So I’m in Austin, Tx. I was supposed to be back in Nashville already, but sometimes life goes crazy! 
I’ve got an awesome band together of some fine musicians and people. We had a bass player who didn’t quite work out, but now that we’ve weeded out the ones whose hearts aren’t truly in this, we’ve got an all star line up of passionate and good hearted musicians, who can sufficiently rock your face off!
Audix microphones is on board and we couldn’t be more happy!
I’m also lucky enough to be friends with one Calvin Ross at Lone Star Music in Waco, TX. He has been helping us with a fundraising campaign for this tour. There are texas acoustic guitars and texas telecaster style guitars for sponsors of $500 or $1000 respectively. Ted Nugent is personally signing all of them!
Check http://feedthemuse.net/valhalla for more info!
Hmmm what else have i been up to…. a lot of emailing. I have to secure all 28 dates contracts with each promoter individually. So that’s been a big job…
We’re also trying to organize places for the band and I to stay while out there on the road! If you can help let us know!
I’ve been sending out press releases as well. Gotta ride the wave of a Nugent tour
And new merchandise is in the works… I’m looking to do a cool new logo… I’m thinking for this tour it would be pretty cool to make a statement with the logo… yes on THIS TOUR especially! ha! I think statements will be necessary to make every day on this tour! Stay tuned for the unveiling of the new logo. You guys will love it!
I have also seen the rough cut of the music video for (Stay) I Wanna Be With You. That was the one we shot in Los Angeles back at the start of May.
We will debut the video live from backstage at the House of Blues in Boston on the first night of the tour! We’re going to have a live justin.tv link where you can tune in and see us backstage! I’ll introduce it and then we’ll let the video play for the next hour or so on repeat on the online station so yall can check it out before it goes live to youtube and sent to the ancient tube box “television”.
I’m really excited about this tour, though I can’t say that I have much time to enjoy the excitement right now. A lot of people keep asking me why I don’t have a manager handling all these things. Because I’m Canadian I have to stay on top of my immigration paperwork as well…making sure to notify and apply for all these shows through them, and through the musicians union, that the proper forms will be filled out for taxes and what not, collecting and negotiating contracts and riders, being the publicist, the agent, and the road manager making sure there is a band, that they are talented, that they are fed and paid and housed while on tour, finding a van and making sure there is enough money coming in to keep the wheels spinning on the road, having proper merchandise and branding and logos and all the bullshit you always wanted “the man” to have to worry about, and not you “the artist”.
There’s that and much more to take care of, and i’ll tell you right now the reason that a manager isn’t doing it is because i’ve never had anyone i felt confident in handing it over to offer to do it. I mean, if a guy off the street walked up to you and asked if he could manage your stock portfolio for you, would you let hiM? of course not….
I am looking though. I don’t want to be known as one of those people who is against the establishment or trying to make a point about “fuck the labels”and being indie is some sort of holy attainment. I don’t think like that… but i do think if no one else is doing something for you, you need to take it into your own hands, and just do it yourself.
Should i come across someone i believe in, someone i click with, someone who i think has good ideals in life and business… yes i would love to hand some of this stuff over! Its exhausting! Until then, keep pushing on i say!
Musically now, (and more importantly) I’m feeling really great about being on stage these days. MAN IS IT FUN! I don’t know where i go….but i go somewhere. A good place. I think there is a vibe in a room at a show or a concert. Some people latch on and run wild with it…those people you see at the front dancing in ways that makes other people want to snicker. But so what!
then there’s the people who latch on and go internal with it. I think I do this when I am part of the audience at a live show. I go inside with it and start to think about other things i can relate that music to in my life, or just think how lucky i am to be there listening to this (if the music is really great).
I’ll never forget how i felt seeing Muse at SXSW. I felt lucky to be there. And when I saw Rage Against the Machine at the Coachella music fest, and it was their first show back together… i could feel it in the air. It was like a danger that was exciting and that everyone there was screaming just to be a part of! It was electric! Cause we knew it stood for something.
I won’t always agree with everything my favorite musicians say, or do, or think politically. but i know when it ignites something within ME, something that I believe. And that is the most important thing about music. Its about us, not me, or you. Its a common bond or recognition or feeling. Even if it is something different for both of us, its most magical and powerful when it is ignited within us at the same time!
A passing of energy! Like an ice cube in hot water! Or a red hot pot that cools on the counter…. the energy changes…shifts…transfers.
We will be playing a lot of songs off the new album No Place, but some that aren’t on the album at all, and we will be doing ONE COVER SONG! i’m not usually into doing covers, but let me tell you, i found one I can literally run wild with!
I have to say that being in Austin Texas for the last few weeks has been gravy fries for my soul. I’ve got to see some of my heroes perform (Matt King, ZZtop), and hear some great new bands I hadn’t heard before (Deadman, Javi Garcia)
Its also hot here already like August is in Saskatchewan. So I already have these weird thoughts coming to my head that usually come with summer weather, and it was only May and I was thinking this way! Seasons always bring nostalgia for me, especially with such drastic changes in weather that there are in Canada. So now, I remember those times and places that I was before when the weather was that way.
Texas heat makes people act in incredible ways. It makes me do the same. I think there is almost most where everything is surreal, because its hot, its humid, maybe its even raining but still hot, but the sky might be blurry, or just your vision, or just the lines of a relationship with someone. things get blurry and humid and the barometer goes crazy and it never really is out of the ordinary, but moreso expected. texas is wild.
I kind of get a kick out of it. And at the same time, there have been moments where I want to run kicking and screaming. And such is its paradox!
The wild country!