billytalent

After our show in Detroit, Ben and I decided to rent a car and drive home and spend a beautiful sunny day off in Toronto.
We then got up early and drove our rental car to Cleveland. We are now prepared for a show followed by a day off somewhere in Nashville and then our first time in New Orleans. The day off was another typical day off in a parking lot beside a cheap hotel. We discovered a golf course close by and I played for the first time. I was horrible. I shot a 93 in 9 holes.

April 24th. New Orleans, LA.
Crazy long drive but we finally made it to New Orleans. We spent all of our time in the french quarter. We bumped in to CHALI 2NA from Jurassic 5 right outside the House of Blues. We played lollapalooza in 2003 with J5 and talked with him for a bit. Jon met Robert Plant in a record store. He did have a picture on his cell phone but he dropped it in the toilet and the picture is gone. The House of Blues in New Orleans is very small and the show was great. Everyone was so close. I am really looking forward to coming back here again. It really is unlike anywhere I've ever been.

Now our next three shows are Radio shows in Baton Rouge, Houston and Dallas. Radio shows are usually a big mish mash of bands and I spend the days checking out everyone's gear and watching bands. Our set times were really early but the crowds that were there to watch us were great. There was a karaoke party one night and the drummer from Finger 11 got up and sang "Try Honesty." It was pretty funny. The last show in Dallas was massive. MCR ended up playing in front of about 20, 000 very excited fans. I got a great seat on a speaker on the stage right beside the crowd and watched everyone crowd surfing. Then Tommy Lee walks up and comments on how good my seat was. Bus call was soon and we are now off to Austin for the first time.

April 28th. Austin, TX.
Today we play at Stubb's barbq. This is an outdoor venue and is also the home of the famous "Stubb's barbq sauce." I spend the day walking around Austin and getting a stock pile of hot sauces for my home. We are also planning a barbq in our next day off parking lot so we prepare for this as well. Another great show with the mighty MCR and Bob Bryar gets up and plays a song with us.

April 29th, Monroe, LA. Day off.
I wake up to the sound of people talking outside and water being sprayed all over the bus. We are inside a bus wash station and half the guys are already at the grocery store next door buying meat and vegetables for our barbq. We start cooking around 3pm and don't stop until around 9pm. It's really great when the band and crew get together and hang out all day. Spirits are up going into the final leg of this tour.

April 30th. Birmingham, AL.
Today we play at a place called Sloss Furnaces. After exploring around the furnaces for about an hour I start over hearing "haunted" and "ghosts" where ever I walk from the locals. I got back to the bus and looked up Sloss Furnaces on the internet. It turns out this place is one of the most haunted places in North America. A couple of us went into the most "haunted" area after looking at all the footage on the internet. I ran off by myself and was kind of making fun of the whole ghost thing. I then found myself alone walking out of a boiler area and said out load " I do believe you guys are hear, sorry for making fun". As I walked outside and around a corned I felt a rock hit me in the back of the foot. I turned around to laugh at the guys for trying to scare me by throwing a rock at me and there was no one behind me at all. It didn't freak me out or anything, it just was what it was. We play our show and spend the whole evening in the furnaces scaring the shit out of each other.

May 1st. St Louis, MO.
I'm really burnt out and I'll spend these next two days sleeping, doing laundry and watching TV. It's been a month since I've been able to just sit in silence. Our show isn't for another 48 hours which is really rare so I take full advantage of doing nothing.

May 3rd. St Louis, MO.
It's now show day and I'm rested up enough to finish off these last two shows. We'll be leaving the tour early and we will miss two shows in Philly and the last show at Madison Square Gardens!! We are all bummed about missing these three shows but right when we are done tomorrow we have to fly to the U.K to get on another bus that will drive us to Belgium. We've been booked to headline a festival over there and then go back to the U.K for two shows on the weekend before we fly back home. This will be a crazy 7 days but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Let's just get through these two shows first.

May 4th. Columbus, OH. Last show with MCR.
We hung out with all the guys in Drive By and MCR last night. We all know this is coming to an end and we probably won't see each other for months or even years. Sleep. Columbus. Home. Belgium. England. England. Home.
I'm ready. I can honestly say this was the most fun I've had touring the states. It's great when you can surround yourself with good people and share 5 weeks with each other doing what we do. Bob plays drums with us again. I get up and play the cowbell in one of their songs. Soon I will be jet lagged in a foreign country where the locals speak flemish and we play in front of 14,000 people at midnight.
I love what I do.