Money and manpower: Behind the scenes of Eric Church's tour

On Sunday, Grammy nominated Eric Church will take a break from his national tour to perform at the ceremony. Seventy percent of an artist's income depends on live shows and it's a job like no other, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.

At 11 p.m. in Fresno, California, 8,500 people are about to leave Church -- country star Eric Church.

Seconds after he steps off stage, a show of a different sort kicks into high gear. In just two hours, the entire production -- 170 tons of equipment -- will get ripped out and put on the road 220 miles to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"My job is to make order out of the chaos," stage manager Sam Coats said.

That means herding more than 100 crew members as they disassemble and move everything off the arena floor.

Eighty feet overhead, riggers perform a high-wire act detaching a massive lighting grid.

"Everything above our head to the ground will go with us," Coats said. "A hundred thousand pounds of 'rock your city.'"

The stage is broken down in pieces, and along with every amp, coiled cable and barricade, rolled into one of 14 big-rig trucks. They call it the "truck circus" but it's no place for clowns; it's serious business maneuvering 75-foot-long semis past each other with inches to spare.

The right truck must get to the right dock at the right time, so every piece of the show can get stacked inside the same way every night.

"A short day for us is 18 hours," tour manager Todd Bunch said.

The only time Bunch has to himself is a few hours each night rolling between cities on one of 12 buses.

"This is a very large scale production," Bunch said.

And also very expensive.

"Just rolling down the road in 14 trucks and 12 buses, the fuel costs alone is amazing," Bunch said.

The drive from Fresno to the Staples Center, he said, could cost a quarter of a million dollars.

According to Church's management company, his current tour will run nine months and cost $19 million.

The stage alone is $3 million, or $100,000 per week, truck and buses, $3.9 million, lighting, video and audio $2.5 million and almost $2 million more to pay the crew. But Bunch says they're worth every penny.

"We have the best, hardest-working, coolest laid-back crew," he said.

At 3 a.m., most of that crew is still going strong over on "Crew Force One," the party bus.

By 7 a.m., the caravan hits downtown Los Angeles -- 26 over-sized vehicles weaving through rush-hour traffic on their way to Staples Center.

The crew gets right to work, led by lead rigger Lance Stoner.

"The Grammys have already come in here and hung a bunch of stuff, so I have a whole Grammy sound system that's already up in the air, in the way," Stoner said. "Nothing's changed until they change my mind for me."

Setting up the show takes six hours, three times longer than it took to tear down. The lighting grid goes up, the stage rolls underneath, barricades and chairs fall into place -- all in time for a 3 p.m. soundcheck.

"Those guys are my family. They would have my back in any situation and I would have theirs," Church said.

It's a loyalty born out of nine months living together on the road. Most of the team has been with Church since he was playing small, back-roads clubs.

"It's embarrassing -- just the number of trucks. You know. It's a bunch of trucks, a bunch of stuff," Church said.

But he said he felt like it was their moment to go big and he knows he's got to nail the show.

"I don't think we ever have any of the other success without it," Church said.

Showtime was 9 p.m. as 15,000 fans waited inside Staples Center. Church makes his way to the stage -- more than 2,000 man hours of work all lead to that moment.

But first, a ritual, right before stepping into the spotlight: a group shot of Jack Daniels -- a toast to all the work that brought them here.

"They have busted their a-- since 7 a.m. and they have been out there doing what they do and I get to, for them, spike the ball," Church said.

That celebration is intense, but short-lived. Two sweat-soaked hours after it begins, it's all over, and it's time to pack it all up, and put it back on the road, again.