Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Levine
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
As an adolescent I loved taking tours with a local L.A. operator, Grave Line Tours. Grave Line used to take its passengers around town in converted funeral hearses, and show them the infamous locations of great Los Angeles true crimes. Grave Line Tours, which operated in the late 80s and early 90s, evolved into another company, which did not use funeral vehicles, and went out of business with COVID lockdowns in 2020.
I had another full time job at the time, but when I learned about the murder tour company’s closure I heard a still, small voice inside of me telling me that I have to bring it back. Nostalgic for the hearses, I decided that the new company, which I called Grave Line Tours after the original, would reclaim the great funeral vehicles.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It is always difficult to start a small business. This is not my first, but of course, it is not much easier than the first go. It’s very difficult to ensure that every passenger who takes a Grave Line ride has a great time, but we have been revising our method as we go along. The vehicle maintenance has been arduous and stressful at times, but I find it is all worth it, as those limos are spectacular.
Our main obstacle now is just to get known. Advertising is extremely expensive and we don’t have an infinite budget, so we are getting as creative as we can in marketing strategies and ideas.
We’ve been impressed with Grave Line Tours, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We literally put death on the map of Los Angeles. Grave Line Tours serves to present to you this other, darker, side of L.A., one no less real than the aspects the world has already come to know and love.
Grave Line Tours offers a delightfully macabre assortment of general and premium rides to notorious homes and locations for the merely curious and true crime experts alike. Each ride is given in one of our custom six-door funeral Cadillac Fleetwood limousines—our idea of the perfect way to eternally preserve your experience! Tours are immersive and include audio and visual content to enhance the post-mortem experience.
We pride ourselves on our uniqueness and on our dedication to providing an unforgettable customer experience. There is no canned audio in our tours; each is fully narrated in real time by a ghostly chauffeur, and everyone is welcome to ask questions. The limousine setting makes the experience more intimate than your usual sightseeing tour, and that engenders a sense of camaraderie among our mourners, as well as our guide. We know that our tours cost more than our competitors’ walking tours, and we want to ensure that mourners come away feeling they got all the value and more for their tickets. That’s one reason we provide visual and auditory context along the stops.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
You want to understand that as a CEO you have strengths, but you also have weaknesses! The key to Grave Line’s success has been picking a team where each player knows his position much better than I do, and can guide me just as much as I guide them.
Pricing:
- $65 (2 hour tour)
- $85 (3/3+ hour tour)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.graveline.rip
- Instagram: @gravelinetours
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/gravelinetours
- Twitter: @gravelinetours
- Youtube: @gravelinetours
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/grave-line-tours-los-angeles
