Carson Boatman (Johnny), Eric Martsolf (Brady) and Brandon Barash (Stefan).

One of the best parts of going on tour with The Day Players , the band of Days of our Lives actors comprised of Carson Boatman (Johnny), Brandon Barash (Stefan), Eric Martsolf (Brady) and Wally Kurth (Justin), is the interaction with fans, who turn up at their various venues around the country.

“I’m telling you, these audiences are so cool,” says Kurth, reflecting on the band’s gigs in Batavia, IL and Royal Oak, MI. “It’s so neat. We do a 90-minute show, and the audience just goes crazy. It's crazy. We have a lot of fun banter. We sing all these hits, 90 minutes of hits from all over the decades, and we actually do a really good job. We really make them our own. There are good harmonies. We do solos. We do group numbers. So people are kind of blown away by just that.”

Afterward, the band meets and chats with the assembled fans. “They come by and get pictures with us,” recounts Kurth. “Oh my God. There was this woman, an older lady, who was with a friend, and she had tears in her eyes, happy tears. She told us, ‘My husband is in hospice care and has dementia, and it's been really, really hard for me. This experience, I just needed this so much.’ She looked us all right in the eye and told us that.”

Suffice it to say, the band was touched by her words. “We just said, ‘Yeah, this makes it worth it,’” reflects Kurth. “I mean, look, we're obviously getting paid and all that, but it's just such a wonderful thing that we get to [interact with everyone]. In a way, we're their friends, right? They've spent 20 years looking at our face . They feel like they know us. So we come out there, and they’re like, 'Wait a minute. Now they're sharing their music and their humor and their real selves.' They're so appreciative. It's really cool that we can make some people happy. It was a great weekend.”