May 18...and another day off for us!

Entry 5/18/13

The 14th was an off day for us, and John didn’t ring me for another session, so Rosie and I had it to ourselves. Again, the gym and pool were in order. Almost every day, my pal Matt Clifford has joined us at the pool and we’ve carved out a special spot that we call “Keyboard Corner”. Our mutual friend and fellow keyboardist, Wix Wickens, had returned to LA after doing a couple of shows in Brazil with McCartney. His main reason for returning was not a great one…he had to have a root canal while he was there. He had a couple of days off before that fun procedure and was just hanging. We had a good time together, talking music, our respective “camps” and keyboard gear.

I invited Wix to dinner with Rosie and me later, which he accepted. He told me he had to go to Westwood Music to return some gear and asked me to go along with him, which I accepted. He is good friends with Mark ??, the owner and has done business with them for many years, even before Mark took it over. I was still on the lookout for a mandolin, so figured it would be a good idea to see what Mark might have. As it turned out, he didn’t have anything of interest to me at that moment, but said he would make some calls and see what he could turn up. The next day he texted me with a picture of a 1917 Gibson and looked really good. I told him via text that I would come see it in a few days and check it out, so we’ll see….

Wix and I went back to the hotel and we all had some down time before dinner. The three of us, Rosie, me and Wix, walked down to the Duplex around 7:30. I’ve mentioned it before…we’ve dined there a few times, always enjoying it. Wix remembered it from when it was called something else and said he used to go there all the time when in town.

We had fun talking more about our situations….agreeing how good it is that we still get to do this. It seems that McCartney will be working more than we will…but of course that depends on if the Stones decide to keep this ball rolling after this run. No sense in speculating about that now….and we should know something solid about that in the next month or so.

We wrapped it up and walked back to the hotel, calling it a day.

5/15/13

Time to make the doughnuts again…Rose Lane was leaving early to get to the show and start her process backstage, and departed on the 1pm van. I took the 2pm which gave me some time on the treadmill and in Keyboard Corner before getting ready. John Mayer would be our special guest tonight, and after giving him several choices, he decided on “Champaign and Reefer”, an old Muddy Waters tune. We had done that with Clapton last year in London….but had not done it since, so it was a good choice. I went through my routine of doing the set list and getting a bite to eat in catering before sound check. On the way to catering I heard someone call my name…they were behind me…and jokingly, I said “I didn’t do it!”….and the voice said “Yes, you did!” I turned around to see Ken Helie, Mayer’s tour manager and confidant…and who has become a good friend of mine. We chatted for a bit, both glad to see each other. He had to go look after some things and I told him I’d see him at sound check.

We were to have a “new” choir for this show, so Matt had been working with them for “You Can’t Always Get….”. on the check we went through Rocks Off and Waiting for a Friend, both of which I had suggested…then did “Champaign…” with John. He had a bit of trouble with his gear but he and his tech, Rene, worked it out fairly quickly and he sounded terrific.  I wanted to go over “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”….but I could tell that Mick was getting a bit tired and time was getting short, so after working with the choir we called it off and retreated to our dressing rooms.

The Honda Arena is perhaps not the best room for sound, but we made it work….although I have to say it got really loud at the show….part of that was the room, but part of it is that we were just loud. Anyway, I thought it went quite well other than the volume (I’ll likely be wearing my custom ear plugs starting the next show) and John again tore it up on “Champaign….”. It was great to hear him sing on it as well…when he guested with us last year on the NY shows he was still recovering from his granuloma and opted to play but not sing. Now he’s back feeling good and confident about his voice…and he sounded like John Mayer singing…and playing…and it was tremendous.

It was quite a long ride down to Anaheim and of course again going back. About an hour and a half….so it was quite late when we got to our room. But Rosie and I decided we’d have a peek in the bar and to our surprise, it was unusually quiet instead of the crazy bustling that we usually see down there. So being pleasantly sedate an atmosphere  we decided to stay for a couple of drinks. Matt Clifford and Tim Ries were there and we had a nice time shooting the breeze for a while….then it was off to bed.

5/16/13

Although it was technically a day off for the band, it was not for me. I had an interview to do for USA Today’s technology writer, Jeff Graham. We had arranged to do it at Center Staging out in Burbank, where we had rehearsed. Paul Reed Smith (a guitar company) has a room in the complex and the gentleman that runs it, Winn Krozack, let us use it. Jeff wanted to film the interview for their website, so he had everything set up when I arrived there at 2:30. 

Since the subject matter was tech, he asked me about the difference in touring these days as opposed to the early 70s with the Allman Brothers and the earlier tours with the Stones. I talked about how back there there were no cell phones….no computers and the technology we were using would be considered very antiquated now. Then we got into all the apps I have for my iPhone….programs to store set lists and tempos for songs, apps like Yelp and Zagot to find good restaurants and other stores…Gas Buddy to find the cheapest gas in whatever area you are in….Shazam, which is an app you can sing into and it will tell you what song it is…and so on. It wound up being a fun interview and I hope it turns out well.

I headed back to the Four Seasons to meet back up with Rose Lane. Our friends Herren and Susan Hickingbotham had come in that day and we were going to dinner with them that evening. We killed some time kicking back until our appointed hour to get together came. We met them in the lobby at 8…Herren’s family owns several car dealerships, one of them being in Orange County that sells Bentleys, Rolls Royces and other exotic brands. He had picked up a Bentley to use during his stay and we rode in that to the Sunset Tower Hotel where we had made reservations. The Maitre d' is a really nice Russian guy named Demitri ….we had been there a couple of other times and he had taken good care of us. So he showed us to our table and we had a fine meal together.

Herren and Susan came up to our room for a half hour after we returned to the hotel…we talked for a while…then said good night….all of us off to bed.

5/17/13

John had hit me the day before about doing another session for him today, and of course I had agreed. But before that, I had an appointment in Buena Park to see the Yamaha folks who had requested I come see some new instruments they were making. My friend Avery Burdette had come to the show in Anaheim and had suggested the meeting. I thought it would be good to have some company along and invited Matt Clifford to go with me. He was happy to agree, so the two of us headed out at noon for the one hour ride. My tech, Mike Klvana, was also to join us there. Yamaha has a huge complex in Buena Park, and I had been there once before. We arrived and Avery greeted us in the lobby. I was somewhat surprised and very pleased that my old friend Athan Billius was there as well. Athen is pretty much the top man at Yamaha in this division. I’ve known him from 1990 when he was living in Japan and was working for the KORG company. He started at Yamaha in the late 90s and worked his way up. He’s a great guy and good friend…and has a brilliant mind. When he was living in Japan he picked up the language in a very short time…most impressive.

So we looked at some new keyboards that Yamaha has designed…talked about the technologies involved and about when they would be released. Matt and I were both very impressed as was Mike. We also were led to a special room where they had some acoustic pianos….the flagship CFX concert grand, some Bosendorfers (Yamaha bought the company a few years ago) as well as some “digital acoustic” instruments. We had a grand time going from one to the other to the other. They could have left Matt and me in there for days!

Athan and Avery promised to send me one of the new C4 digital pianos before they are released and asked me to do a short video for it…which of course I agreed to do. We wound up the meeting and headed back to LA.

I dropped Matt off at the Four Seasons and drove to Village Recorders to meet John and Co. It was again a fantastic session, and I put keys on two different tunes as well as bashing out another couple of jams with Sean, Aaron and John. Soooo much fun.One of the songs I had already recorded some on, but added some B3 and Wurly to it. It’s called ???. The other is one is a tune with John playing acoustic guitars and doing the vocals on….very stripped down, to which I put a B3 pad on. That one is called “Badge and Gun”. John asked me about getting in touch with Lisa Fischer to ask her to sing on a tune or two while we’re in town, and I accommodated a contact between them. I wound up that session a bit earlier than the one several days ago and left by 10pm. Got back to the room and settled in for the night.

5/18/13

Another show in Anaheim tonight at the Honda Center. Left on the 2pm van and got there around 3:30. Set my mind to the business at hand and did the set list, getting in a bit of practice on my own as well. Tonight we would have Dave Grohl as a guest. I have played with him once before…back in 2011 at the House of Blues when I was touring with Gov’t Mule. It was good to see him again. He told me a story that I did not know about that time. It was soon after 9/11…and Dave’s mom lives in the DC area. Since the Pentagon was a target and everyone was on edge, he wanted his mom to leave and come out to California…but of course all the airports were shut down and there were no planes flying. So he called around to see if there were any tour buses heading out that way from the area and found out that Warren Haynes was leaving NY in one to go west for some Mule shows. He didn’t really know Warren, but asked him if his mom could ride…and of course Warren was happy to help. So they take this multi-day ride together winding up in LA. They got to know each other very well and became friends. So Warren asked Dave to come play with us at the HOB…and when they got there Dave said no one paid much attention to him but they all rushed over to his mom falling all over her! Fun….

 Dave did well for the show….he brought an amazing amount of energy to the stage on “Bitch”. I liked it because as we played the song he went around the stage to every musician to give a nod and acknowledge us. Very cool.

5/19/13

A Sunday, and a day off. Hit the gym and then the pool…Caroline Clements, our makeup girl, came down to join us and sun a bit…she had been really sick with a bad cold and had missed the last couple of shows as she didn’t want to pass it on to any of us. Whatever the bug was, it was making its way around…Bobby Keys had also had it. But today she was better and wanted badly to get out of her room…saying she really wanted to go to the beach. So Rose Lane and I agreed to take her. We left the hotel about 2 and made the drive. We decided to go to a place called Gladstone’s that she had been to before. We took the Interstate going, and the traffic was pretty heavy…taking us just over an hour to get there. But there was pleasant scenery on the way, looking out at the Pacific Ocean and watching the waves come in. Gladstone’s is on Sunset Beach, a bit south of Malibu. They had valet parking, which was good as it would have been next to impossible to park the car ourselves. It was very crowded, and the restaurant told us it would be at least an hour wait…so we left them our name and decided to take a walk along the beach. That was good for all of us…hearing the ocean waves, people watching and walking barefoot on the sands. There were a fair amount of folks hanging out, but it wasn’t so crowded as to make it unpleasant. It was a great feeling to breath in the salty air, which did all of us good. The tide was coming in and we had to dodge the water several times to keep getting our clothes wet, so we were dancing our way along. We reached the end of the beach and turned around, heading back to Gladstone’s.

Rose Lane found a few treasures along the way…a little toy car that we knew our grandson Rocco would like, a couple of rocks (she loves rocks), a small and interesting piece of driftwood, a bottle opener and two gull feathers. On the way back, I noticed a Latino couple sort of staring at me…and when we reached them, the girl said…“Are you that famous country singer?”…meaning Kenny Rogers. It’s funny, but that happens to me from time to time.

Getting back to Gladstone’s, we didn’t have to wait long before they seated us…outside at a nice semi private table. I didn’t want to eat much as I knew Rosie and I would go to dinner later…and ordered the crab cakes. Rosie had a salad with shrimp and scallops, another seafood salad….and I have to say that while the place looks a bit like a tourist trap, the food was amazing. All really fresh and tasty. We wound it up and decided to return via Sunset Blvd….Gladstone’s is literally where Sunset dead ends into the beach, so we just had to cross the street to catch it. It is a very cool drive…through some interesting neighborhoods with lovely yards and houses to look at. It winds round quite a bit, so I drove fairly slowly to try and keep us comfortable. We arrived back around 6pm, having enjoyed the little getaway.

Rosie and I took a bit of down time before walking over to Il Cielo for cocktails and  a light dinner.

5/20/13

Our last show in California, and the second one at the Staples Center. As usual, I took one of the early vans and settled in to do the set list and prepare for sound check. No guest on board tonight…the first time on the tour that has happened…and I have to say, kind of nice to have a break from it and have it be just us. Of course Mick Taylor would guest as usual, and I took advantage of that to suggest he be on more tunes. We had a “By Request” for the first time in a couple of shows, and “Sway” had won that position. That would serve as one tune for Taylor to play on, and as I had been stressing to get “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” in and finally convinced Mick J to do it, that would be another…and we kept “Midnight Rambler”, so that was the third. Actually, of late he has been coming out for the final encore and playing on “Satisfaction”, so it was actually four tunes he would play on. I suggested “Far Away Eyes”, which had the reference to Bakersfield…and “…sending $20 to the church of the Bleedin’ Hearts somewhere in Los An…” for fun. It turned out to be a very special show, and the hard cores lit up the Internet and YouTube with positive comments and snippets. Mick thought it was one “…unusual song” too many, but I personally disagreed and thought it was great. Not that he thought the set as a whole didn’t work…he liked it, too and of course liked the fact that the fans were chattering about it. He commented to me later…rightfully…that we didn’t quite get the reaction on “Far Away Eyes” that we thought we would…they liked it, but it didn’t seem to bowl them over like we anticipated. Still, ya gotta take some chances, and we both agree on that.

5/21/13

A red letter day for Chuck. I had an interview for “Good Day LA” on KTLA television, and they sent a car for me at 8:30am to pick me up. It was a bit early, but worth getting up for. I arrived and did the live interview with Steve ?? and Maria ??. I also got to meet Ramona ??, a person that I had written a short song for years before. At the time she was just leaving CNBC as an anchor, and the folks there had asked me if I could do something for her. It was a fun little ditty and I can’t even remember much of it, but the theme was something along the lines of not wanting her to go. It had gone over well, and now all this time later she has taken a position at KTLA and we got to meet. She’s a very sweet girl and we had a nice chat reminiscing about that and just talking about our lives. They had some great b-roll that they included on the piece…me on my tractor, on stage with the Stones and with the Allman Brothers. I got to talk a good bit about MNN, which was really what I was after, so it was a success all the way around. I was back at the hotel by 10:30.

Earlier in our stay, I had met Mark Bookin at Westwood Music  when I went there with Wix Wickens, Paul McCartney’s keyboard player and a good friend. I had told Mark that I was looking for a vintage mandolin…preferably a Gibson F5 Fern. He had told me he would make some calls to see what he could find, and had contacted me a day or so later to tell me he had found an F4…1917 model. The pictures he sent looked good, and I had told him that I would get by to have a look at it as soon as I could. Today was the day…so after some sun time at the pool I showered and prepared to head out to see it. I invited Matt Clifford to go with me to have some company, and he had agreed. Westwood is not that far from the hotel…maybe 3 miles or so. We arrived and Mark greeted us with a couple of glasses of his “new favorite lemonade”….mixed with some mango juice. Nice and refreshing. After some pleasantries, he brought out the instrument in its original case. I knew I wanted her the minute I set eyes on her…and she wanted me. She played beautifully…and the intonation was perfect all up and down the neck. While it showed minor wear, it was in pristine condition…no repairs, nicks or problems. It didn’t take me long to tell Mark that he had a deal. While the cost was not what I would call an extraordinary bargain, it was more than fair, and after looking on the Internet for similar instruments, what I paid was probably 10-20% less for instruments that were not in as good condition, so I felt great about the purchase. The hard part was not being able to take her with me. Mark preferred a check to a credit card, which was understandable…and I didn’t have enough cash with me, so I told him I would have a check cut from home and wold send it to him, and he could ship it back to Charlane after it cleared. The deal was done and Matt and I left, me beaming about this wonderful rare mandolin that I could now claim for my own.

Matt wanted to go to another music store to purchase some proper ear plugs, which Mark didn’t have at Westwood…so we drove to Guitar Center, which was not far away, and browsed around there, Matt finding what he wanted. We headed back to the Four Seasons ending a special afternoon.