Thursday, June 9

2:05 am
Suite

That felt fuckin' GREAT.

He's Back.

3:15 pm
Suite

Getting ready to head to Dresden, waiting for the Saddle-Up call to head to the plane.

Watching Today Show on the Internet.  There's My Girl Savannah, her first day on the job as co-anchor in the 9:00 hour.  And she's with Natalie Morales.  Now there's a sandwich I wouldn't mind being the filling in, heh heh.  Lucky Bastard, that Al Roker.

Gonna miss Meredith, but sometimes change is good.  It ain't gonna be the same for sure; Matt and Meredith had such great chemistry.  But Ann will do well as co-anchor too.  And if it made way for Savannah... Well, I'm good with that.

Cate's already texted me about this, ha ha.  Asked if Savannah's moved up a notch on my "free pass" list yet.  Silly Wife.  Not that she'd ever let me USE one of those free passes.  Besides, Savannah could probably hurt me.  She's an Amazon.  Ha ha.  Then again, Cate can hurt me too, and she's littler than I am.

Didn't think I'd say this, but feels good to be back in the routine.  Great energy last night, a damned fun time up on that stage.  Felt so good to have Richie back.  And the love he got from that crowd -- Fantastic.  I know he was truly touched.  We still have a little rust to shake off, not everything went quite as planned.  But we'll get there.  A couple more shows under our belt and we'll be back in the groove.

I think we were all a little off last night.  Takes awhile to get used to being outside again, back on that big-ass stage.  Plus playing European stadiums is a lot different from big venues in other parts of the world.  And of course adjusting to the time zone, weather, food, yadda yadda yadda.  Just takes us all awhile to get dialed in.

And it doesn't help when your pre-show routine is upset.  I'm not superstitious, but I gotta follow my routine to get myself psyched up for the show.  Dinner, my music, my warmups, my ginseng and tea and meditation... if I do them out of order or skip a step I just don't feel right, don't feel centered.  My Chi is off, ha ha.

That's what happened last night.  The logistics of Europe are always a challenge, and with it being our first show back after a few weeks off the whole crew is a little discombobulated.  Half Richie's wardrobe was missing (Abby found it right before encore), and the little homey niceties Dawn usually does weren't quite in place.

She even forgot my fortune cookie last night. Of course I gave her shit about that, but I was just teasing.  She's been with me long enough that she told me to get over it and pull up my Big-Boy pants and get my ass out onstage, ha ha.  But she promised she'll have my "damned cookies" for Dresden.  I told her I better get TWO damned cookies Friday night, to make up for the oversight, ha ha.

Thank God for that woman.  My Road Wife.  Cate often says Dawn has the worst job on the crew, having to deal with me.  She's probably right.  Dawn ends up being more my Mama than my assistant most of the time.  A Saint, she is.  I'm damned lucky to have her.

Aha... some loud jackasses are out in the hall, causing a disturbance and pounding on my door.  Sound suspiciously like PK, Bryan, and Sambora.  Better look out the peephole before I open up.  Never know what may be lying in wait for the Lead Singer out there.

Maybe I'll send Russell out first, just to see what happens.