I know, I know, I’m a tardy Mofo when it comes to this news thang…but truthfully I didn’t think you boys & Girls wanted to hear stories about my kids or how many diapers I’ve changed or how many times I have scolded Dylan for screaming at the top of his lungs like I use too when I was his age. I’ve got to tell you, it’s been my life for almost two years now, and a wee bit of music but for the most part MR. MOM is in the house!!! (Still loving every minute of it).

Any who! Where do I start? So I performed with my old pal Tommy (DPS) and his gang at this cool gig in Ashland Oregon, Oh yah-volt (Bad German spelling) I met the beautiful Beate…what a wonderful girl, I can totally say that this girl made an impression on all of us here. Danke fraulien.

About a week or so later Me and the Mrs. backed up our young friend Corey Powers at the annual Memorial Day celebration at Stafford Lake, …This kid is going to be big some day trust me. My friend Susan Z (with a Heart of Gold) put together a benefit show for folks with Breast cancer at the Sweetwater in Mill valley with some of the bay Area’s finest singers. I was so fortunate to sing with Amber Morris on that special night, (the great April Grisman’s sister), that girl is a star. I went to Baltimore Maryland (actually it was in Rockford) for the Casey cares benefit show with a huge all-star band who included Nils Lofgren (Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist), My East Coast best friend Ricky Byrd on guitar (Joan Jett), Jack “My brother in arms” Blades & Kelly Keagy, (NightRanger) I got to sing my ass off and sing back-up on “Sister Christian,” I always wanted to sing that Motorin’ part. Derrick St. Holmes (Ted Nugent), Will Lee (Bass player elite), Carmine Appice (Rod Stewart, Vanilla Fudge), Teddy” Zigzag” on keys who has played with everybody who is anybody (A very down to earth guy), Eric Biondo (Trumpet and a crazy kid), The incredibly gifted soul singer Christine Ohlman, percussionist and kick ass singer Crystal Talifero (Billy Joel), a host of other awesome talents and our fearless leader; Mark Rivera (Foreigner, Billy Joel). Those of you who are fans of 60’s pop music Leslie Gore showed up to sing her hits including… “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want too”. It was so heavy, the crowd and yours truly freaked. Over the last few months I have been rehearsing for another Breast Cancer Benefit put on by Pam Epilito and Ovation 6, it’s called “Broadway Musical Madness” and it features many on and off Broadway performers. So with a cast of thousands (OK 10)! Elena Keating (My diva and vocal partner for many years) and I will be performing the teenage Rock & Roll sex anthem “Summer Nights” from the play GREASE. Hell yeah I’m going to slick back my hair, squeeze into some tight jeans and collar up a motorcycle jacket. This show plays November 11th; details are on my tour page.

I know some of you know that I had a birthday the other day on October 10th. Thank you gang for all the birthday wishes, you’re so good to me. Well my B-day was pretty much a quiet day with Denise and the boys. We went to the movies and went to bed fairly early.

BUT! On Friday October 6th my awesome wife (the coolest girl in the world) threw me a huge surprise party. She had been planning this thing for 3 years; all my closest friends and family were there. (Hell I used to say to Denise that I have no friends because I had been on the road most of my life and I never see anybody anymore…was I wrong! Man I even got emails from Billy and Pat wishing me a HBD).

Denise and I and our good friends Christy and Mike Quierolo went for a beverage at our local watering hole, Rafters. I stepped through the doorway and heard this thunder cry “Surprise and happy muffled Birthday” and I almost shat myself from shock. What a great feeling knowing everyone in the room, I felt like “Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz” when she says, “You were there and you were there” in her dream that was so real. I love all you boys and girls so very much. So anyway there were these tables with vinyl records on them with my picture from the Sucker, Mr. Big days on them, with shiny confetti type stuff on the tables as well, an open bar, a larger than life cake shaped like an old microphone from the 40’s and 50’s (hmmmm sounds subliminal, nice touch ladies, lol). Denise put together a movie that chronicled my life and the gang (Christy, Traci, Mike, Ruth, Pam, Corey, Brittany, Gina, Don Ricco, April and my sister Joanie) did a parody of the video for “To be with you” called “Fondue with you” and it had me laughing with tears in my eyes. I want to put that video on the page it’s hilarious. Christy and her children Corey and Brittany’s performance of yours truly through the ages was uncanny, as well as Pam’s 1985 mullet and Ruth thinking that I was Rick Springfield, I applaud your over the top acting. Don Ricco needs work. And yes I am a fondue lover…come on, you get to hang with your friends, drink many bottles of good wine and dip your stick in the fry bucket. Yee-Haw baby!!!

So after that laugh fest was over there was this little film clip in the end with Denise Dylan and Jacob sitting in my little black sport’s car (I have had ”Sheila” since 92’; I bought her when Mr. Big made it to the Big leagues, she has been my faithful companion over the years). Well as my wife pointed out in the last film clip “It’s time for a change honey… now look out the restaurant window.” “Oh my
Stars”…yeah that’s what I wanted to say in front of all those lovely folks that came from miles away, but when I saw a 2006 liquid platinum Infiniti G35 sports coup with a gigantic silver bow on it staring at me from the parking lot…I dropped so many F-bombs, I am pretty darn sure everyone is convinced I live in a Trailer park. Sorry everybody, I get a bit emotional sometimes. Poor Sheila, I’m going to have to bid her a fond adieu (Fondue, get it). Well kids the night wasn’t over by any means, we all drove (uhm me a little faster than the others Hee-haw) to the 19 Broadway club to see Pat Gilles and his group Wonder-bread 5, Rock the Kasbah. Pat (Ex-Road Vultures) asked me to come up and sing a few tunes for fun, my band mates M.Chole, M. Holley, Denise on drums and Elena and April did an intoxicated version of my classic number #1 hit “To be or not to be liquored up on stage in front of a massive audience”. Oh well, we crawled over to the hotel next door. It was there that we partied the night away.

The cherry on top was when this waste case wanna be somebody special dude wanted to beat me up in the middle of the Hotel party because I was holding court and making everybody laugh (Go figure)…thanks for making it memorable Mr. Fight club!

Wow what a night, what a great life and what a great wife. I love you baby.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the next night I performed with Steve Miller on “Fly like an Eagle” at the TEC awards show (Kelly & Beate were there). Steve is the undisputed king of rock, rhythm & Blues; it was an honor for me to sing with him. I opened the show with “Dancin’ with my devils” backed up by Larry Batiste and his talented friends (incredibly talented musicians are the nicest people) and closed it with “Midnight hour” with help from Will Lee (Bass player elite and a great singer, Mr. Pickett would be proud).


“Youth has no age, we are all the same age inside”
-Pablo Picasso (my friend from the 3rd grade).

~E~


“ To be…. continued”

October 9, 2006—San Francisco, CA—The engineers, sound editors and other talented audio professionals behind Universal’s Walk the Line, Rhino Entertainment’s Cream: Royal Albert Hall and Donald Fagen’s Morph the Cat, were among the many winners at the 22nd Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards, held Saturday night at the Hilton San Francisco. In addition to 23 awards for Technical and Creative Achievement, the sell-out crowd saw legendary rocker Steve Miller receive the prestigious Les Paul Award—sponsored by Gibson Guitar Corp.—by virtuoso guitarist Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Remote recording engineer David Hewitt was inducted into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame by producer/engineers Ed Cherney and Elliot Scheiner. Highlighting the evening was Miller’s return to the stage to perform his platinum hit “Fly Like An Eagle” with Eric Martin, and a blues shuffle with Gibbons, backed by the 2Cold ChileBone TEC Band, led by Larry Batiste.