September 21, 2003 - New Orleans, LA

When I woke up in the morning I saw that we were on Interstate 10 and we were still about 180 miles out. So I just opened all the blinds in the back of the bus just to take in the view for the rest of the trip. I have to admit that I'm not too fond of New Orleans, at least the little bit I've seen which is just the French Quarter. Way too much debauchery for my taste. Seems like every establishment is either a nudey bar or a liquor bar or gift shop. I don't even think the native New Orleans people go into the French Quarter. But this time when we got there it didn't seem as bad. It was early and air didn't seem as thick and heavy and the streets didn't seem as crowded.

On Sundays the House of Blues in New Orleans has a Sunday brunch that goes till 4:00PM so we couldn't even started loading in gear till then and it was only 11:00AM when we got there. As soon as I stepped off the bus I saw Kerry Lathon of LathonBasswear. He had told me he was going to fly in so he could bring me a jersey and a hat that he wanted me to wear so he could take pictures. He had shaven all the hair off his face so I didn't even recognize him at first. When Victor got off the bus he wanted me to go for a walk with him. We said hello to Kerry and then we walked off. Everybody in the band is friends with Kerry so I was surprised when Victor didn't offer for Kerry to leave his luggage on the bus and walk with us. I found out a couple of hours later that Victor didn't realize that it was Kerry Lathon! Most of the people in the band didn't recognize him when they saw him. So Victor and I walked around the French Quarter for a while and went to Tower Records - bought the new Prince Concert DVD.

When we got back it was time for the Sunday Brunch and the band was invited to it. It's a brunch buffet in the House of Blues where spiritual quartets perform on the House of Blues stage. It was very, very cool. The food was good and the music was excellent. The quartet that was performing at the time was older guys, mostly in their 60's and 70's. The music made me think of my upbringing because I was raised in the church and both sets of my grandparents loved gospel music. So listening to this group perform made me reminisce about my grandparents.

Then when we got back I went to the hotel and got a shower and went walking around by myself. I saw a lot of interesting sights. I walked over to the Mississippi River to watch the steamboats. I called my wife from the river and we chatted for a while. When I started walking again I saw a really good break dance troupe - they had a lot of people standing around them checking them out. I was amazed at all the things that people do and sell in the streets of New Orleans. There were street performers everywhere. I walked into a gift shop and had a long conversation with the lady that worked there. Her name was Regina and I was telling her how I wasn't too fond of New Orleans and she reminded me that it was the tourists that brought all the 'bad' stuff to New Orleans. Right outside her shop there was a guy playing guitar and singing - he was very good with a lot of personality. I told her that I wanted to get some change so I could give him some money and she said, "Before you give him any dollar bills, drop some change in because he always makes funny comments to people that give him change." I told her I didn't want to get cursed out by him and we both started laughing. Just then Victor was walking by and I introduced Victor to Regina and then we went out to drop the money in the performer's hat. First I dropped a couple of dollars, then he made some funny comment about was that all I was going to give him, so I grabbed all the change I had in my pocket and he said "Drop it like it's hot!" Everyone started laughing.

I got back at exactly 4:00PM and it was time for load in. The crew at The House of Blues is the most professional crew that we've had on any tour. We are always complimenting them on how efficient they are. And they are always complimenting us on how self contained and efficient we are. Load in and set up couldn't have taken more than an hour and the whole time we were just laughing and joking with the crew while setting up. They were telling us about other artists who had just performed there recently. On the marquis I saw that Al Green had been there and I told them that I wish I had been there to see that show. This was an Al Green show for $125 a ticket and he didn't even perform an hour!! He said that people weren't too happy about that. That's surprising because Al Green has about 2 or 3 hours worth of hits alone! Victor had to go off and do a radio interview so I had to do sound check in his place. I had to play bass and sing some of the songs that he sings - it was kinda' cool having the spotlight on me for a couple of minutes.

After sound check I went back on the bus and watched TV for a while. There was a rebroadcast of a fight. Then I went back in to have dinner. When I got there Kurt, Victor, Derico, Ted and Divinity were already there, so I joined them. They were all finishing up while my food was just being prepared. So after they left some fans of the band came over and I chatted with them for a while.

We started the concert at 9:00PM and of course it was very good with a very enthusiastic crowd. And everybody's playing is getting better and better. After the show we did our usual which is talking with fans and signing autographs while we're breaking the equipment down. The load out went extremely fast. I think we have it in our rider that most of the venues provide pizza for us after the show, so we got on the bus and ate pizza. We watched a Jamie Fox standup comedy routine on HBO.

A special shout out to Diana Rushing. She drove from Birmingham, AL to see the show and the last time we were at the House of Blues, she did the same thing. I met her at Paisley Park when we played at Prince's Birthday party and she's been a fan of the band ever since.

That's it for now!

peace & blessings,

anthony