So it's been almost two weeks since
I arrived home from our tour of Australia. I could go
on for hours about how amazing the tour was, but I'll
stick to the highlights and just try to give you a sense
of the love that we experienced. First off, the guy
who made the tour possible was John Howarth. He is the
"Big Cheese" of Riot records (the company
who released the Fozzy and Duke records in Australia)
and a touring company of the same name, that brings
rock bands over to Australia. Fozzy was John's first
tour for his new company, not that anyone would have
known it. He and his partner Mick Katselos, along with
PR guru Chris Maric, put together the most professional
and enjoyable tour that I've ever been a part of. We
were also joined by Greg Shaw, our New Zealand distributor,
who flew over to handle merchandise duties for the tour.
The shows, the in-stores, the after-show
meet and greets, the flights, the hotels, the meals,
it was all first class and everything was perfection
down to the last detail. The Aussie rock fans were amazing
and are certainly some of the finest people in the world.
Every show was an event and by the second song of each
night's set, a full-on Fozzy party was tearing the roof
off the place. It was an honor to meet so many of the
folks that I have corresponded with over the years;
those and so many others that I met during the tour,
I now consider friends.
We didn't have a lot of spare time in
Brisbane or Melbourne, but we did do a little looking
around and both cities were beautiful. When we were
in Adelaide, we went to a nature preserve and spent
the afternoon petting Koalas and hand feeding Kangaroos.
No, I don't think you understand! This redneck guitar
player from Atlanta is half way around the world in
Australia, laying around in a field with dozens of Kangaroos
running around with little Joeys in their pouches. Mark
this down in my book of "things that I never thought
I'd do."
During the tour, we had more free time
in Sydney than any other place and it is truly an amazing
city. Our hotel was the tallest building in the Sydney
skyline and of course we were on one of the top floors.
We had a corner room and our view overlooked the entire
city, including the harbor. Imagine going to sleep and
waking up with that view for five days. Yeah, we had
it tough! At the end of the tour John set up an in-store
appearance for us to play some tracks from the Duke
album at a music store in Sydney called Utopia. Had
we ever played acoustically before? No! Had we ever
practiced playing acoustically before? No! Did we even
know what the hell we were going to do? Was I nervous?
Can I have a Kangaroo as a pet? No, No, No! You see
I would be accompanied on stage by Mike Martin and Sean
Delson. Together, we are known as the "Bad Mother
Fuckers." If the gig started to suck, Mike and
Sean would just start shredding and immediately move
into The Duke mark II "Jazz Odyssey" (see
This is Spinal Tap for an explanation). Luckily for
those in attendance "Jazz Odyssey" remains
on hold as the gig went great and turned into one of
the best moments of the tour. The set had two components,
one-half music and the other was a VH1 Storytellers
that deteriorated into comic improv. Hopefully, we'll
make some time in the future for more of The Duke and
BMFs as it is an event that must but shared with the
rest of the world.
As a last thought on Australia, any
bands out there considering a tour of Aussie, need not
consider any other options besides John and the boys
at Riot to handle it! John, Mick, Chris and Greg, you
are the nicest group of guys that anyone could ever
hope to call friends. You are also the most professional
group of guys that anyone could ever hope to work with.
I'm fortunate enough to say that I have had the privilege
of both! Cheers guys, let's do it again.
As for what's been going on since I
arrived home, quite a few things. Brother Ed came up
last weekend for the annual Atlanta ProgPower festival
as well as a few trips to the Waffle House and a good
visit. ProgPower highlights are as follows, The German
band Symphorce. Heavy groove metal with a hint of prog.
Their singer has a great voice and as a frontman, was
the class of the field that weekend. I had the pleasure
of meeting the Symphorce guys after their set and I
asked their bassist Dennis if they had a chance to walk
around Atlanta to do some sightseeing. Apparently they
tried but quickly realized that a bunch of white dudes
with long hair walking around late at night in downtown
Atlanta are likely to get shot or at the very least
mugged. I told Dennis that next time they come to town,
I will be their host and take them to the places in
Atlanta where you can hang without needing medical treatment
or funeral arrangements. Cheers Dennis, it was great
to meet you!
Musically, Angra was probably the best
technical band that I have ever seen. It was simply
a clinic. The singer was really good as well, but, in
my opinion, was not on par with the band but, hell,
there's probably only a dozen guys in the world who
are. *Clears throat* Russell Allen!
Pink Cream 69 (I know the name is suspect)
was great. When Fozzy toured Germany this past February
we were supported by Kickdown and Pink Cream's Dennis
Ward (no relation to The Duke himself) was filling in
on bass for Kickdown at that time. During the tour,
Dennis and I had the chance to have a few chats and
he is not only super talented, but one of the really
cool guys in the business. It was great seeing him on
stage again. He is a bad MF'er.
The last highlight of the weekend (besides
Waffle House at 3 a.m.) was an unlikely one for me -
Stratovarius. What can I say? The band was great. Every
guy in the band was King Shit on their instruments and
the singer was flawless. Hey, I'm just calling it like
I see it. I'm now a fan. The only rough spot in their
set, was when their video screens had an anti-war message
projected on it during one of their song intros. For
God's sake, it's freakin' Atlanta! We love to blow shit
up! One of the lines projected on the screen was something
like, "Over a trillion dollars has been spent on
wars in the last...blah, blah, blah" and the crowd
started cheering! For about a minute the band must have
felt like the only white guys at a 50 cent concert.
I thought it showed that they had balls to go ahead
with the video in an area that has showed massive support
for the war and President Bush. I Gotta give 'em respect
for sticking to their guns (sorry, scratch that) beliefs.
The rest of the time that I've been
home, I've spent working on the new Mojo record. Musically,
four songs are now finished and parts of two more are
in the "work in progress" stages. I've been
giving Bonz my roughed-out songs and he has been writing
some lyrics. A couple of the verses that he has written
are so good I got chill bumps when he rapped them for
me over the phone. Look out folks, Bonz is on his game.
As I have mentioned before, this is going to be a concept
record and all of us in the band are participating on
the story and concept. Lyrics are being contributed
by Bonz, Brother Ed (honorary band member), Sean Delson
and even new drummer Eric Sanders. The vibe in the Mojo
camp is better than ever, so one can only hope that
it translates in the writing and recording process.
More to come on this as we start collaborating more
on the upcoming UK tour.
Lastly, this past Saturday, I took a
break from writing so that the wife and I could go downtown
to see Bonz' Dead Gospel band play. He told me the wrong
time, so I only caught the last 4 songs, but what happened
after the show was really amazing. I was standing backstage
talking to Bonz when in walks Corey Lowery and his girlfriend.
I haven't seen Corey in at least five years. For the
next two hours we just chatted away, it brought back
so many amazing memories and instantly reminded me of
why I loved playing in a band with him. I could go on
for hours about how cool it was to have the three of
us in a room together after all these years. The best
part of it was that, a minute or two after we started
talking, we were right back to where we left off in
1998. Talking the same shit we did and acting like the
brothers that we had become almost 10 years ago.
During the 45 minute drive home I didn't
speak much. Bonz, Corey, Bud and I shared a special
moment in time together. It was moving to revisit some
of those feelings that I had put aside for such a long
time. It doesn't need to even be said that Sean is our
bass player and Corey has his new band of brothers.
But if schedules permit, Corey and I did discuss the
possibility of some collaboration on the new Mojo record.
To what extent, at this time, I have no idea. What I
can tell you is that Corey is the real deal and I'll
always be a fan.
Can't wait to see my UK family! Two
weeks to go!
Respectfully, Rich
