Lets see, where can I begin? I'll start off with the NAMM show - OMG, what fun that was! My highlight of the NAMM show weekend was, getting picked up by Rudolph Schenker and C.C. DeVille - no seriously! I was just standing there, minding my own business, and they just grabbed me with no warning and lifted me up in the air!

Friday night I caught DISTRUBED'S show at the Anaheim HOB, and although I never was really that into them, I am now a huge fan! They played a lot of songs off their new album, Ten Thousand Fists. They closed out the show with "Get Down with the Sickness", which is their most popular song. Even though the room was full of musicians & music industry execs, this band had everyone's attention. Opening act the Dramagods, which features Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme, was an exciting show starter. Nuno looks and sounds great, & I need to get their CD!

Then off to a show where Joe Lynn Turner, (Rainbow), Stuart Smith, Howard Leese, Joe Petro, and Richie Onori all did an acoustic set, then it was over to the Ronnie Montrose show, where Keith St. John of Heaven & Earth was singing his heart out - "Your Rock Candy Baby" "Space Station #5", "I'm on Fire". The show consisted of mostly stuff from the classic first Montrose album, featuring Sammy Hagar, simply titled "Montrose", and Keith nailed it. There was an incredible crowd response and everyone was just going crazy. I missed the C.C. DeVille and friends show with Prong, (Snap your finger / Snap your Neck) but heard that Carin from ThundHerStruck was crowd surfing & C.C. shouted out for someone that knew the words to Talk Dirty to me, so Shannon Moore of FullHouse stepped onstage and sang some Poison with him. They also had the Coffin Case Fashion show, which was like a gothic Victoria's Secret show. It had all the guys drooling. The NAMM show is always full of fun surprises like that!

This past Wednesday I was invited to the unveiling of the star on Hollywood Blvd honoring Motley Crue - (what a madhouse that was) - there were hundreds of fans that showed up and I was led into the media section with the paparazzi, (I got to sit 2 feet in front of them when they unveiled the star!!) and boy, that was a trip, these paparazzi guys are out for blood! They push and shove and scream and yell, but I did meet a few that were actually civil. That was an experience I won't soon forget.

I met Nick Ute in the media area, he is the photographer that shot the Pulitzer Prize winning symbolic photo of the young girl running naked down the street towards the camera during the Vietnam War, and I got to shake his hand. That was very cool.

So, Friday the 13th had me down at the Pitcher House in Redondo Beach to shoot Crazy Train, a new Sabbath tribute. They did a lot of cool songs, "I don't want to change the World", "Bark at the Moon", "No More Tears", and Tone did a spectacular drum solo with his incredible kit that had all kinds of goodies on it, like room toms, which I learned are like 4 little Congo's attached to the kit, some sort of electronic sequencer, and over a dozen cymbals and a beautiful bass drum with the cross logo on it and flames surrounding it. It consists of, Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Promark 420 Sig Drumsticks, Gibraltor Hardware, Tama Iron Cobra Pedals, and LP Percussion. It was a beautiful kit! The Zakk-guy, Ray (who is currently studying at UCLA working on his Ph.D. in Physics) arrived with a nice guitar collection, the Zakk Wylde target Epiphone, a nice flying V among others. His collection include Fender Telecaster, Les Paul, even a custom homemade guitar...

That place is cool, but I just have never liked the high decibel train whistle that occurs approximately every 15 minutes and just about ruins every song for me, (it actually startles me every time) but this band had it timed to go off or something, because it actually sounded appropriate at certain times in certain songs! I liked them a lot; really talented guys, and you can check them out at www.crazytraintribute.com. Opening up for them was IN COLOR, a Cheap Trick tribute which had my old friend Johnny formerly of the Rockaholics, a band I miss very much. In Color did the favorites, "Ain't that a Shame", "I Want You to Want Me", "Surrender", but my favorite was "Southern Girls". Catch them - because you won't be disappointed, I promise. Hmmmm I guess that's about it, I'll see you next time!! Rock on everybody, I'll see ya out there!