South America

what a great trip this was... it didn't start out great, when i got a call the week before that Dave Langguth (drums) broke his ankle & couldn't make the tour. I called Dennis & he changed some gig's around & was able to do it. so off to Paraguay we went... now I've played Paraguay before, the fans were great & the production team was 1st rate. now on these tours we always play with rental gear & my band has pretty simple requests when it comes to backline, but in the states they never have what we need & always have an excuse why they can't provide it. so what a surprise that Paraguay had the best gear of the whole tour. brand new Marshalls, classic SVT's & a killer kit. next up was Argentina for 3 shows & a house party for a radio listener winner. I knew it would be special when i got off the plane & there was a welcoming party of girls. the El Teatro show kicked ass, I met the local Hell's Angel's chapter pres. & my doppelganger. but the 2nd show, we went on @ 2:30am @ Peteco's & that pissed me off. after the Rosario show we had to drive a couple hours back to Buenos Aires to catch our flight to Brazil. where i met the American ambassador & did a meet n greet with the boys & girls club in Sao Paulo. the show was another packed house & good thing, cuz' last time it was 1/2 filled. we stayed up all night again to catch our flight to Chile, so we were a lil' beat when we arrived. the promoters took pity on us, since we've been up for 2 days straight & let us cancel the press conference. the show in Santiago was crazy... i hadn't played there since 1994 when i opened for Aerosmith, so i was surprised when the show sold out. of course we only had a couple hours sleep again to catch our flight to Bolivia... i know this sounds like a broken record, but i didn't book the flights, my agent did & they should know u play @ 1am in S. America, so don't book flights @ 7am ! anyway Bolivia was killer, except i could barely breathe cuz' of the altitude. the mayor gave me a certificate & the key to the city as a token of their appreciation. (that we rocked the house) so i'm sure we'll be back soon. S. America has the best music fans in the world & are very passionate about good music. can't wait for the next tour !