February 1, 2003 - Salt Lake City, Utah

When I woke up this morning and walked through the sleeping section of the tour bus, I bumped into Zach. He told me the space shuttle crashed - and because it was pretty early and I was still half asleep, it didn't register to me what he had said. He must have realized that it didn't register with me, because he said it again. I bolted to the front lounge of the tour bus to see what was going on in the news. So I was kind of in a funk all morning. We all just kinda' sat on the front of the bus watching that for a couple of hours while driving through Nevada on our way to Salt Lake City, Utah.

On the ride I got a chance to sit shotgun with the bus driver, Kevin Premier, and talk to him for awhile. We stopped at a truck stop outside of Salt Lake City and got some breakfast and fueled up. We arrived in Salt Lake City at about 2:00PM and went straight to the venue at the University of Utah for load in. Right after sound check, I did my first interview. Russ Hodges interviewed me for the University. After the interview, he and his wife Robin were kind enough to drive me to the Barnes & Nobles book store in town. I gave Russ a copy of the book "Zen Guitar" by Philip Sudo. It's one of my favorite books about playing guitar.

The venue and it's staff were incredible. The concert was even more incredible - Derico did a MONSTER drum solo. The crowd was so loud it sounded like we were playing in a football stadium. The performance was almost flawless! It was the best show to date…(is there an echo in here?)... I know I said that before, but it just keeps getting better! Victor dedicated his solo spot to the victims of the space shuttle disaster. At the end of the night one of the audience members jumped up on stage and started dancing around the stage - doing a VERY funny dance. Even though I knew he was harmless, I escorted him from the stage.

At the end of the night the load out was quick and painless. And now we're on our way to where Victor was born, just outside of Boise, Idaho. We had a very funny conversation on the way to Idaho. Zach and Joseph were telling us their experiences about being left behind by the tour bus. Joseph was on tour with an artist named Kashif in the 80's and they didn't realize they left him until they got to the next city and got a note at the hotel they were going to be staying at from him. We left him once on tour with the Victor Wooten band. We were on the road and Joseph was still at the hotel looking for the bus. He called Danette, our tour manager on the cell phone and asked her if the bus was parked in the front or back of the hotel! Oops! So she knew right then that we had left him so we had to turn around and get him. Zach told a VERY funny story about being left by the Flecktones. But you'd have to get him to tell you about that one because it's a little embarrasing!!

I had a chance to check my email before the end of the night and received some email from the legendary bassist Carol Kaye. We have been corresponding for about a year by email and have been trying to get together. I had invited her to the Los Angeles show and she was considering coming out, but she's 67 and some of the neighborhoods in LA aren't too safe and she didn't think it would be a good idea for her to come out.

So tonight we have a ride through the mountains and snow storms - it's supposed to be cold in Boise. We're heading into the cold states for the rest of the tour. That's all for now!

peace,

anthony