News From The Road

After coming down from the high of the London show it was 2 non show days back to back. Everybody spent the 2 days catching up on sleep or taking advantage of the great shopping London has to offer. Then it was off to Bucharest, Romania. Another first for the band was playing in Bucharest. Earlier in the week the promoter sent me a list of songs that she said the fans wanted to hear. The list included the following:

1. I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
2. Crazy
3. Janie’s Got a Gun
4. Fly Away
5. Pink

It just showed me how each country differs in what the majority of people want to hear. If the guys played a set with all those songs in it at Jones Beach it would be Armageddon (no pun intended).  “Fly Away” hasn’t been played live since GWB’s first term so that wasn’t going to make it but Janie had a chance but was shot down (no pun intended) at the last minute. Over all the set list has been going over great here despite the arm chair set list makers over the pond back home. I am sure there will be a few chestnuts in the set once the band gets back on home soil. The bottom line is the shows have been going over great and let’s hope the Krame Dawg keeps his drum solo in there because it’s a real treat seeing this guy bang it out behind the traps.

Athens Greece:

Joe at Parthenon - Photo: John B.

Another city and country Aerosmith has never played in. Athens was the dog’s bollocks. The food was great and people were especially great! Every person in that city knows a great deal of their history and you didn’t need to be on a duck tour to get vital pieces of info about this awesome historic city. You could just ask any Dimitri or Nikos on any street corner and they would be happy to give you a history lesson. 4/5 of the band each visited the Parthenon during the stay and I got to go there twice and I still didn’t even see everything. 

Happy Birthday Joey! - Photo: John B.

On June 21st the band celebrated Joey's birthday at one of the killer restaurants at our Hotel. Joey's wife Linda and the band's Tour Manager Jimmy Eyers put together the surprise party for rock's hardest hitter. I gotta say the food there was unbelievable. Lot's of seafood and local greek specialties. The restaurant was set up outside overlooking the Aegean Sea. You were actually over the water. Joey's cake of course included a drum set but these were chocolate and were so good it would have had Charlie Bucket green with envy. Happy 60th Birthday Joey!

John B. and Donny Wightman

One bad thing did happen while we were checking into our Hotel though. Donny Wightman one of the band’s trusted assistant’s job is what we call “The Bag Pull.” This task entails taking every piece of luggage off a truck and separating it by baggage tag number. Every person in the entourage has a number and their bags are sorted and delivered to their rooms by the bell-staff. On this warm summer night in Athens, Donny and other members of our crew were arranging the bags in front of the hotel to put on golf carts to be delivered. As the bags were being placed on the carts one slipped off the front seat and landed right on the gas pedal. The golf cart then took off faster than Arnold Palmer backing out of his driveway and hit our own Arnold Wightman clipping him where he keeps his wallet and proceeded to climb up the stairs of the hotel and pinned Kostos the night manager under the cart. The cart was trying to climb over Kostos and would have until someone knocked the Tumi off the gas pedal. Here I am thinking when I golf my cart can barely make it up a small incline and this thing is flying like the Rock and Roller Coaster (like how I got that in there?). Well the cart rolled backwards and was headed for Donny’s legs until it rested comfortably on a brand new LV make up case. The case saved Donny a lifetime of Dodgy pins but unfortunately didn’t help Kostos who ended up with 2 broken legs. Donny ended up with 2 cracked ribs and a torn oblique muscle. Rumor has it that while a group of us were huddled around Donny to see if one of Boston’s Finest was ok, one of the band’s assistants was trying to get a look at the luggage tag to see how much trouble he was going to be in. Donny left the next day to fly back to Boston to get himself checked out by his Doctors and was sorely missed for the rest of the tour. I couldn’t get this tune out of my head for the next several days and decided to put it to the tune of “Grandma got run over by a reindeer”:

Donny got run over by a Golf Cart
While sorting out the bags in Athens Greece
One would think this task would be much safer
Than working under cover for the Police

Public Enemy #1 - Photo: John B.

Holland:

The Admiral Sails the Amstel Canals - Photo: John B.

Amsterdam is a great city too. One the band has been to several times. Stone Temple Pilots opened the show and it was great to get to hang with the Deleo brothers and Joey’s old drum tech Magee. On the non show days the band walked around and took in all the sights, sounds and smells that the city had to offer. Our hotel was a few meters from a coffee shop that sells wacky tobacky and you could see some of the locals partaking in a coffee and a smoke right there on the sidewalk as you passed by. As I walked by I begin to float back to the hotel and immediately ordered room service. This city must spend a ton of money on Windex. Every window in the city was spotless. 

We just popped into Dessel Belgium and did the show and headed straight to Barcelona. Barcelona is one of my favorite city’s in Europe. The show at the Palau Sant Jordi was perhaps one of the best of this leg. Before the show Joe attended an amateur bull fight in the city’s oldest bull rings.

Paris:

Paris is another great city. We took in the Paris sights after the show at Palais Omnisport Bercy. Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame are something under the lights.

Photo: John B.

I do have some gripes about Europe and can offer some travel tips. Be sure to pack plenty of deodorant.
If you run out you may not be able to find some as easily as you think. Seems like it isn’t a big deal to go eu natural here but I may throw an extra speed stick in the old toiletry bag the next time over. People smoke over here like chewing gum back home. Every one from 9 to 90 enjoys a smoke while doing everything from their laundry to in between bites of a Salad Nicoise.

Prague:

Tuukka Rask with Joey Kramer "Backbeat and Backbone" - Photo: John B.

I would have loved to stay in Prague longer but we just popped in and out again. At the show Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was there and he got to hang with Joey a bit before the boys went on. Tuukka is one of the best young goalies in the league and I can’t wait until next season to see if the Bruins can rebound from one of the biggest chokes in the history of sports.

Employee of the Week:

Goes to Jessica Squire. Jessica has been with the band since 2007. She is the band’s production coordinator. Her day starts early in the morning and ends early in the morning. Whenever you need something the first thing people say is “ask Jessica.” In between Aero tours you can find her working with anyone from Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Return to Forever or the Professional Bull Riders tour. She is one in a million!

See you on the Road! (in the States)

Johnny B.