May '06
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Old Shit
5/25/06
Thanks for all the Birthday wishes people... 40 years old... holy fuck... I sure don't feel like it... I still feel like a dumbass kid most of the time. 40 huh... kinda bittersweet for me... not sure what to make of it. I certainly don't feel like done anything worth celebrating. You'd think that at forty, a guy would make better choices, better decisions in life... I certainly have proved otherwise. Maybe I should look at it like a beginning of wisdom and stability... what a load of crap. Mid-life crisis, here I come. Fuck, I already kind of did it... hot, drunk, younger girlfriend, hot rod van, extravagant toys, impulsive trips... oh yeah... cocaine relapse. I'm going to use my birthday as kind of a thanksgiving... a day to reflect upon everything I'm grateful for. I'll let y'all know when I get there.
Rehearsals have been going well... everything sounds amazing. Especially with Rami playing... his addition is drastic and moving. We're not adding roadies for the extra musicians... we're just all doubling up and I'm thankful that I get Rami. I get to learn about his world of keys... which is something I know very little about. So I'll get the experience of teching one more kind of instrument under my belt.
The other awesome thing is that Dave asked me to play on Virginia Moon during the set. How lucky am I? I get to play with my favorite band for a song at every show...(well, if that song actually makes the setlist). Prepare to have your faces melted off by my shredding bossa nova riffs. I expect some serious heckling from you fuckers.
Last week I went down to "the lot" which is the movie studio that they're filming the D movie to hang out cuz Dave was filming his part as the devil. It was amazing. He sat in the make up chair for over 5 hours while they transformed him into an unrecognizable entity. The set was also amazing... I took some photos but I'm not sure I should post them... might get me in trouble. It's probably supposed to be a surprise. Once the movie comes out I'll throw them up... You guys are going to love it.
I'm in Vegas now. Down here for the VH1 Rock Honors show... basically, the old geezer, has been show.... oh, did I say that out loud? Sorry, that was harsh... better to be a has been than a never been. Most of the show was actually fucking awesome. Judas Priest.... totally kickass! I would've never thought it... but it was so fantastic. The Foo/Queen part was great too. Everybody had a blast. Tune in to watch it on Wednesday I think...
Last night after rehearsal of the show... the band took everybody out to dinner at olives. A great restaurant in the Bellagio. The chef at that restaurant is a friend of the band and if we all happen to be on tour on thanksgiving... he flies out to wherever we are and cooks for us.... and it's sooooo good. I can't even begin to describe the feast... it was so decadent... my favorites were the tuna tar tar and the crab puffs... desert was ridiculous. A meal like that ruins all future meals.
On the first night here in Vegas. Sean and I wandered over to the stratosphere to ride the rides on the top of that building. 1000 feet up. There are three rides....
one that shoots you straight up with an aircraft carrier launcher motor... one that spins you horizontally out over the edge of the building... and one that pretends to roll you off the edge of the building. The spinning one was no fun whatsoever for me... me no like spin... ew. The Big shot is fucking great though... shooting straight up then then free falling weightless for a couple seconds... all overlooking the pretty light of Las Vegas.... fucking rush.
All in all a good trip... but this place (like LA) has a way of stealing my soul. I ventured out to an AA meeting one day cuz I needed it and thought I'd get some good shares about recovery... fuck, if you're sober and live in Vegas you've got to have something special going on I figure. But I got just the opposite... I left the meeting feeling kind of bleak and hopeless... I hate that. I was only thankful that I didn't live there and I wasn't in the same place in sobriety that those dudes in the meeting were. Whatever... It was probably exactly what I needed to hear.
"We are obliged to choose between the pains of trying and the certain penalties of failing to do so. These initial steps along the road are taken grudgingly, yet we do take them. We may still have no very high opinion of humility as a desirable personal virtue but we do recognize it as a necessary aid to our survival."
Sorry for all the crappy photos... I forgot my camera and have been snapping away with my phone... I should just break down and buy a damn good camera.
If any of you want a T-shirt... now is the time... I'm gonna be home from the 1st of June to the 8th and will be able to send you what ever you would like... rock T or sexy girl shirt... 14 bucks plus shipping... just email me at bbandhisfob@yahoo.com and tell me where you want the shirt sent to and I'll email you back with a total... then paypal the dough to bbandhisfob@yahoo.com and you'll have a soon to be collectors item... prove you're a psycho fan... get a roadie T-shirt. I will not be traveling with shirts on this upcoming tour... everybody would email me and say they'll buy one then would never come get shirts from me at the shows or the hotel... So I carted shirts around the globe in my luggage for nothing. Oh... a lucky few of you hooked up... but too many flaked for it to be worth it for me to drag 'em around... Thanks to all of you that have purchased shirts over the last three months... many of you have sent me back photos of you sporting your new tops... Thank you... I love it. So... make your orders now so I can get all the shirts out in the first week of June!!!
I will ask for one thing for my Birthday... will someone please help me set up a php style postboard for me that's easy to manage so people can't eat up my bandwidth posting spam? I just don't have the time or energy to battle it... and I really miss my regular posters heckling each other.
My friend Sean... I love this guy.
5/16/06
Well, I'm back at work. Acoustic rehearsals at Studio 606. I was supposed to start work back on the first... but I had to go to court on the 11th to beg for permission to leave the state and the country. I asked the court last Thursday and they granted my request with a couple of stipulations... Three AA meetings a week... which is fine and easily done... and random urinalysis tests... which will probably be fine while I'm here in LA for rehearsals... but might not really work once I start back into real touring... especially abroad. The deal is that they'll call me in the morning at a random point during the week and I'll have a few hours to make it to a licensed testing facility. I'll take the test and they fax the results to my case manager. Like I said... very possible in LA. But not sure I'll be able to leave a field in England on a show day to find a testing facility that'll internationally fax an acceptable test result in a timely fashion. Just the time difference alone seems to make this undoable. But not to be negative... I'll try my best.
Had my 6 months of sobriety milestone last weekend... as well as graduated from the court mandated treatment program I had to go to... as well as finally finished moving out of my house and into my new one... as well as finished all the tracking of the Floater record I've been working on for the past 3 months. It was alot to get off my shoulders. It was nice. I started going back to the gym which I haven't had time for... It felt so good to get my heart rate up and sweat a little.
It was a little hard to go back to work... Going back embarrassed and humbled. I've had alot of time to reflect on my last couple of years and I determined that I went through them with a shitty negative attitude... lots of ego... and a pretty intolerant and impatient demeanor. I tried to control what I had no control over. I have many people I need to make amends to. I knew that people had read my website... and those that didn't, heard the gossip of my situation... but I hadn't heard from anyone in three months... at all. I wasn't sure what to expect... and of course I let my mind wind me up to believe that there were more resentments towards me than there actually were. I think if anything... people were worried about me.
Dave alleviated all my anxieties with a few simple words... "welcome home Beebs". He didn't mean welcome home to LA... he meant welcome home to my family... which is exactly what I needed to hear. It really is my family in alot of ways. It's more of a family than I ever had growing up. It comes with all the baggage of a real family... that's for sure. But all the rewards too. I'm still a little high strung but it feels really good to be with my friends again. I'm alot more serene these days and able to let stuff go instead of obsessing over things I have no control over. I'm a very lucky and grateful bastard.
Had to do an LA festival called "The Weenie Roast" on Saturday. Dave was the not so secret surprise guest and was to play four songs by himself right after AFI and before The Chili Peppers. Rob Zombie played a little earlier in the day... he called the crowed "a bunch of EMO Faggots" and I cheered. He threatened to stuff a girls cell phone up her bung. It was awesome. Also amazing was the Tom Delong band "Angels & Airwaves" with my favorite drummer Adam Willard from Rocket from the Crypt, Special Goodness, and most recently Offspring. Everything this guy touches turns to gold. He just oozes talent and I've loved every project he's ever done. Everyone should go out and buy everything he's ever played on and you'll see what I'm talking about... but to see him play live will really make you all Adam fans.
Dave kicked much ass as one would expect... He's soooooo good at the solo acoustic thing. I hope he does a tour like that someday and I truly hope I get to be a part of it.
The rehearsals are going great... everything is sounding phenomenal. The band is 8 people now... one more guitar, a violinist, keys, and percussion. I'm sure the info is out there somewhere on who those people are... I wont reveal until we've played a show as I've gotten in trouble before for revealing surprises. I will say that the level of talent is top shelf. You are all in for a very serious treat. I suggest that if our tour doesn't come near you... that you travel to see it... cuz it's gonna be magic. It sounds so fucking good you guys... I get chicken skin every day.
I'm going to try my hardest to keep the complaining down to a minimum in my posts but I will bitch about one thing... the fucking PT cruiser I have as a rental car... the worst performing car ever made. The one I have now has been pissed off at me for an incident with one of it's cousin PT Cruisers I had as a rental in DC a couple years ago. A friend of mine kicked it's ass, drunk outside a bar... leaving some good bumps and bruises on the car that thankfully never got charged back to me.
I'm going to close my postboard until I figure out how to administer one that requires a sign up so I can ban spammers... I'm so annoyed.
I've been through alot of shit in the past few months... I've gone through alot of change. I'm not sure what this blog of mine is gonna turn into... I hope you all can bear with me through the change. This outlet for me was never really meant to be the tabloid that it turned into... I hope that when I release the BB and his Fistful of Babies CD this winter you all will buy one.... and remember people... T-shirts... T-shirts, T-shirts... 14 bucks U.S. plus shipping.
Thanks again everyone for reading and sticking with me.
"Instead we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance while we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of it's trees. We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing".