ON THE ROAD AGAIN....

COLUMBUS, OHIO

Upon arrival at the hotel, Lynn Lavery, Red Neinkirchen and Bill Oman were hanging in the lobby. They gave us a big cheer. We quickly took our  bags up to

the room and came down to the bar to have a drink with them and catch up.

5/29/15

The gym in the Hilton hotel was small, but adequate and fortunately pretty much empty. After my workout, Rosie and I took a stroll down the main drag, High Street. We would up buying a few things...for me, a nice new blanket (my “bank-ee”) to have for the hotel rooms, as I had forgotten the one I usually take...and a couple of cool “distressed” tee shirts, and she bought a sweater and a couple of other things. There were some pretty unique  stores to peek into, which helped us pass the time. The guy in the shop that we bought the clothes recognized me, which was nice. This night I would join Tim Ries to do a club gig at a place called Park Street Saloon. We had a sound check/rehearsal at about 6:30, and the place was on the way back to the hotel. Tim had lined up some local musicians to round things out. Two guitar players (whose name I forget), and a fantastic drummer named Reggie Jackson. The guitar guys were both good, too..but Reggie was exceptional. We went through the material and wound things up. Making our way back to the hotel, we split a salad and a burger in a restaurant close by, then went to the room for a little rest. Darryl Jones, Bernard Fowler and Karl Denson
The gig went really, really well. It was a standing up situation for the audience....there were a few spare tables, but mostly everyone was on their feet. Tim did about an hour with his stuff...mostly his Jazz arrangements of Stones songs...and Bernard joined in to sing maybe 3 or 4 of them. Then he called me up and we did my tune Tomato Jam and Statesboro Blues. Later I did Losing Hand and Compared to What...all went over great...especially with Reggie kickin’ ass on the drums. Karl played some great stuff too...as did everyone, really. Fantastic fun and the hose was packed with grateful fans.

Back at the hotel we knocked down a couple of cocktails with our friends, talking about the show and just generally catching up. Great day...

5/30/15

The Horseshoe

Time for the second stadium show of the tour. This would be the largest stadium we’ll play on the tour. Sixty thousand and change in numbers of folks. Totally sold out. It was sort of bitter sweet for me, and this is the stadium of the Ohio State Buckeyes, who beat my Alabama Crimson Tide in the last Sugar Bowl to take the National Championship. But I have to hand it to them...they won it fair and square and just outplayed us.

We did sound check about 4:30, and all went well. Another smoking show....tight and smooth, everyone on top of their game. So great that we can play at this level in this stage of the game. Kid Rock opened up...he did fine, but he did do one thing I thought was a bit inappropriate. He brought out the Navy Seal guy that claims to have shot Osama Bin Laden and paraded him around on stage. Hey....we’re all glad the guy (Bin Laden) is gone, but I thought it tacky to do as the opening act on a Stones show.

We had a fantastic police escort back to the hotel...we haven’t had many escorts in the last couple of years, and this one was definitely one of the best we’ve ever had anywhere. Those guys were amazing. We arrived back in high fashion and after changing clothes, went down to meet our friends. Peter Mathieson and his wife, Carol and two of their kids were there, along with Lynn, Red, Bill and more than a few fans that had been to the show.

Thanks to The Wilsons....

One guy, Bill Wilson  gave Rose Lane and me shirts that he had made up that said Moonlight Mile on them. We celebrated for a while and then called it a night.

5/31/15

Fans with a cake for me..

My Mom's birthday....HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I still miss her so....and think about her often. Dad, too.

I know neither of them would have ever imagined I would have this job for 33 years. Dad never did get to see me gain real success, as he passed when I was 17. But mom at least got to see me make it through my positions with the Allman Brothers all the way through to the Stones. She came out to Birmingham in 1989 when we played Legion Field. Actually, I sent a limo to pick her up in Tuscaloosa and drive her and her friend Mary up to B’ham for the concert. Great memory.

OK...a travel day for us. From Columbus to Minneapolis. 
 www.minneapolis.com.  Bags packed and all sealed up, collected by the bellmen and we did the usual bus ride to the airport. It was about an hour and a half flight, and we arrived and checked into the Ivy hotel with time for Rosie and me to decide on eating Indian food. We Yelped up a place close to the hotel called Bombay Bistro. It was nice and quiet...the food was very good if not stellar, and we enjoyed all those wonderful curries and spices. We left there with a nice bag of leftovers that we could tap the next day.  

BIRTHDAY BOYS IN MINEAPOLIS

6/1/15

Ronnie Wood’s birthday! He does love a party, and Sherry Daly and Jenny Taylor...along with Sally Wood, arranged a party for that evening, in a new downstairs bar in the Ivy. During the day we first went to a luggage store...as Rose Lane’s bags had given out and were tearing up. We were lucky that the place we went had a sale on Briggs and Riley...really good luggage that I’ve owned for years and that I wanted for her. Fortunately, they had a sale going on...so we bought her two really nice B & R suitcases and went back to the hotel to put them in the room. Then we walked up Nicolette St where there are a good many shops....Minneapolis is the home of the Target Stores, and along with several other shops we explored that. I bought a couple of long sleeve tees, as it was kinda chilly in the city and I had not brought many long sleeves with me. So we messed around the area and made our way back to the hotel for some down time before the party.

Ronnie's 3rd Birthday on tour...

The girls did a great job decorating the brand new bar, and we all had a great time celebrating Ronnie’s birthday. There was plenty of good food and drink, and it was just really nice that we could all get together like a family to share the time. Sally set up a “Musical Chairs” game, and I almost won it...was in the last two, but  Elizabeth Curan, the band’s Social Media specialist, won the final. It was great fun.

Keith and the band bought Ronnie a guitar...a vintage 1953 Fender Startocaster “hardtail”...in the original case and a Fender amp from the same year. Nice....

The party started at around 7:45 and apparently went on rather late...and some of the late folks hurt themselves a little bit...Rose Lane and I left around 11 or so. We went back to the room and laid on the sofa with our “bank-ees” and watched TV for a while.

6/2/15

Charlie Watts’ birthday...but unlike Ronnie, Charlie just doesn’t want to know about it. He just doesn’t care to count them. Tonight we would do another club gig in a place called The Dakota...a beautiful dinner and music venue that seats about 280. Lisa Fischer had played there the previous two nights, and this would be another Tim Ries thing with local players along with Bernard and me. Darryl didn’t want to do this one, so there was a guy named Gary that Tim had lined up to play stand up bass. We did a rehearsal/sound check at 4:30. Tim was supposed to have sent the local guys some mp3s of the tunes I wanted to do, but he didn’t follow up to make sure they got them, and so they never did. The tunes I wanted to do weren’t working without them having heard them first, and there just wasn’t enough time to really get them right...so I wound up doing simpler ones. In the end it turned out OK, though.

Band 2 with Charlie Watts

Charlie showed up and played on “Ruby Tuesday”...and prior to sitting down at the drums, the whole audience gave him a standing ovation and sang “Happy Birthday” to him. Tim had also invited an old friend of his that was his room mate in college...another sax player named Pete Whitman. The bass player was Gary Raynor, and the drummer was Kevin Washington. Cory Wong was on guitar. On a couple of songs, Tim had a gal named Laura Caviani play piano on one tune, and there was also a female trombone player on a couple...she was from Australia, named Tria.

Another fun night and packed house.  Our son-in-law’s brother, Mike Bransford, and his wife, Gretchen, came to the show....really nice to see them and we had a chance to catch up some after the show.

6/3/15

TCF Stadium tonight. About a 40K capacity. The weather looked iffy, and there were predictions of rain. Indeed, as the day progressed, rain came off and on...after our morning routine, I walked down to the Target Company Headquarters, only a couple of blocks away. Several years ago I met their Chief of Sustainability, Tony Heredia, at a conference in California sponsored by the Wall Street Journal called “Eco-Nomics”. He was a very nice guy, and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. Target is a great company and does a lot in their philanthropy, sustainability and social responsibility programs. I have been telling Tony all about The Mother Nature Network, and he seems interested in possibly coming on board with us for a sponsorship. I think it would be a great match...we had a nice short chat (he had a lot going on...his son’s graduation from high school in addition to his work), and agreed to re-visit the situation later this year or early next. Fortuitously, as I was about to leave their offices, it was pouring rain and I decided to wait it out for a while. A nice young lady started talking to me, asking about my umbrella...I told her that I had seen some umbrellas at the Security counter and walked her over there to get one. As we were waiting for the rain to subside, she asked me questions, and I divulged to her that I was in town to do the Stones show, and that we had played the Dakota the night before. She asked why I was at Target, and I told her about Tony and MNN. Her name is Abby Ruben. It turned out that she is also involved in their sustainability programs. We had a nice chat and I gave her one of my cards. She emailed me the next day with some more info on Target’s environmental work, which certainly helps. She had very favorable comments on MNN, so I will keep her in the loop in our conversations with the Target folks.

Rose Lane left on the early van as usual, to get to the stadium and start the process of helping to put things in order. I left with the band van at 3:30. Tonight’s opener would be Grace Potter, and Mick invited her to sit in as a guest on our set. She wanted to do “Gimme Shelter”...which she sometimes does in her own shows. So before the sound check, I went to Mick’s dressing room to run over it with the three of us. She was quite gracious and excited to do it, and was well prepared. We went through it a couple of times, then headed for sound check. Tonight we would put “Out of Control” and “Moonlight Mile” in the set, so we went over those and a couple of other numbers before getting to Grace. We did “...Shelter” with her, and then did the local choir for “Can’t Always Get What You Want”, then retired to our respective dressing rooms. I made it to VIP to see Mike and Gretchen again...she had her parents with her, and we all talked together for 10 minutes or so before I had to leave to prepare for the show.

We got VERY lucky with the weather....it had poured down during sound check and had rained pretty much all day...but when we went on, while it was cloudy and damp, it held off for the most part. Very lucky indeed. It was a smooth show...and during the introductions, the audience sang “Happy Birthday” to Ronnie and Charlie at Mick’s prompting. After the show Rosie and I decided to stay in...we were both pretty tired. We sipped on some wine and it wasn’t long before we took it to bed.

6/4/15

Headed to Dallas today. We packed up....Rosie is

pleased with her new bags and re-arranging her packing...me with my usual routine. I stayed on the computer for a good two hours answering and writing emails....mostly about our upcoming Atlanta show and dealing with guest lists for it. Working with the AEG folks and the folks at Bobby Dodd Stadium, we’ve sorted out a separate room for our guests. My partner in MNN, Joel Babbit, is also hosting a pre-show party for our company and some of our clients. His gig will start at 6:45 and go to 8....and mine and Rose Lane’s personal guests (about 150 or so) will go to what will be called “Hospitality”. I figure I can get there around 7:30 for 30-40 minutes. It’s going to be nuts, but a fun kind of nuts. So I have been compiling the list of names for all that and coordinating the logistics. The whole “Southern Swing” of our tour...Dallas, Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville and Raleigh we’ll have lots of guests, so I’m working on those other cities lists as well.

I had time for a short 40 minute gym hit...the fitness center at the Ivy is really great...and I wanted to take as much advantage of it as I could. Soon it was time for the Lobby call and we boarded up for the flight to Dallas. Wheels up at 4...we’re on the same time zone, so we should get there about 6.

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 at 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 run 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.

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.