Date
  Title
  Another fine day...
  Thank you..
  Dream Weekend
  Opening Night
  Vegas Baby!
  REO ROCKS!
  Thank you, Survivor...
  On the road--OFFICIALLY!
  The Today Show Odyssey
  Another Day in the Life
  Last night at Pine Knob...
  The Day After Springfield, MO
  Morning in Minnesota...
  Land spreading out so far and wide...
  Pursuing perfection in the prairie...
  Thinkin' of Lincoln
  On the road...
  Smiles, Hemlock and Magic...
  Psyche Delicacies...
  Roll Them Bones...
  The road to 47...
  Helplessly Hopped...
  Laughing at land mines
  Happy, nappy people...
  Delawareness
  Jumpin' & Jivin' in Jersey Baby...
  Another day in STYX...
  Konocti to Canada...
  Benjamin Orr...
  North Bay newcomers...
  North Bay to Quebec City...
  A rite of passage...
  Train kept a'rollin'...
  That voodoo that we do...
  Day off in Munich...
  Last day in Germany
  London today, LA tomorrow ...
  Looking at you from Lowell
     

9/10/00 - Roll Them Bones...

Greetings Styx fans,

I am hanging out in my mother's kitchen having just stuffed my face with home made biscuits and my mother's fig preserves. Mmmmm!

I arrived here about 9:00 AM after an interesting ride from Bradford, Tennessee last night. On the way to drop Jeanne off in Clarksville, she noticed an odor of burning rubber and suggested to Billy we might have a flat tire. Sure enough she was right. It was an inside drive tire on the left rear side. We took it easy and got to Clarksville around 2:00 AM with no problems. I went to bed around 2:30 AM and Billy said he would try and find a tire at the next large truck stop. I don't know exactly when it was, but at some point in the night, I heard a loud banging down below and it was obviously the tire coming apart and pounding against the undercarriage as it went. ThumpThumpThumpThumpThump! Loud and ominous, and then suddenly it went silent. It had evidently disintegrated and now we were driving on the good tire, smooth and quiet. Yes, I am afraid to say, it was a Firestone tire! I guess it was funny, but maybe not THAT funny. Funny in a "we survived another close one" kind of way. Now we are here, safe and sound and before we hit the road tomorrow morning we will be on new rubber, probably not Firestone.

Last night we played the Skullbone show. We had been looking at this with some amount of curiosity since it first appeared on the itinerary, but our manager and booking agency have been so spot on that any more we have almost blind faith that things will be cool. And man were we right again. Out in the middle of what felt like nowhere was this amazing place, filled with folks who had come to spend the night with us. You could cut the excitement with a knife and there was no warm up period. It was full throttle from note one. You never know what it will be like until you step foot onto the stage and the lights come on. Sometimes you have to ease the audience into finding their feet and their voices. Not last night. No, no ,no. When an audience is THIS fired up, it is a self-propelling juggernaut, and all you do is hold on for the ride. Back behind the wall of speakers, in the place we call "Vibe World" (our crew has it lined with black light posters and everything there is painted in day glow, down to the tissue box holder!) there was a palpable excitement whenever we would run into each other, toweling off, changing clothes or just having a drink of water while someone else was starting a song. I love those moments as much as being on the other side under the lights. Must be what it feels like in the huddle on a football field during a championship game. (Like I would have a clue about that, but hey, I am looking for a simile here, okay?)

A female fan brought her 4 year old daughter and sat her on the stage right in front of me, and although I don't recommend it for your children, I figured since she was there, she might as well have some fun, so during "Miss America" I handed her a pick and told invited her to play my guitar (even though to do it properly she would have needed to individually pick the proper strings, but what the heck) but she was too shy and frankly looked a little shocked. I gave the pick to her Mom and asked her to play so she could see that there was no real danger. Once she saw Mom do it, she took the pick and strummed away! It was pretty dang cute and I apologize if it was a bit of an upstage to JY as he was singing. I bet she and her mother won't forget THAT one! It was just one of those nights.

While Glen was introducing "Edge of the Century," he seemed to be getting a bit off course when suddenly I realized he was leading the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to ME! My birthday is not until tomorrow (9/11, but we don't perform again until the 12th) so he really caught me off guard. Keith walked out with a big cake engulfed in candle fire. Fortunately I was able to extinguish the inferno in one big blast of breath and the show went on... Earlier in the evening it was cake time for Guitar Tech Jimmy Johnson whose birthday really was yesterday. So it was a two-pieces-of-cake night back stage. Sugar rushes for everyone...

Jesse James Dupree played before us and he was his usual high energy self, laying down slamming jam after another. He is a real rock star, from head to toe. If you ever saw him in Jackyl, you know what I mean. Pat Travers and his band opened and you know he delivered his magic. It was a cool hang backstage getting to see our musician friends and catch up on who's been doing what where, when and with whom.

Once it was all over we headed off into the night. By now Lawrence is on a plane to the edit session for the "Music Choice" television program, JY is back in Chicago and Todd and Glen are on their way to Baltimore on the bus. We are either our travel agent's dream or worst nightmare.

See you in York on Tuesday night!

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