Thursday, June 25, 2015

14 On Fire Continues

1. FOURTEEN ON FIRE CONTINUES….

Beautiful and clean Oslo, Norway

5/20-25 OSLO

The rehearsals began for me on 20. I got the feeling that the guys were glad to see me, and I was certainly glad to see all of them and to get back on track after our unexpected interruption of the tour. Mick was in a good mood.

Over the coming days we went through the usual practice routine…me making up a list of songs to do, presenting them to Mick and making any changes he wanted, and getting down to business. The hours were quite reasonable…from about 2pm until 8. I came in early some days to get personal practice in. We were done most every day in time for Rosie and I to have dinner together, and we explored several restaurants around the hotel we were in…the Continental. The band and staff were spread out over three different hotels due to the high traffic in Oslo…they had conventions going on, a national holiday and some other events that had about all the hotels filled up. Some of the band was at the Grand Hotel, where we have stayed before…some of us at the Continental, some at a place called The Thief.


Unni with Rose Lane and Chuck

Elizabeth and Rose Lane with her menagerie

I kept up my workout routine, starting to do more aerobics along with the weights. I wanted to try and drop 3 or 4 pounds before the tour, which I was able to do. Some of the restaurants were: The Theater Cafe (part of the Continental…we dined there several time…great place), The Lofoten (on the boardwalk of the docks), Dinner, an Asian place a couple of doors down from the hotel, The Edge, a steak place, and an Indian restaurant called Jaipur. Rose Lane hooked up with a couple of artists while we were there…Unni Askeland, www.unniaskeland.com a very well known artist that had once been married to Eric Andersen, the folk musician, mostly known from the late 60’s and 70’s…and another artist named Elizabeth Werp.www.elizabethwerp.com
The rehearsals in general went quite well…I tried to include as many different tunes as I could and we covered a lot of territory. Still, I knew that Mick would want to keep to a fairly “safe” set. He told me in an email a few days before we started that he had “…had quite enough of funerals lately, so probably no ‘Paint It Black’ for a while”. Which of course I could completely understand. We wound up the rehearsals on the 24th and had the 25th off.

5/25

First show of the tour was at the Telenor Arena, which I believe held about 30K folks. It was sold out. The gig was ok, if not great…there were a couple of little hiccups….nothing too devastating, just little bumps. But it felt great to be back on the stage again.

The Telenor was oddly a hot room in temperature…strange given the coolness of the outside…but I guess being a relatively cold place, they don’t have air conditioning, so it was quite toasty inside. So maybe not a fantastic start, but a decent one and one to grow on.

5/26-28 OSLO TO LISBON

Time to get the show on the road. Travel to Lisbon. Our usual schedule is luggage picked up around 11:30am and lobby call about 2:45. In the bus, off to the airport, on to the plane and wait for the principals to arrive, then wheels up at 4. That was the routine for today, and off we were for a four hour flight to Lisbon. We lost an hour in the transfer, so arrived quite late to the Four Seasons hotel, around 10:30. We went to the bar, had a drink and ordered some food there, went to bed.

Jacaranda Trees

Next day I hit the gym…quite a good one at the top of the building. We were in a kind of weird part of town…big park across the street, but not a whole lot in the immediate area in terms of shops and restaurants. We had lunch at a highly average place nearby that the concierge had recommended and walked around some, headed back to our room. We basically spent the rest of the day there killing time, taking a nap, until dinner. For that, we remembered a place that we really liked the last time we were in Lisbon….a restaurant in an old convent called. La Travessa. It was a good choice. We were greeted by the restaurant manager, Antonio, who took good care of us. It’s the kind of place where except for the main dish (which you choose from meat, fish, chicken, vegetarian) they just bring you food to try. Excellent place, high quality and great service. At the end of the meal we were heading out and Paul Gongaware appeared….he and some others were dining there as well, unbeknownst to us. He kindly offered us a ride back to the hotel, but we had already called for a cab, so we declined, thanking him for the offer. Antonio was interested in coming to the show, and Paul made arrangements through the local promoter to take care of him. That finished out our day, and back at the hotel we chilled out with some TV.


The Beautiful Four Seasons Lisbon

5/29

ROCK IN RIO (in Lisbon)

So Rock In Rio is a big festival that is sometimes held as a satellite festival from the one in Rio that takes place in Lisbon. It’s a big deal….and the attendance would run over eighty thousand. But before going to the show, we wanted to get a “tube” to keep our posters in….the strong kind of cardboard cylinders. The concierge told us of a big department store not far away where we could get one, and after lunch at the hotel we headed out to find it. On the way, just a couple of blocks before we got there, the rain came. I suppose we were pretty lucky, as while we did get wet, we weren’t exactly soaked, which could have been the case if we were 5 minutes later.

It took us a while to find the right department in the huge store, but we did….and given the language challenge, while we were able to find something that worked, we didn’t quite realize that what we bought were not just tubes (two small ones that we would have to put together end to end to make them long enough), but they actually were little posters inside…of a tree, which I guess for us, was appropriate!

We milled around the store for a good hour and a half, and I wound up buying a few tee shirts. It was really quite a diverse store, even with a full sporting goods section on the top floor. It kept us entertained for a while, and then we took a cab back to the Four Seasons.

Rosie and I went on the early van to the show….for her to start her backstage duties and for me to arrange the set list and just have a change of scenery. Word had gone around that Bruce Springsteen would be sitting in with us. When we did the Dr. John show a few weeks earlier, we had chatted with his wife, Patti….and she told us that they would be in Europe the same time we would…but not to tour musically. Their daughter is an expert equestrian and would be competing during the summer in several events all over Europe. So as it turned out, they were in Portugal the same time we were and Bruce graciously agreed to come sit in on “Tumbling Dice”….which he had done with us earlier in the year in the New York area. Also, Gary Clark, Jr. would be opening up for us and we invited him to sit in as well. He would do “Respectable” with us. So we arranged a little backstage rehearsal to go over the tunes…and also to rehearse the choir for “You Can’t Always Get….”. That took place around 5pm, and it was great fun….we were in a tiny tent area just outside our Makeup room. Very close quarters and so cool to run through the songs so intimately. All that went well and we had some down time before the show began.

Boom! What a great gig it turned out to be….Bruce came on on the 4th song spot and just killed it. The fans went absolutely nuts as they had no idea that he was even in the country. Gary rocked it on his spot and the band just shined all night. Very special gig, making for a wonderful memory for all of us.

5/30-6/1 LISBON TO ZURICH

Everyone boarded the plane in a great mood, talking about what an incredible gig Lisbon was, and ready to move on to Zurich, our next stop. We were to stay at the Dolder Grand Hotel there….where we stayed back in 2002? when we did the Forty Licks tour. The Dolder is some 15 or so miles outside of Zurich, up on a nice size hill surrounded by lots of forestland on three sides and a golf course on the opposite side of the road. It was there that we did the last date of the European tour of Forty Licks, and was where we received our two Border Collie pups that Charlie Watts had gotten for us from nearby his horse farm near Wales. The pups actually came from Wales. They had been driven from there to London, put on a plane to Zurich where we picked them up at the airport, and we kept them at the Dolder for some 3 or 4 days before we flew them back home with us from Zurich to Atlanta. So it holds a special place in our hearts.

We arrived in the late afternoon…the hotel had been changed some….there had been a modern addition to it, which while fairly nice, seemed a little out of place to us from the original part of the hotel where we had stayed before, which is more like a large country chalet. We were put in the new part….but it was ok….especially since it had a nice little balcony. After settling in our surroundings for a minute, we headed to the bar for a drink and to decide about dinner. The bar was also very modern….trendy. We relaxed with our cocktails for a bit and then went to dinner in a restaurant in the hotel downstairs. Jane Rose joined us, and we enjoyed a nice meal together. As we were about to finish up, Darryl Jones and Lisa Fischer came in and were seated at a table next to us. We didn’t really get to interact with them much as we were about done, but it was good to see them for a bit.

5/31

My mom’s birthday….happy birthday, Mom! She would have been 97 (born 1917). It was also the day before Ronnie Wood’s 67th birthday, and there would be a party for him that night in the bar. After the morning (or more accurately, mid morning) routine of coffee, emails, watching the news, etc., I went to the gym. Great gym there….lots of good quality machines, plenty of room, good free weights. Had a good workout and then ordered our free breakfast that sometimes comes with our accommodations. That is a good thing, because Europe is SOOOO EXPENSIVE this time around. Not just due to the strength of the Euro….or other currency (in this case, the Swiss Franc…in Oslo, their Krone) but just…BECAUSE. Our dinners for just the two of us have been running around $225 Euros or so…close to $300 . That’s not counting lunch or drinks. Ouch. I guess it is costing us on average $250 a day…. But what are we to do? We don’t want to live on McDonalds and Burger King, and besides, the time we have on these dinners are for the most part the highlight of the day. Gives us a chance to relax, talk and most of the time enjoy good quality food. So those occasional free breakfasts or other allowances we get like free Internet are very welcome.

After breakfast we just hung out in the room. I sunned a bit on the balcony, we watched tv, fooled around with the computers, etc. Later I went for a walk in the woods surrounding the hotel. Really nice trails, and beautiful forests. I believe it was mostly beech, but there were some oak and some evergreens scattered in. They had recently done some harvesting, as there were a few piles of logs that were cut to length and marked for pickup. It reminded me of when we received Mollie and Maggie, our sister Border Collies back in ‘02? and I took them for walks on those trails.

Happy Birthday to Ronnie Wood

Then came time for Ronnie’s birthday party. This is # 2 on the tour so far...
Sherry Daly and Jenny Taylor (his manager and personal assistant, respectively) had made the arrangements and asked me if I would play Happy Birthday at the appropriate time with Lisa Fischer singing. Of course I accepted. So we all filtered in to the bar that evening…and had a wonderful time together. They had arranged some good food in a buffet presentation, and drinks were flowing freely. It made for a great sort of family time for all of us and the mood was high. Lisa and I did the Happy Birthday thing with her doing it “Marilyn Monroe” style and then me kicking it into a boogie version, everyone joining in. Great fun.

6/1

Show day in Zurich, and Ronnie’s real birthday. After a gym hit and some breakfast, we headed to the Letzigrund Stadium to get things going. Beautiful day, and it would be another sold out crowd. Went through the sound check, set list routine and killed time in catering and practicing some in our dressing room. We had a couple of folks coming to VIP….our friend Stefan Eberhard ( a sort of keyboard protege of mine) and his girlfriend Jessica…and Christian Jank and his daughter. Christian is married to Albrecht Oettingen’s sister, Angela (I think that’s right!?). I went to see them an hour or so before the gig, and enjoyed spending time with them.

Show was good, and afterwards Christian and his daughter came to our hotel and we spent more time socializing in the bar. The bar was quite a scene….lots of fans there, and some of us in the band. I found out the next day that the bill for the bar got screwed up and that there was about $1100 in drinks that went unpaid. Our accountant, Coach, said as best he could tell, one of the fans had agreed to pay the bill, but then walked out on it. He said the hotel should have followed up more closely on what was happening, and put the onus on them to pay it.

6/2-4

ZURICH to TEL AVIV

Upcoming days were to be very special. My good friend and partner in MNN, Joel Babbit, would be coming to Israel and we would be spending some very special time together. Through Joel’s connections and because MNN has done so well, we have taken on a website called ReThink Israel (http://rethinkisrael.org). The name will be changing soon to The Grapevine. It is a non-political site mainly involved in promoting travel and business for the country. Some of the main figures involved would be there with Joel, and Rose Lane and I really looked forward to meeting them. They had arranged a tour of Jerusalem for us on the off day…

Gil, Chuck, David, Joel and Jon Leven

We arrived in the late afternoon in Tel Aviv and were bussed to our hotel, The Dan. It was right on the Mediterranean Sea….separated only by the main street between them. It was exciting to be in a place we have never been before, and we were pleased that we had a nice terrace connected to our room that allowed us to enjoy being outdoors and giving us a fantastic view of the Med.

Tel Aviv and The Mediterrancean Sea

Rosie and I ate in the hotel restaurant….it was quite late by the time we got there, settled in an were ready for dinner, so it was around 10pm when we finally had the opportunity. We were pretty beat afterwards and turned in, wanting to be as fresh as possible for our experience the next day.

Joel’s friend, and the CEO of ReThink Israel, Jon Leven, called me around 10am to let us know he was there. Joel had forgotten some medication he needed and was at the hospital to get it. So we met Jon downstairs in short order and we headed out to meet Joel. Our driver and guide was a nice fellow named Gil that another principal of “ReThink”,Gerry Ostrov, had arranged for us. We found Joel with no trouble outside the hospital and headed to Jerusalem.

The drive on the way was interesting….it was pointed out that prior to the 1940s there was little or no trees in the country….they started planting trees around that time, and now have established a good many forests, some of which we viewed along the way, and had become quite mature and beautiful. The drive was fairly easy….and took about 45 minutes.

Rose Lane and Chuck with Rabbi Jeff Seidel

Gil had some concern about getting to the Western Wall by a certain time, but we made it with no trouble. The tour given us was quite amazing….another young fellow, I believe named David, took over and gave us the complete history of the Temple Mount.

The Passage where Jesus carried the cross

Then he took us on a walk through the bowels of the structure…where we viewed the ancient stones that were put into place back during Herod’s time, around 19 BC. when he expanded the Temple Mount. But there are also some remnants that go back even further. It was truly an amazing experience to walk through the underground part, sort of catacomb-like halls and tunnels…and to view all the different periods of construction.After that tour, we went to the Western Wall where I met with some Rabbis and was given some note paper to write a prayer on to put into the Wall itself.

Men to the Left at the Wailing Wall

Women to the Right

A very moving experience. By then, many of the folks there had figured out that I was part of the Rolling Stones group and it was “instant paparazzi” time….many cameras following me around, folks wanting autographs and pictures with them, etc. But while it was a bit crazy and hectic, they were all very nice and were obviously quite excited that the Stones were coming through. Later in the day, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood made their way there as well. The next day, all our pictures were in the papers and online.

The marble pallette where they laid Jesus

The Station of The Cross

Our tour continued through the Muslim section and then to the Christian area where we were shown the road that Jesus carried the cross to his crucifixion. From there, we saw the tomb where he was first buried. It was all really fantastic to see.

Gil took us to lunch at a Lebanese restaurant called ??. Great food, and too much of it. But we did a fair job of “governing” ourselves, leaving a good bit on the table.

Mount Olive overlooking Palestine

From there we drove up to the site on top of the hill where Pontios Pilot first viewed the city he was to rule under the Romans. We also went to an area called ?? where the Ultra Orthodox Jews occupy. Apparently they spend most of their lives “studying” the Tora and don’t engage in any particular occupations….dedicating their lives to the ancient ways. From there, we went to another viewing point that looked down over a huge graveyard. It was interesting to see all of this in a city with so many different religions and cultures…and while yes, some of them are at odds with each other, the all live together in this most Holy of cities.

Waiting On A Friend

That completed our Jerusalem tour and we headed back to Tel Aviv. We had a little bit of down time before we met back up with Joel and Jon to have dinner at the Manta Rey restaurant, located on the edge of the Mediterranian. Nice meal, although we were still feeling the food we had at lunch.

Jon and Joel gave us a ride back to the Dan and we bit them goodnight and called it a day….a very interesting and stimulating day, indeed!

6/4

Show day for Tel Aviv. I went to the stadium early as Joel and Jon wanted to get a short interview with me for the ReThinkIsrael site. A note on the site: As we take it over, the name will change to “From The Grapevine”…and the link is now: http://www.fromthegrapevine.com . After some logistics difficulty getting them in with their car, we finally got it done and they were happy with the results. It was really hot, so the band decided not to do a sound check on stage, but to do a run through in one of the backstage tents that was set up. That all went fine, and just before the show I had a chance to go to VIP and meet Joel, Jon, Gerry and some of the others to say hi. Then it was time to get in the groove….

Another great show…band in good form, fans truly excited to have The Rolling Stones in their city and their country for the first time.

June 5-7 VALKENBURG AAN DE GEUL and PINKPOP IN LANGRAAF

On 6/5 we boarded up in Tel Aviv and flew to Maastricht in The Netherlands. From there we were bussed outside the city to a resort hotel called HOTEL CHÂTEAU ST. GERLACH. It was an absolutely

Tiopiary Garden on entrance

Topiary Gardens and walkway

beautiful property out in the country….several old buildings made up the complex in the center of peaceful surroundings. We were surprised to be greeted in such a remote place by a goodly number of fans. I hustled my way in a van that drove me around to the building where our room was. In the confusion, Rose Lane went into the main part of the hotel lobby…so for a while, she was “missing”. I called our advance travel person, Courtney Rousso, to ask her if she had seen her…eventually she showed up safe and sound, but it took a good 20 minutes or so for her to get to our building.

Orchard and Vineyard

There was a really cool orchard on the property and adjacent to the main hotel lobby was a large pasture holding some cows and horses. There was also a mature forest connected to the pasture as well as several little gardens scattered around. It’s the kind of place that we would consider coming back to for a short vacation. We dined that night in the Bistro restaurant. It started out with just Rose Lane and me…had a couple of cocktails and ordered dinner…but shortly after we put in our order, in came Ronnie, Charlie…and soon after that, Mick, Matt Clifford and maybe another one or two with them. We all enjoyed talking about various subjects….including our experience in Israel and some of the history we had learned while there. It made for a really nice and special intimate time together. We finished up and bid goodnight to everyone and headed to bed.

Next day, the 6th, was off. There was no gym in the facility, but they did have a spa. So after coffee, I decided to take a long walk….first around the orchard….beautifully laid out, I’d say about 4 or 5 acres with a variety of apples, cherries, pear, figs and other fruit trees and a small vineyard in one section. Then I found my way to the pasture where there were several nice trails to walk on. I found the cows and horses after a time, walked through them to another area close to the forest, finally making my way back. A really nice 45 minute walk in a relaxing and picturesque setting. I decided to go for a massage and arranged that for later in the day, around 4pm. As the weather was warm and clear, I also took some time in the orchard to sun myself. Caroline Clements had agreed to give me a little hair trim, and we did that out in the orchard as well.

The massage was ok…not great, though. And the woman that performed it had a head cold, which was disconcerting and a bit uncomfortable. Still, it wasn’t horrible, and it did help to relax me. That evening we dined in the main restaurant, which was quite upscale and very good. Beautiful room, great service. In the same room dining at the same time was Paul Gongaware, Joyce Smyth and her husband Michael and a couple of other folks I didn’t know. We finished up just after them and went to our room to call it a day.

6/7


Rose Lane working backstage at Pink Pop

PinkPop is a long running festival in the Netherlands that is quite popular. Also on the bill was my pal John Mayer. He had initially agreed to sit in with us and we had made plans for that…but in the afternoon we found out that he couldn’t do it because he had a charter flight after his set to get to London, and he would have to leave right after to make it. So I arranged the set list when I got to the gig…walked around to find John and his band. I found Ken Helie, his tour manager, first and had a nice chat with him. Then found the band guys…Sean Hurley (bass), Aaron Sterling (drums), Doug Pettibone (guitar, steel guitar) and his keyboard player Andy Burton. Tim Ries and I had recommended Andy to John when it turned out that I couldn’t do his tour…but I had never met him. We all had fun catching up for a bit…then I went back to our area to do a little rehearsal in a tent they had arranged for us. Went through that and had a bit of down time before the show. I went back to find John, who had just arrived. Had a short but nice reunion with him just before his set was to start. I went up to hear part of the set, which I thought was quite good.

Our huge audience

Lisa Fischer

Ours was as well…and with some 60-70K fans in attendance, it was full of energy and lots of fun.

Back in the room we relaxed with a few glasses of wine before retiring for the night.

ON TO BERLIN….JUNE 8-10

I had just enough time for another walkabout at ST. GERLACH. and to catch a bit of sun before we had to load up for the travel to Berlin. A relatively short flight of 1:45, we arrived at the Adlon Kempenski around 6pm. This is one of the oldest hotels in that part of the world, and the one where Michael Jackson famously dangled his infant son out the window to the crowd below.

The Brandenburg Gate outside our hotel window

We had dinner in a cafe restaurant in the hotel. Nothing to write home about, but was convenient. Made a short night of it and closed out the day. The next day, June 9, I had arranged to do an interview with a fellow from Bloomberg Media named David Rocks. I had met him a time or two in NY before, and Dan Beeson had been wooing him to do something on me for a couple of years. David had moved from NY to Berlin a couple of years back….his wife had died of cancer and he took his two children to live in Berlin for a while. But before that, I hit the gym hard as it had been 3 days since I’d had a good workout. David and I met in the lobby and walked through the TeirGarden, a huge park near the hotel, to talk. We found our way into a Beer Garden in the park and sat there for a while continuing our conversation. After that we caught a taxi back and Rosie and I went out walking for a while. It was Sunday and everything was Monday, but a Bank Holiday, so all the shops were closed and it was just window shopping. I had also found time to take our laundry to a place….which would prove to be a mistake as they were terrible. I had asked for a “wash, dry and fold”…but when I retrieved it the next day, they had barely washed them, barely dried them and just stuffed them into bags willy-nilly, all wrinkled up. Ah, well…

After our walk we looked into dinner options and decided to try an asian place located in the hotel. It turned out to be a very good decision….great food, a quiet atmosphere and good service. Happy with that, we closed up for the night.

Before the concert

Full Concert

June 10….show day at the Waldbuhne Berlin. We played there 16 years ago. This is a very old venue, somewhat famous for where Hitler used to address the German youth. It is actually a really cool an interesting venue…sort of a concrete amphitheater that looks down on the stage. I think it might be the smallest venue of the European tour at a capacity of just under 20,000. The dressing room area was all tents and trailers, and a bit awkward, but not necessarily uncomfortable. It was a fairly hot day (not really for us Georgians!) with a temperature of about 90 F. With the heat, the band decided not to do a sound check, but opted for a run-through in the Wardrobe tent. That went fine, and these things tend to be quite a lot of fun, especially for the choirs that sing with us on “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”….it gives them a memorable and unique experience to be in close quarters with the band backstage.

I had some guests coming to VIP, including David Rocks. The VIP area was a very long way away, and I had to be driven there in a van. It was quite a nice place…in sort of a house with a large lawn…so folks were scattered inside and out. I looked as hard as I could for David and the other folks I had coming, but didn’t see any of them…so I made my way back down to the backstage area to get ready for the show.

What can I say? Another really great gig….we have really hit a standard of excellence and consistency at this point, and every show has come of not just well, but tremendously successful for both band and audience. Great fun.

Today happened to be the day before Patrick Woodroffe’s 60th birthday. He had told us a few weeks back that this would be the case, and he would be coming to Berlin to see us and be with the “Stones Family”. So after the show, the band had arranged a party in his honor at the asian restaurant in the hotel. Of course that didn’t start until after midnight due to the show. Patrick was the only one that didn’t get the “memo” about the party….I think he was intentionally left out so it could be somewhat of a surprise. He was told that there might be a few folks for a drink or two there. But just about everyone showed up and it turned out to be quite a celebration. Mick called everyone to order at one point, saying a few words of appreciation about him…and Keith put in a holler for him as did all of us. Patrick is good people, and he was quite surprised and happy that all this went down. Another great memory...

JUNE 11-13 BACK TO PARIS

Rose Lane's Eiffel Tower Painting

Bags at 11, lobby call at 2. On the plane and on to Paris. Ronnie’s wife, Sally, is a Backgammon player and lover of the game…and she has initiated a tournament with anyone in our entourage that plays and is interested. A nice thing to do to get some interaction going amongst us. Rosie and I are not really players, so we haven’t participated, but have enjoyed watching some of the games and appreciate her putting this all together. Some games we played during the flight.

We made it to the Bristol hotel by 7 or so. Rose Lane and I much prefer the George V hotel over the Bristol…for a number of reasons…but mainly because the rooms are much better and functional for us. We were put in the same room we’ve stayed when there…518. Not that it’s bad there…it is all quite elegant and upscale, but the room has no division between the bedroom and the sitting room, and there is precious little space for luggage that is strangely put right near the entrance of the room in a small closet. Anyway, we’re here and all good. We had been excited about dinner, as we loved the Indian restaurant we’ve frequented many times that is an easy walk from the hotel, Indra. So we made our way there only to find out that it had closed down. Dang, what a hang. There is another restaurant right across the street that we’ve tried before, a small bistro called Misia. After quickly weighing options, we decided to make it easy and go there. Cocktails and a decent meal down, we walked back to the Bristol to finish out the evening in our room with a bottle of wine and some TV.

June 12….off in Paris. While Rose Lane slept, I sneaked out to go to Starbucks, which was about 4 blocks away. Ordered a Venti Latte for her and a Venti coffee for me and headed back. Spent the morning as usual…tapping on computers, watching the news, sipping on the coffee. We had been without our “Slingbox” for a while….the device that lets our computers stream our TV system back home, allowing us to view local programming wherever we are….but my friend, Mike Filion, who is a technician for DirecTV, was kind enough to fix the problem back home, and it was restored to us….so we enjoyed watching the local early morning Macon, Ga news and weather (with the 6 hour difference, when we are up at around 11am Europe time, that is early morning back home).

We talked about what we wanted to do….and while there is always the option of museums and sight-seeing….we’ve pretty much done all that in most all of these European cities in the past, so we thought we’d just take a walk down Rue St. Honre towards the WH Smith book store. I wanted to get some English/American magazines there. About halfway there, Rosie felt a bit ill and decided to go back to the hotel. I made my way on to Smith’s and picked us up some reading material and slow-walked my way back. She was feeling better by then….so we read the magazines for a bit and took another walk later in the afternoon. For dinner, we decided on Santoor, the Indian restaurant we frequented when staying at the George V. It was ok, but not as good as we wanted, and not as good as Indra was when it was open. Still, we enjoyed having some spicy food. Back at the Bristol, we closed out the day

June 13….Our daughter Amy’s birthday…and of course, show day for us. Back to Starbucks for the coffee, morning routine done…Chuck to gym. Rose Lane would leave on the 2pm van to the Stade de France and I would make my way there later on the 3pm. We’ve played this stadium quite a lot through the years….I’d have to look it up, but would think we’ve done it 8-10 times. Paris was excited about us being there and the show had sold out a while back. The usual routine of set list, sound check, catering for a bite to eat, etc….and another stellar show, all sold out. Fans happy, band happy. Called Amy afterwards and had a nice talk to wish her happy birthday. She has recently told us that they want to downsize their house/mortgage to reduce their stress both on the size of the mortgage and the cost of maintenance. Unfortunately, they bought their house at the top of the market before the crash of the housing market and recession of ‘08. It is probably a good move, but only if they can find a good house at a good price…and if they can get a good price for their house. It will be interesting to see.

JUNE 14-16 AUSTRIA

Checked in to the beautiful Imperial Hotel in Vienna. Our friend, Dr. Herbert (Doc) Weltner, had come back on board to perform Dr. duties for a few days. As he is Austrian, Dr. Connor (head Dr.) had put him in the slot from our last day in Paris on through Vienna and to Dusseldorf. It was good to see him, and we got to hang out a bit over the days he would be with us. We got to Vienna at the usual time after a flight…late afternoon about 6:30. Dined at an Italian place not far from the hotel after taking a little walk. Not really great, but nice to get out of the hotel for a bit. We met up with Doc back at the hotel cafe…he was there with several others….Matt Clifford, Torje Eike, Isobel Work and a couple others. Hung with them and chatted for a while and then turned in.

Next day was off…gym, another walkabout to the park which was not far away, then walked the main shopping street…although being Sunday, they were all closed, so it was just window shopping. Had a capuchin at a Starbucks….had a Father’s Day call from Ashley and caught up with here for a while. Great to hear her voice, and now that she is fully graduated and a licensed Endodontist, she is ready to leave the University of Florida and move in with Peter Tziros. But before she does that, she is going to drive to Charlane and spend a day or so there…then go see Amy and family for a day. Big changes for her, and she is very excited about it.

Back at the hotel, a fairly large crowd of fans had gathered and were waiting outside. Nice folks…I signed a few autographs and took a few pictures. Rest of the day was spent in our room…watching some of the World Cup matches and taking a nap. Dined in the hotel restaurant, which made things easy and called it a day

Show day for Vienna. Playing the Ernst Happel Stadium for the ?? time. Beautiful day, great weather, which set the stage for a special night. I went to the gig early out of boredom. At least there I can get something to eat in catering, work on my computer some doing set list and emails and get in a bit of practice on the Yamaha CP 300 in our dressing room.

Sound check went fine, then some down time before the show. Charlie had arranged for passes for our friends Axel and Eva Zwingenberger, and he had them escorted back to our dressing room. We had a great time catching up with them….and Axel had also brought Lila Ammons (granddaughter of the famous boogie-woogie piano player, Albert Ammons, long deceased). Axel is truly one of the greats in the boogie genre, and Charlie sometimes plays with him when the Stones are not working. Axel and I played a little jam, then he and Lila did a little duet with her singing….something called “Breakfast Boogie”, I think….fun and humorous.

The show was another winner…great audience, very responsive and fun to play to. Back at the hotel we turned in my stage clothes and decided to go down and check out the bar. As expected, it was full of fans….very crowded and loud. We didn’t really want to get in the middle of that…and I happened to catch one of the hotel managers walking around….and asked him if it might be possible for us to have a quiet drink or two in the cafe, which was closed. He kindly accommodated us and we were able to wind down nicely with some light snacks and drinks. Thank you, Sir! That concluded another day on the ‘ol road.

JUNE 17-19 DUSSELDORF

Fans Patiently waiting

Bags collected, hotel bill paid and a short trip to the gym….then onto the bus to the plane and wheels up for Dusseldorf. This would prove to be a fun and interesting stay. Still early rounds of the World Cup, the band had decided to rent an extra room for those of us that wanted to watch some of the matches. The nice folks at the Breidenbacher Hof accommodated and we had a nice setup. We got checked in and settled in our room and decided to go out for dinner. The concierge had suggested a place called the Fischhous (Fish House), which we found after a bit of walking and exploring. Had quite a nice meal there and made our way back after. We went to the “Football Room” where there were quite a lot of our group watching a match…including all of the principals. That made for a nice bit of comradeship, and we all enjoyed the hang. Afterwards we made our way to bed to close out the day.

June 18 Meeting Mr. Bagel

Today would be special for us. Some 3 or 4 years ago, a piece of property next door to Charlane on the north side sold to a German individual from Dusseldorf. It took me about a year to find out his name, Peter Bagel. I was told by the company that was managing the 730 acres for him that he bought it only for long term forestry, which was a relief. I inquired about leasing the property from him for the hunting rights, and he agreed to do so. Eventually we made direct contact through email. When the European tour was confirmed and I saw that we were going to play Dusseldorf, I contacted him to see if he might want to meet and have dinner. He agreed, and I called my friends Christian and Andrea Raupach (from the Frankfurt area) to see if they might want to join us. The accepted, and Peter agreed to make the plans and let us know that his wife, Doris, would also join us.

We spent the first part of the day walking around again…first to a big park that was not so far away.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

FIFTY SEVEN DAYS

MARCH 20, 2014

For the next fifty-seven days we would be away from “Stones World” and doing a number of interesting and exciting events, work on Charlane, seeing about our Savannah house and trying to get a bit of rest in-between.

Gypsy Moth

Bambi at Charlane Plantation

Starting with the fact that we were home 16 days before we thought we would, that gave me the chance to get some things done on Charlane that I otherwise would not have. Within a couple of days being home, I saw that there would be an opportunity to get some prescribed burning done, so I plowed into that. I cut fire breaks where I thought the most critical areas were and went to work.

Sweeping The Forest Floor..Indian Culture

I wound up getting something like 250 or so acres done, which was great. There had been quite a lot of rain, so there was plenty of moisture in the ground….and in one case I even got stuck in my tractor trying to cut a break. But all in all, it went really well and I was pleased with the results I got. I rode around most every day, checking on things, doing a bit of mowing, making

plans for planting feed plots and just doing whatever seemed like needed doing.

Red Barn Before

We also re-engaged with some painting and construction. Our painter, Dana Billingsly and his helper Darryl went to work first on Rose Lane’s “Red Barn

They repaired some rotted wood, hammered some boards in here and there and then painted it a fresh red. The old tin roof got a coat of green.

The After Glow Red Barn

They also worked on our house….again, fixing some rotted wood here and there, pressure washing the whole house and spot painting some areas. It gave us a beautiful fresh spring look. Other projects included them putting a couple of coats of stain on some of the outbuildings…like our skinning station, parts of my mechanic shop and shed and our new woodworking shop. He also pressure washed the Bullard House and the Lodge. They both need fresh coats of stain, but we decided to wait until we got back from the European tour to do that. Our friend and somewhat new builder, Emmitt Shurling and his two man crew of Keith and John Chance (father-son) re-worked our garden

to double it in size and started on a new chicken coupe and chicken yard for us. They also did some other various repairs around the place. Hal had planted our new garden and was tending to it daily. He planted corn, squash, greens, tomatoes and some other plants. We tidied up our yard and in general fluffed things up all around.

Keith John and Emmitt with new CP sign

I had some other things already on the books for April and May. First was to accept an award from the Pacific Forest Trust out in California. Called the “Out of the Box” award, it is in recognition of finding unique ways to promote sustainable forestry and to get positive message about forestry to the general public.

Pacific Land Trust Award


San Francisco

Rose Lane and I flew out to San Francisco on April 23, and our event was on the 24th. The night we arrived, we were invited to dinner by Nick Pritzker and Dave Schools. Nick is a billionaire out of the famous Pritzker family that have various interests in many businesses..but mostly known for owning the Hyatt Regency chain of hotels. Nick is also very interested and active in issues like global warming , climate change, renewable energy and other similar issues. His daughter, Regan (sp?), is on the board of PFT and he had contacted me a couple of weeks prior to the event to set up a dinner. We had a great time with them and talked about a range of things from music to environmental challenges.

The next day I did some media…for MNN, and also for the PFT event. I met with a writer from USA Today to do a feature and later with Dan Ashley of KGO, one of the main TV stations in the Bay Area. Dan is a friend and we’ve known each other a long time. He has always been gracious to me and has given me several good spots on the station. All that went well, and our event was that evening. Our pal Richard Kerris and his wife Nat would join us at our invitation, and our friends Joel and Deri Silver would also join us at our invite. Nick and his daughter were there, of course. Connie Best, who is the co-CEO with Laurie Wayburn of PFT had lunch with us that afternoon and were very gracious hosts to us for the event. There was quite a good crowd…maybe 150-200 or so of some of SF’s top players and philanthropists. It went really well…I gave a short acceptance and played a few tunes for the crowd. We made some new friends and afterwards went to the Four Seasons with Richard and Nat to hang out with them for a while. Great fun all the way around.

The next day we were off…but I went to the board meeting of PFT for a while which was fun, informative and interesting. They do some very good work and are all dedicated to their purpose. Rosie and I had dinner on our own that evening at a casual place…and the next day we were off to New Orleans...

NEW ORLEANS AND DR. JOHN

Chuck with his Master Mac Rebbanack

On April 26th we left San Francisco for New Orleans. A couple of weeks into our Asian tour, Keith Wortman, who had produced the tribute to Gregg Allman that we did last January, contacted me about participating in a tribute to Dr John, my old boss and dear friend, in New Orleans at the Saenger Theater on May 3rd. Of course I jumped at that one, and as the rehearsals were to start on April 30, we decided not to go back home in-between SF and NO and just head to the Big Easy for a couple of days of fun…especially since my birthday was coming up and since I have such a great history of birthdays in New Orleans and since we needed a bit of fun in the mix. So we arrived on the evening of 26 and checked in to the J.W. Marriott. We arranged dinner at was at Arnoud’s….where I had my 60th birthday two years prior when I played the Jazz and Heritage Festival…a great memory. Rose Lane had hired out the whole upstairs of the restaurant then, and they put on one heck of a spread. We had all our family there and many friends….it was awesome.

We didn’t do much the next day….just relaxed and walked around the French Quarter some. Dinner was at at G.W Fins, owned and run by our friend Tenney Flynn, a wonderful and talented Chef. Tenney is the brother-in-law of Gerry Hansen, the drummer I usually work with for my shows. He was most gracious….sending us extra dishes and spending a good bit of time with us. Nice start to a wonderful week and a half in the city.

The 28th was my birthday, and we had dinner with our good friend Quint Davis (long time producer of the Jazz Fest) and his date Suzzie at the Canal Street Grill. That was another good one and made for a good birthday memory. On the 29th we continued our routine of rest, me hitting the gym, walking the Quarter and eating well. Another birthday in New Orleans….not a bad proposition at all!

4/29

Chuck with Jimmy Vaughn and Don Was

One more day off before rehearsals start for the show. Don Was, Kenny Aronoff and Keith Wortman and most of his team came in today, although I didn’t spend much time with them. I texted Keith about dinner…he had suggested a band dinner that night…but I guess it really didn’t turn into exactly that, and so Rosie and I went out together one more time to Arnaud’s.

4/30-5/2

Time to “make the doughnuts”. Rehearsals start today. The core band was me, Don Was on bass, Kenny Aronoff on drums, Brian and Brint Alexander on guitars, Jon Gros (pronounced “grow”) on organ. There was a 3 piece horn section…Mark Mullins on trombone (who played with me two years prior when I did my gig at Jazz Fest), Bobby ? on trumpet and Chris ? on sax. We rehearsed at the Joy Theater, which was right across from the Saenger Theater where the show would be.

We proceeded to learn the tunes that had been sent to us by Keith with a list of the various artists that would be featured for them in the keys we thought they would do them in. All went quite smoothly and everyone got along great…and everyone contributed well. George Porter, Jr. would replace Don on some of the songs as bass player. Nice guy, very enthusiastic…if perhaps a bit too “take charge”. Great player, and certainly knows the New Orleans songbook well with his history.

As the days progressed we went through a great number of songs….the different artists started coming in one by one and the arrangements got tighter and tighter. Mac (Dr. John) came in as well…it was so great to see my old friend and mentor again, and he was most gracious to me. His musical director and trombone player, Sarah Morrow was with him, and she was very helpful in the arrangements of the tunes he would do. A list of the songs and artists are listed at the end of this entry. It was a lot of work…I had actually started learning the songs when Rose Lane and I were in Savannah some 10 days or so prior, and also spent time on them at home at Charlane. So as the rehearsals progressed, I began to feel more and more confident and was really enjoying the experience. I was to have my own feature in the show…a tune called “Traveling Mood”.

The last night of rehearsals, May 2, Don Was and I sat in with Warren Haynes’ band Gov’t Mule at the Saenger….that was great fun, too.

Rose Lane with Kenny Aranoff and Ashley Longshore

5/3

Showtime…and there would be a very special guest that had only come about the night before…Bruce Springsteen. He was playing the Jazz Fest with his band late afternoon of the 3rd and would rush to the Saenger to participate. He would be the first guest on the first song….with Mac on stage as well. Brian Williams, the well known news anchor, would introduce the show with the curtain closed….and when it opened, there we all were…playing “Right Place, Wrong Time”….not a bad opener! The show went great….with all the various guests, a cracker-jack band….lots of cameras to record it and in a wonderful setting…it certainly made for one heck of a memory. I was quite pleased with my own feature and had so much fun backing up all the other artists. It will be shown on the AXS tv channel at some point, and will be made into a DVD to be released before too long. Here is the set list:

The Musical Mojo of Dr, John: Celebrating Mac & his Music

Friday, May 3rd, 2014

Saenger Theatre, New Orleans

Rough Set List Draft v3:

1. Bruce Springsteen and Mac - Right Place, Wrong Time

2. Cyril Neville - Indian Red

3. Blind Boys of Alabama - Blue Skies / Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Medley)

4. Anders Osborne & Bill Kreutzmann - Somebody Changed The Lock

5. Anders Osborne & Bill Kreutzmann - R U For Real

6. Shannon McNally- Street Life (Bobby Charles)

7. Jason Isbell - Blow Wind Blow

8. Allen Toussaint - Life

9. John Boutte - Make A Better World

10. George Porter Jr. & Zigaboo Modeliste - Junco Pardner

*11. Irma Thomas - Since I Fell For You

*12. Tab Benoit – Stack-a-Lee

*13. Big Chief Monk Boudreax - Big Chief

*14. Dave Malone - Goodnight Irene

Intermission….Part 2:

1. Widespread Panic - How Come My Dog Don’t Bark

2. Widespread Panic - Familiar Reality

3. Chuck Leavell - Traveling Mood

4. Mavis Staples - Lay My Burden Down

5. Jimmie Vaughan - Let The Good Times Roll

7. Jimmie & Lucinda - Those Lonely Nights or Stack-a-Lee

8. Ryan Bingham - Back By The River

9. Warren Haynes - You Lie

10. John Fogerty - New Orleans (Gary US Bonds)

11. Cyril (and Mac!) - Peace Brother Peace

13. Mac - New Island Soiree

14. Mac & Terence Blanchard - Rain

15. Mac - Gilded Splinters (featuring Sarah Morrow)

16. Mac - Such A Night (featuring Sarah Morrow)

Encore:

1. Mac – Storm Warning

2. ALL ARTISTS – IKO, IKO

*with George Porter Jr staying on with the house band

5/4-6

With that all done, Rose Lane and I flew back home the next day, on the 4th. I would have a few days at home before having to fly to New York for some media for MNN and to make a presentation to the New York Music Educators. I spent the days at home overlooking some of the work being done…the painting and repair stuff….as well as practicing for an upcoming two gigs of my own in Montgomery… and just going with the flow. I had to drive up to Atlanta airport on the 5th to do an in person interview to get my “Global Entry” card…a card that allows you to travel internationally with less hassle in security lines and making life a bit easier in that regard.

5/7-9

Flew to New York for my work there. Had dinner with Joel Babbit at the Carlyle Cafe and to watch my pal Steve Tyrell do his show there. We had seen Steve before during the last run that the Stones did in the NY area. He is such a pro and such a nice guy….great fun. This show he focused on the songs of Sammy Kahn. Excellent!

The next day would be various media hits for MNN….Fast Company, Bloomberg, WSJ and some other stuff. That evening I had dinner with my partner in irocku, Howard Citron, and our irocku team….we had good fun socializing and planning a bit for the presentation that would take place the next day. This would be a group of some 50 music educators in the NY city area. Barbara Murray was our main contact…she is over some 1,000 music educators in the area.

The 9th was the day of the presentation. Barbara was wonderful to work with and was excited to have us there with some of her teachers. I had some degree of trepidation about it…as it was to be a 3 hour event, and I wasn’t sure I could fill that much time. But as it turned out, it went incredibly well and the time was, if anything, too short. Cary Brown and Collin DeJoseph would chime in from time to time about our irocku methodology, and Howard did a good job of introducing the event and introducing me. Cary did an especially outstanding job. He is a monster player and a good presenter. One other young fellow, Matthew Watnabe, also chimed in some and did a good job. Barbara and all the teachers were sincerely impressed and Barbara later wrote me in an email that without exception they all felt it was the best event of it’s type that they had ever attended. Now, if we can get them to buy into the irocku system….and grow it through the NY city and state education system….wow, it would be huge! But we have a way to go before that could happen. Bottom line is that it was a fantastic first step.

I flew home after the event, getting in very late and tired, but feeling good about the days I had spent there.

5/10-13

Continued my routine of work at Charlane, practicing piano and just enjoying my days at home before the coming activities. I got in some mowing (which I love to do) in the yard, riding around in my Bad Boy Buggy or my Arctic Cat four-wheeler, enjoying our dogs, sitting on the porch in the evenings with Rose Lane having cocktails, etc.

5/14

Drove up to Watkinsville, Ga to rehearse the band for my upcoming show in Montgomery for their River Jam. We would have two new guys this time….Nick Johnson on guitar and Seth Hendershot on drums. They play with Randall Bramblett in his band sometimes….both excellent players and came to rehearsal very well prepared. So that went smoothly and I drove back.

5/15

My last real day at home before the Montgomery shows and the upcoming Stones tour. Aside from the usual, I had made a list up of things I wanted Scotty Simpson and Hal Hamilton to try and get done in our absence. We rode around and discussed what was on the list, me letting them know what I thought the priorities would be. No way to get it all done, but wanted to make sure they had plenty to think about and plenty to do. We also did the major packing of the bags.

5/16

Drove to Montgomery. The first show, that evening, would be at the Montgomery Museum of Arts and Science. My cousin, Windy (Winston) Leavell, had arranged it. It would be a solo gig…a sort of “talk show” format with me playing some songs and him acting as MC, asking me questions about my career. It was a private event, a benefit for the Museum, but one that I would be paid $7.5K for. Windy’s significant other, his partner Amy, would accompany us. Our friend Daniel Hughes, a long time Charlane Plantation client, was one of the sponsors and was there as well. There was maybe 120 or so folks…so very intimate. Set “in the round”, the piano was in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables with folks all around. Windy did an excellent job and the event couldn’t have gone better. Not only was it fun and a success, but it helped to endear me to the Montgomery community….not a bad thing. Afterwards we went to dinner with them at a seafood place called ??. In attendance were some of the sponsors….and there was probably 15 or so folks there. Nice way to wind down.

5/17

The band drove in from Birmingham where they had a gig with Randall the night before. We got things set up in the afternoon, did a sound check and had some time off before doing the show. This was an outdoor event, down by the River. Free to the public, but a nice paying gig at $10K. The two shows together made it doable for me.

Rose Lane and I went over to Windy and Amy’s house for a bit….walked the streets of downtown Montgomery some, drove around and killed time. We stopped in at the Hank Williams Museum

Rose Lane vampiing outside Hank William Museum

to look around. We were the closers of the show and our set started at 9 and went to about 10:30. The band rocked, and the “new guys” did a fab job. There was a pretty decent crowd….maybe less that I would have liked, but certainly respectable…and I was told that there were more folks there than in past years, so all in all a good gig. We had a drink in the bar of the Embasy Suites (where we stayed the two nights) with Windy and Amy before retiring….we had said our goodbyes to the guys in the band prior.

5/18

We were up around 9 and quickly packed up to head back home. We would only have a few hours there….as we were to fly to Oslo and meet up with the Stones for rehearsals. They had actually already started rehearsing a week before in London. I had given notice a good three months back that I had these gigs, and at that time they had not confirmed the European tour or when rehearsals would start. So I made it clear to them that I was not going to back out of my shows and they would see me when I could get there.

Rosie and I closed up all our bags and loaded up the car…saying goodbye to our animals and taking a last look at Charlane for some 6 weeks. Hal picked us up to drive us to the Atlanta airport. We stopped by Rosaline’s house to say goodbye to her and headed north. Hal dropped us off, we checked in and flew Air France to Paris to connect to another AF flight to Oslo. Since it was a night flight, we arrived in Oslo on the 19th, in the late afternoon. Tired, I opted not to go to the rehearsal place even though the band was there…we had dinner and crashed out.