NASHVILLE……
Nashville Pix: Members Only Public Gallery
so...lets keep those set lists coming!
You know sometimes I think my cup is beyond full, but Wednesday morning I woke and limped to the bathroom from the abuse of the night before in Kansas City and thought to myself, "self, the best is yet to come”…..Mid-stream.
I got a phone call from my friend Chappy, as we call him (aka Kevin Chapman) who is one of the stars of the most critically acclaimed shows on cable, (Showtime's "Brotherhood"), who asked me “do you wanna invest in a movie….?” I said, tell me about it. All he did was give me the tagline… “What if Elvis, never left the Building?” and up on my computer screen popped a picture of Chappy with Robert Patrick, (who you all know as T2 from the Terminator) fresh out of a 7 hour makeup job, who god help me, looked so much like Elvis. I said “I'M IN!” Now keep in mind, at any given moment, 50 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong….so now I’m in. The movie is called “Lonely Street” and it’s in the stages of post production…so stay tuned on that front…Funny, that I’m doing a movie with Elvis, and this hotel I’m in, is 2 miles from Graceland… sometimes things just happen like that.
Put my cell phone down on the sink and it rings again, and it’s Al Gore again. This was the day I touched on about going to dinner with him. We made plans for 6 o’clock and the rest of the day was phone calls to loved ones, going through my bag, and before I knew it the time had come, and I was in car with Casey and Scott, heading through the hills of Tennessee… got out of the van and he and Tipper were waiting on the steps of what seemed to be a mini-version of the White House. If Abe Lincoln lived in New York, don’t you think there would have been logs around??? I spent the next 4 hours talking about everything from Global Warming to Hypnotizing chickens. He’s a down home country boy with an intellect the likes of which I’ve not come in contact in for a long time….
After he grilled four of the finest steaks I’d ever seen we sat down on his patio and traded stories. I told ‘em how at nine, I ran a wire up to the top of my favorite apple tree to pickup Fort Wayne Indiana (WOWO) which I could only get at night, and hence the beginning of my country and western listening. He told me how his friends once peed on an electric fence - I guess he was listening to WOWO also. We talked about his TV Channel, which ya’ll should check out. Tipper, being a long time photographer, showed me some of her pictures and a book called “The Spirit of Family” she and Al put out. The pictures were so deep, I damn near fell into the book. Having spent four hours there, we hit the road, it was around 11 o’clock. It was an experience I’ll never forget. They were beyond gracious. Got to bed by 1. Woke up the next morning to a TON of interviews, after all, we are in “Music City.”
6 o’clock - whizzed over to the gig - went over the ESPN/AEROSMITH/NASCAR marriage that’s gonna take place for 40 weeks. With us doing “Back in the Saddle” as in (the drivers seat) six ways from Sunday during the show in Vegas…so any fans going to the Vegas show, please bear with us and remember anyone in the audience will be seen by 200 million skazillion people during the time its shown. The production lasted an hour and a half with Tom being on speaker phone and yes, he will be there for filming. The next thing you know I’m in my stage clothes in the middle of vocal warm-ups. It was 40 degrees, of wet, whipping, misty cold wind and rain. And I said to the audience, "SORRY ABOUT THE HEAT WAVE!” and before I knew it, Joe was standing on top of the bass drum, and Kramer was playing Joe’s clear plexiglass guitar which he has setup with an octave lower bass string, in place of the E string. Put on to give him the ‘Back in the Saddle” low end.
What a way to end a stay in Nashville… my cup is more than full. And still, I believe the best is yet to come…see ya ‘round when ya bend over!
so...lets keep those set lists coming!
With love,
ST Here....Archive
