BUZZING THROUGH THE SOUTH!

DALLAS

 

6/4

We arrived Dallas right at 6pm and bussed everyone to the hotel, The Mansion at Turtle Creek. As I had told Ronnie that we wanted to take he and Sally out  to dinner for his birthday, we asked him if he wanted to go this evening. It all worked out nicely...as we are friends with the famous Chef, Stephen Pyles, who has a restaurant in his name there. Unfortunately Stephen was not there...he was on a European trip...but fortunately, Stephen’s Front End Manager, George Majdalani, was there...and George is also a good friend. We all met there around 8:30 and had a really great time catching up on our respective lives and enjoying some excellent food. George and the staff at Pyles took care of us big time, giving us a great table in a private area and waiting on us hand and foot. The petite oysters were amazing, as was my pork ribs. They brought us an array of seveche dishes that totally rocked, as did the combo desert tray they brought us at the end. Nice....

6/5

An off day in Dallas. We slept in pretty late...until about 11:30. I did the gym thing and then went to the pool to soak up some rays. So great to be back in the South! It was hot, but we were ready for hot, given that most of the cities we’ve been in have been cooler in temps than is normal, and there have been lots of cloudy days. There were clouds in the sky this day, but they gave a pleasant break to the sun off and on. My pal Ronnie Finestone was there, and we talked for a while...about various things. He had brought some of his clients from JC Penny’s there for the show the next day to entertain them.

By the time I got back up to the room, it was late afternoon. The night before, I had bought us a bottle of wine from the hotel bar after our dinner, as we were out....and between the two drinks we had and the wine, the tab was over a hundred bucks...ouch. So I took a cab to go to a liquor store to get us some less expensive wine to have. I spent 1/3 of the cost of the hotel wine for two larger bottles. Man, the cost of food and drink out here is just outrageous. We try to be reasonable, but sometimes there is no avoiding it. It hurts my feelings to think about how much we spend to eat and drink on tour...but we aren’t gonna do fast food, so it’s inevitable and we just have to deal with it as best we can.

We stayed in this evening for dinner. Could have gone out again, but we were just not of a mind to take a cab to some restaurant outside the hotel, so we dined in the hotel restaurant, The Mansion Room. I have to admit that it was very good...and yes, very expensive. I had the soft shell crab as an appetizer...excellent...as was the salmon as the main dish. We split a salad, and Rosie had the branzino. All very good.

6/6

Tonight is the AT & T Center in Arlington. A huge stadium...the “House That Jerry Built” (Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys). Prior to the show I squeezed in a bit of pool time, but only a half hour. Rose Lane left on the early bus as usual, and the band bus was at 3:30. I had to revise the set list I had planned a bit, due to the fact that this place is NOT built for sound. Concrete floor, hard surfaces everywhere...and even with the roof open for some of the sound to escape, the reverberation is something like ten seconds. So I changed out a few tunes that I felt would just get lost in the building. Whatever they didn’t spend on acoustics, they certainly did spend a lot on other aspects. Generous dressing rooms (locker rooms for the players), very clean and well built. At sound check we dealt with the sound as best we could, and all agreed on the set list changes.

I went to catering afterwards...nice room and grub there...I went for the fresh lobster. Great stuff. As our dressing room area was huge, they had put my warmup keyboard in a private place outside mine and Darryl’s room. That gave me the chance to get in a lot of practice. Usually I put headphones on so I don’t disturb Darryl, but here I didn’t need to, and got in a good hour plus of practice, which was great.

I went to VIP for a while to see friends that had come: Don and Ann Short and their son Will; my old pal from Tuscaloosa, Frank Friedman; a talented Hammond B3 organ player, Eric Scortia and his wife, Eleanor; my friend John Norman, who’s family runs Quail Ridge Plantation in Georgia and a couple of other folks. I missed David Russell, who had gotten tickets at the last minute. Just didn’t see him in the room.

Teasing The Dallas Cowboy!

The gig went better than I thought it would, and the packed house (guessing 55K) helped to soak up some of the sound, although it is still one of the worst stadiums for sound we’ve ever done. Even the reviews that came out the next day, which were all very positive on the band, acknowledged the sound problem. They really should do something about it if they want to have concerts in there. 

6/7 ATLANTA

HOME AT LAST, BUT JUST TO PASS THROUGH....

Atlanta bound....bags packed, our departure from the hotel was at 3:30. Again, I squeezed in 45 min at the pool, which was very relaxing. But bad news came from Caroline Clements, our Makeup artist, who was at the pool. She told me that our Monitor man, Robert “Bull” Bull had had a massive heart attack this morning as the crew were loading up to leave their hotel. Apparently he stopped breathing during the incident and if it were not for the quick resuscitation efforts of Lizzy Scace, one of our production crew, he would have died. They rushed him to the hospital, where our tour Dr., Brad Connor, checked in on him. The word is that he is recovering, but that the next 48 hours will tell if there has been any extensive damage. Bull is such a great guy, and obviously we are all devastated and concerned about him. Just terrible that this happened, but thank you Lizzy for saving his life. We’re all on pins and needles for further news. 

HOMECOMING IN ATLANTA

6/8

Arrived Atlanta evening of 6/7 and checked into the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead. We had arranged to have dinner with my partner in MNN, Joel Babbit, and his wife, Kimberly at NY Prime, a good steakhouse a short walk from the Ritz. Had a fine meal with them and retired to our room. The 8th was an off day, and the first order after our morning routine was to go to the stadium to advance the rooms we would have for pre-show the next day. Joel and MNN was hosting a reception and Rose Lane and I had arranged for our own room due to the number of guests we would have. Fortunately, the two room s were stacked on top of each other, making it easy to go back and forth. The Stones VIP was on the third floor on top of those, so that was also good. We met with the folks that would do the catering and went over the final details. All good, we headed back to the hotel. In the afternoon we walked across the street to Phipps Plaza and nosed around the shops. I would up leaving Rose Lane there to do her shopping, as I wasn’t really in the mood to buy anything, and went back to the room.

That night we hooked up with our good friend, Charlie Hendon. Charlie owns one of the best restaurants in Atlanta called UMI...a sushi place. In fact, it has actually been voted by some magazines as being the very best restaurant in the city. I invited Mick and Matt Clifford to come along, but unfortunately he declined...so it was just he four of us...Charlie and his wife, Cynthia, and Rosie and me. GREAT food...and they just kept bringing us various plates that we shared. One of their sons, Houston, also was there, but sitting at a different table. The actress, Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games), was also there. We didn’t meet her...didn’t want to interrupt. Charlie had told us that the clientele is cool with famous folks coming in. Elton John is a friend of Charlie’s and often goes there. Too bad Mick didn’t come...he missed a great meal. Charlie and Cynthia were, as always, very gracious to us and we had fun catching up on things.

After that, they drove us back to the Ritz and we shut down for the night.

6/9

 

TRAVIS TRITT

Homecoming show day...this would be a very special night for me. The last time we played in Atlanta was in ‘06 at Phillips Arena on the Bigger Bang tour. We actually played there twice on the tour...once in ‘05 at Phillips. But it was back in 1989 when we played Bobby Dodd Stadium, so this would be a biggie. Dodd holds around 40,000 and it had sold out...as have all our shows. After going through my set list duties, we did the sound check. The sound was a bit more difficult than I remember it being back in ‘89....rather harsh and hard. But with bodies filling up the hard surfaces of the aluminum benches and concrete parts, that would help the situation. The dressing rooms were on the opposite side of where the VIP rooms were, and it was a bit of a challenge to get there. I actually wound up going outside the stadium and walking around it to get to where I needed to be, what they call the “Edge Building”. I checked in first in the MNN room...around 6:45. Kimberly was there, and a smattering of folks were beginning to come in. It wasn’t long before Joel got there, and he introduced me to some of the executives of our sponsors...some, of course, I knew already...and some that I had yet to meet. It was a nice room, and soon it filled up. Joel had had it appointed with some hors d’oujvres and a bar, and everyone was having a blast. I did a ton of photos with folks and enjoyed “working the room”.

After about 45 minutes, I headed up one floor to get to my room...whoa, it was packed solid and I was immediately accosted by lots of friends. Talk about photos...it was one after another and non stop. But it was all good fun, and I was “feeling the love” for sure. I spent another 45 minutes there, then went one more time down to the MNN room to say goodbye to Joel. He was very pleased with the way it all went...as was I. Then it was time to go to work...

CHUCKY POINTS THE WAY

Making my way back across the stadium to where the dressing rooms were, I got a call from Elliott, a friend of Alex Cooley’s. Elliott had asked me back when I did the benefit gig at Eddie’s Attic for the Westchester School where our grandsons go, if I might be able to see Alex when we were at the Stones gig. So I found him and was able to spend a few minutes with them Alex is such a great guy and was most gracious to let us use Eddie’s...he owns it. He is a legendary promoter in the Atlanta area and throughout the south...mostly retired now, but he put together some historic shows that I was lucky to be part of. With the Allman Brothers Band, Sea Level and others. After that, I quickly made it to my room and donned my show clothes as fast as I could, as we were about to go on. 

Soon came the pre-show video and then Matt Clifford’s voice announcing...“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome The Rolling Stones!”.

It turned out to be a really great show...and it was tons of fun to look out in the audience throughout the night and see so many people I know. Mick did a special and funny intro of me during the band introductions...something to the effect of..“So we were wandering around the streets of Atlanta many years ago and ran into this fantastic guy that was a tree farmer...and it turns out he was a great keyboard player as well, so we invited him to come along....please welcome a hometown boy done good...”. And I’ll never forget the rousing welcome from the crowd. One for the books.

After the show we met up with Charlie and Cynthia Hendon...and all three of their boys, Houston, McClain and Tanner. Lynn Lavery was also there, as was our friend Richard Kerris...and Jeff and Cathy Tucker. We had a couple of drinks together, talked about the show and other things...eventually turning in around 2:30am.

CHUCK AND SIS JUDY

6/10

TERESA GRIFFIT, LYNN LAVERY WITH US AND FRIENDS

Load it up and move it out...to Orlando. Rosie and I were fairly well exhausted from the Atlanta experience....so much preparation, socializing and of course a rock show....and the “after party” at the Ritz. We left at the usual time...wheels up at 4pm and arrived Orlando around 6. We checked in to the Four Seasons at Golden Oaks, not far from Disney World. Sort of in-between Epcot Center and Disney World. A fairly new property, about a year old. We had just enough energy to get down to one of the restaurants for a couple of pizzas and get back to our room to sip on some wine and crash out.