10/10/98 ~ Chapel Hill, NC

After our stay in Florida, we again went our seperate ways for four full days off, which is very unusual in the middle of a tour. I went home first, then went to Altanta to see the second official performance of "Elaborate Lives", the new musical written by Elton and Tim Rice. The story is based on the opera "Aida", and takes place in ancient Egypt. As I had heard Elton's demos of the music, I knew that I would like the songs already - they are really great. What suprised me most was the beauty of the costumes, sets, and the "fun" element in the choreography. It was a very entertaining show, and the female lead Heather (who played Aida) was just amazing - great voice, stage presence, acting - she just had it all. Guy did a great job getting the live musicians to have the same sound as the recorded versions as well. He has been working whenever we have a day off on this project, and I know he is happy to see it coming all together so nicely. I would recommend anyone in driving distance of Atlanta to go see the show before it leaves to bigger, less intimate venues because it is well worth seeing! After the show we had some dinner with the male lead of the show, Hank Stratton, who is also from California, so we had plenty in common to talk about. As I was in Atlanta, I was able to fly with Elton, Guy, Davey, Ron (EJ's hairdresser), Jeff (his security guard) and Colin (his manager) on the private jet to Raleigh, NC. It was a very short, but comfortable flight. When we got to Raleigh we had police to escort us to the venue, as we were arriving during very bad rush hour traffic. Apparently Celine Dion had been stuck in traffic for two hours going to this same venue, and was late to her own show, so we were taking no chances on that happening to us! We did get to the venue fine, although there was an amazing amount of traffic. I felt a little off center, arriving later than usual to the venue and having to get my instruments ready while the audience was already filing in. I needed to chose a new sax reed, as my normal one had gotten broken somehow during the last show. The venue had a somewhat intimate feel about it, and the folks down front again were so supportive and inspiring, giving us so much energy and positive vibes. Elton might have been feeling a little different than usual too, as he changed up some songs on the setlist without warning! He chose to eliminate "Teenage Idol" and "Captain Fantastic..", but added "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word". As usual, his instincts proved better for the flow of the show, and I'm sure the audience was none the wiser (except those "Regheads" who follow the setlist on the net every night - you know who you are!). We also ended with "Great Balls Of Fire" as opposed to "Bennie..", possibly because EJ was too tired after the nearly three hour set to do the full piano theatrics! No more busing now - it is all flights for the rest of this tour, and tomorrow we fly up to Charlotte for the last show before the Madison Square Gardens run.
 
 
 

We had a short flight to Charlotte, and drove to a hotel that we had stayed last time we played here. I was reminded of the night that the hotel's fire alarm went off about 11:00 on a Sunday night, and I came out the emergency exit to see Whoopi Goldberg coming right behind me out of the bushes into the parking lot speaking on a cell phone. When I wondered aloud to Davey who she might be calling, he retorted with "Probably another hotel! She was in town filming a movie, and came to our show later in the week. We had only a few hours off in the afternoon before it was time to head over to the venue, so I just stayed in my room and got caught up on the email and wrote an article on the making of Crop Circles for future publication in Home Recording magazine. Even though there had been some threats of violence made and there were extra security measures, the vibe in the venue was good. I had some family members and friends as guests, and I had a chance to visit with them for a bit before the show. When we finally hit the stage, the crowd roared its approval. Even the furthest seats seemed somehow close enough to connect with the band, and the synergy of the show started manifesting. I was again blessed to have a great bunch of folks near my side of the stage, and was glad to see a couple audience members in wheel chairs up near the front of the stage. Normally the handicapped section is a ways away from the stage, so it was great to see them get a chance to experience the "down front" type of show. Elton added back "Teenage Idol" and "Captain Fantastic..", and "Bennie.." tonight, but tricked us by leaving out "Captain Fantastic..". You should've seen Fergy running to get my Epiphone guitar when we heard the opening chords of "Crocodile Rock", and I was there with my mandolin ready for "Captain Fantastic.."! All in all, an excellent show, and Clive was even happy with the sound out front. Tomorrow we head up to NYC for a couple days off before our Madison Square Gardens shows. I can't wait - I always have a great time in New York!

ACK! Hey! It's our One YearAnniversary today (10/15/98)! Can you believe it's been one whole year since we first brought you John's Reports From The Road?! How time flies when you're living vicariously through others, eh? Thanks for your continued patronage!

Web Guy Craig
 

New York city is always an exciting place to visit, and this time is proving to be no exeption to the rule. We arrived Sunday afternoon, and got checked into our hotel in the midtown section of Manhattan, which is a very convenient area to be located in. There was a possibilty of some tickets to see Janet Jackson's HBO filming at MSG, but as they didn't come through I ended up staying in the room and watching a documentary of John Lennon's last year or so of his life, and had a very eerie feeling, as his murder had taken place not too far from where I was at the moment. The next day was a day off, and while I was waiting for someone in our hotel lobby I saw my old friend saxophonist Gerald Albright, who had performed the night before opening for Gladys Knight - I was glad to see him briefly, and sorry to have missed his gig! I also saw Dennis Rodman and George Benson walking through the lobby. Later in the evening I was planning to meet some of the other guys to go see a show by former Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell, but was blocked from getting to our meeting point because the streets had been blocked off with police barricades. There were also countless cops and motorcycles, along with a big motorcade along the street in front of our hotel. Apparently President Clinton was in our hotel, and soon would be taken by limo a block and a half away to another hotel to give a fund-raising speech. Many people were lined up along the barricades to get a view of the President, and after about 30 minutes of waiting, all the motorcycles started up, and all the cars started to head down the street. Sure enough - here was the President in his presidential limosine waving to the crowd as he headed down Broadway in NYC! Fortunately I had my Nokia cell phone, and I was able to call DC and meet him under the "Late Night" theater sign, as Jerry Cantrell was playing at the Roseland nearby. He had a very devoted audience, and gave them a good set of his own music, with a few Alice in Chains numbers added in. I really enjoyed Jerry's singing as well as his guitar playing, and he is a very nice guy too, as I found out from meeting him before the show. Tuesday was a show day, so I mostly rested up to be ready to go to MSG in the afternoon. The band and their respective wives were down in the lobby ready to go, and we were all waiting for our van to take us down to MSG. We were confused to see an Explorer instead of a van, as it wasn't big enough for all of us, but DC decided to send the band ahead in the Explorer, and have it return for the wives and guests after dropping us off. We started heading in the opposite direction of MSG, and Clive jokingly said that we were in the wrong vehicle. When DC inquired to the driver about where we were going, he found out indeed we were in the wrong vehicle - this one was supposed to be taking Joe Pesci to a photo shoot uptown! We all had a good laugh over that, especially when the driver said that he had been looking in his rear view mirror, and that none of us looked like Joe Pesci! We turned around and went back to the hotel to see the right van waiting for us, and did the switch and were finally headed down to MSG. The backstage area was full of guests and business associates - Johnny Barbas and his wife Eddie from Rocket Records, EJ's lawyer Frank Pressland, manager Colin Bell, "Elaborate Lives" director Robb Roth, EJ's partner David Furnish, and lots of family and friends. I met with watch specialist Bill Green, who is designing a special watch for me, and he brought me a Hamilton "Flight II" watch - originally released in 1960 - which Hamilton had reissued in a limited edition. I had been looking for one for awhile, but the limited edition had run out, so it took a little detective work by Bill to find me one, and it is a beauty. I do love the vintage designs of the early Hamilton electric watches, typified by the "Ventura", popularized recently in the movie "Men in Black". The hospitality rooms were decorated with an Egyptian theme, with the waiters in skimpy pharoah-type costumes. There was one moment backstage that was very poignant - Elton saw a photo of John Lennon performing up on the wall, and he just seemed to be caught in his own memories of John for a second. He wondered aloud if that photo had been taken back when John Lennon appeared as a suprise guest at Elton's MSG show back in the mid 70's... When we hit the stage, the old MSG magic started to happen. There were lots of familiar faces in the crowd of fans not only from the NY area, but also from Europe that had come over especially to experience EJ in NYC. The crowd feels physically very close in the Garden, and somehow the huge arena turns into an intimate concert for friends. EJ was in fine form, and enjoyed himself, sticking right to the setlist and playing everything with full force. During "Crocodile Rock" the crowd was dancing so much that the stage started to bounce and sway, feeling not unlike an earthquake in Southern California! This would happen again, whenever the crowd would all get on their feet and really start rockin - literally! Fergy had me in stitches when he donned one of the pharoah costumes, and brought one of my guitars out to me on stage wearing it! He really is a wonderfully creative person, and goes out of his way to keep us amused as well as keeping all my equipment up and running. All in all, an excellent opening night in New York!
 

The morning after the first MSG show, Jack, Billy, Baz Marshall (EJ's tranportation coordinator) and I were invited to go over to the Hush Puppies showroom to see all the latest styles and colors, and to pick out a couple pair to take home as well! I have always loved Hush Puppie shoes since I was a kid, so this was especially fun for me. They come in some really wild colors now, and I picked one pair that were bright orange suede. We chose a couple pairs for Elton too, as he had stated in an interview how he had also liked them as kid. I do remember begging my parents for a pair of HP slip ons, when they were more interested in getting me the more conservative and practical "laced oxfords". After lunch I took a cab down to a studio towards the Village to try a new piece of studio/live gear made by Eventide. Eventide is a company who have always been on the cutting edge of technology and are known for making state of the art studio effects processors, and have recently made one that is especially for guitarists. I spent a good two hours listening to just a few of the over 400 sounds currently programmed into the unit, and I must say it is an impressive piece of gear. It even had some settings with sounds I had never heard a guitar make before! Soon it was again time to head down to the Garden for the night's show. This time there was nothing unusual about the trip, we got into the right vehicle headed for the right place! Again the backstage was bustling with friends, business associates, etc. I said a quick hello to Bernie Taupin, and saw Barbara Walters too! I remember that she had attended one of the shows last time we played here - she must be a true Elton fan. Before the show I was presented with a couple nice gifts from the audience members - one a T-shirt with a painting on it of Davey, Elton and I done by an artist named Mic Carlson, and the other an enlargement of a photo of the three of us around EJ's piano during "Saturday Night's Alright..". I have to say I do find the EJ fans to be a very creative and generous bunch. The show again was really good, with the good will of the NYC crowd really pouring out to us on the stage. As he had the night before, Elton dedicated "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" to the memory of Matthew Shepard, the young man from Wyoming who had been beaten and left tied to a tree in very cold weather to die, simply because he was gay. Elton's improvised piano intro was especially moving, and I could really feel the intensity that he was pouring into the music for this young man, who he said in his dedication "could've been me". Most of the show, however, was very celebratory, and again the Garden swayed, rocked and rolled during the more rockin' numbers. I did notice producer Jimmy Jam out "in da house". Elton has recently been working with him on a duet with Janet Jackson of one of the songs for the upcoming "Elaborate Lives" CD. He has also done a duet with Leann Rimes and Sting. The Spice Girls, Barbara Steisand and Tina Turner have all been mentioned to contribute cuts to the disc as well. Now we have a couple days off before our last two shows, so I think all of us plan to enjoy the Big Apple in our own ways - shopping, shows, dining, walking in Central Park, r. etc. This is really a great city!
 
 

After Wednesday night's show we had two days off to enjoy New York. Most of the band had family come to town for a visit, so we were all playing "tourist". I spent a good part of Thursday resting up in the morning, and did some shopping at an amazing home furnishings store called ABC, which carried everything that you could ever want for a home. Later I had dinner at a restaurant that John Mahon had recommended to me called "Josie's" (tasty gourmet organically grown food), and afterwards dropped off a birthday present for Baz Marshall (Elton's transportation coordinator) who was celebrating at a nearby restaurant. On Friday I went over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, specifically to see the Tiffany exhibit, a special display of the amazing glass art that Tiffany is known for. Vases, windows and lamps were displayed, as well as the drawings, plans and a demonstration of the technique involved in making the famous lampshapes. I had just enough time to check out the Egyptian collection, marvelling at the condition of the coffins, some of which even still contained the mummified remains of the person they were built for! Davey and I met up mid-afternoon for a radio interview which will be syndicated around the country, and I was really suprised at how knowledgeable the interviewer was -he had questions that suprised Davey and I both. We then headed over to Sam Ash's store on 48th St., the location of our clinic performance for Sony. Fergy and Rick had gotten there early to get all out gear set up for us, and after a quick soundcheck we retired to a back office to refresh our memories on the intricacies of our songs. We were happy to see such a great turnout, and a lot of people already had bought a copy of Crop Circles - they must've been to one of the MSG shows earlier in the week, as the CD was not quite available in stores yet. The performance went well and Sony was set up to record some of our live performance. They would play back small segments of it to the audience so that they could hear the sound quality and "instant access" of the MDMX4 Mk II unit for themselves. I was starving after the performance, and was lucky enough to find a good Tuscan restaurant that had a table on a Friday night. The food was great, and DC joined me for dinner, as he and his wife had attended the in-store. We had to rush through dinner, as I had tickets to a late performance by the Blue Man Group - a trio of percussionists / performance artists that I had seen on TV a couple times. They do a nightly show in the Astor Place Theater down near Greenwich Village, and it is a "must see" for anyone coming to NYC. I can't even start to explain the show with words; you just have to see it for yourself, and to experience it with a group of friends would be the ultimate. By Saturday it was time to think about getting back to work, but I had gotten tickets to see the matinee performance of The Lion King on Broadway, and had been looking forward to that for awhile. I remember that Elton had raved about it when he first saw it, and some of the other band members had seen it on Thursday night. As one of my friends said to me about it, you can leave after the opening number and feel like you got your money's worth! This show has so much heart, is so creatively staged, and is simply phenomenal from start to finish. I can easily understand why it is sold out for months in advance. I had the idea that it might be targeted towards kids, but it is definately a show for people of all ages - a great spiritual message, wonderful African music, costumes, puppets, dance, and of course the songs and story that we all know. This show would be worth a trip to NYC, for those of you who have thought about that - just do it! You won't be disappointed No sooner than the Lion King was over, it was time to go to MSG for the evening's show. Again the backstage was full of families, friends and business people. At one time our hospitality room was like a nursery, there were SO many kids running around - a far cry from the decandant "rock and roll backstage" image that most people have! As the U.S. tour is almost over, the band lined up for a group photo in the hallway before we changed our clothes. It is amazing how rapidly the times seem to go by at the end of a tour leg - one minute you are in the middle of a tour, and the next minute it is over! The show seemed to be moving a little slower than usual for me, but the audience was certainly loving it. I saw "Elaborate Lives" director Robb Roth out in the crowd dancing like a teenager! It is really fun to see people in the audience get to the point where they forget about all their problems and inhibitions for a little while, and just have fun. As the show went on, it really gained momentum, and by the last third or so it became one of the most high energy shows we had done here - "Saturday Night" was "Alright", indeed!
 

After over a year of touring and a week in NYC, I think we were all getting a little worn out! The traffic and difficulty of getting around in Manhattan can be stressful, especially if you are not used to it. Our last day in New York was spent mostly packing, a little visiting and generally tying up the loose ends to prepare for the next days departure. I don't know about you, but if I am in a hotel room for a week, I can really spread out and take over - so it took me a little while to get all my stuff together and packed up. Lots of the visiting family members left during the day, and the van down to the venue seemed kind of empty without all the wives, kids and friends! When we got to the venue, I spent a little time meeting a special young fan and his family. This guy has had a rough time with some medical problems, but is a big music fan and had a great time pre-show checking out my guitars, the backstage, etc. This is something that I rarely do, but I quite enjoyed seeing his excitement and being able to personally give something special to a courageous youngster. As we were getting changed for the show, Lenny Kravitz (a good friend of Davey's) stopped by the dressing room to tell us how much he had enjoyed the previous night's show. He was very friendly, and it is always nice to get some feedback from another performer. Sax wizard David Sanborn had also attended the Saturday night show, and I got a twinge of nervousness as I lit into the sax solo in "The Bitch Is Back", knowing that one of the greatest sax players on earth would be listening to me play! I had met him during the '95 tour, and he is a very nice and gracious man indeed. As the show grew to a close, I felt a little sad that we would not be playing together in the U.S. again this year, and did feel like it was the "ending of a chapter" somehow. I do try to appreciate every moment in life and on tour, as they are all precious and will never happen exactly the same way again! I will say goodbye to all you readers for awhile now, as my time "off" will be filled with family time and personal things, but will start up the reports again when EJ and band hit Europe for the final leg of the '98 Big Picture Tour!