We just got the news that we're nominated for a gang of Grammys this year. Yeah!! I wish I could be aloof about it, which seems to be the proper way to react but I'm totally blown away about it. In my heart I think that's a good sign. We're nominated in two performance categories for "Pink" and "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and also a video category for "Pink". It's been an unbelievable, ironic and even bizarre year for us and it's cool to catch what comes along.

We topped off the year by doing a couple of big shows on the home turf. The first of the two was a New Years eve show at the Fleet Center in Boston, which we named the Fire Ball. We like the idea of this becoming a tradition and each time we do it, we like to go overboard on the production side of it. We decided this year to transform the entire hall. We brought in hundreds of extra lights and put them out over the audience so the entire place was bathed in color. Then we hung huge "planets" filled with confetti and balloons in strategic places over the seats.

When it was time to go on, we all got dressed in Fire fighting suits and came up to the front of the stage after walking through the audience. We were surrounded by twenty other "firemen" to keep ourselves hidden as we strolled up the aisles. You know those big openings that lead out onto the floor of big arenas? They're actually called Vomitories. I'm not kidding, that's the technical term. Well we ejected out of the vomitories in our yellow (how appropriate) uniforms and marched to the stage. The best part was that we all had fire extinguishers which we randomly blasted toward the ceiling. It was all we could do to not aim them at each other. I can still see our keyboard tech hunched over his gear like a soldier on a grenade with a "Don't even think about it" look on his face. We doffed (there's a word we all use in conversation) our outfits and played the rest of the show naked. Not really. Actually it was a relief to get that hat off of my head. It's really heavy and does nothing for the coif. We did a false beginning for Nine Lives and then went into Toys.

A while later we were in the breakdown part of "Draw the Line" when we got the "one minute to midnight " warning. With thirty seconds to go we blasted a tape of the shuttle launch and then at the stroke of the new year we set off concussion bombs and remotely popped all the planets, releasing their contents all over the audience. We must have a thing about spewing. Fire extinguishers, belching balloons, fireworks, and, oh yeah, confetti cannons. We do those every year and every year we vow to blast more of it. This year there wasn't a square inch of the stage that wasn't buried in it. Thank God we spared the audience. They would have been coughing up colored paper for days.

The show ended about one o'clock but we were only half finished. We did a food drive for the Boston Food Bank and promised to shake hands with anybody who basically brought a hundred items of food to the show. About a thousand people responded and we wound up with 90,000 pounds of vittles. It was amazing. People not only brought food but also stood outside in the cold, waiting in line while it was collected. A couple of heroic people from our office nearly got frostbite trudging back and forth in the snow and ice, keeping things organized.

We started shaking hands at around two o'clock and finished at about three-twenty. What a vibe. I couldn't believe the enthusiasm! There was this one woman who had hurt her leg during the show and was told to go to hospital. She would not let them take her until after the post show meet & greet. It felt good to see people going the extra mile.

I want to thank all the people who said "Happy Birthday" to me. It was mixed in with all the "Happy new Years and the Thank yous so people kept wishing me happy birthday and I kept saying "Same to you". A little happy delirium is always appropriate.

More coming,

TH

I think I'm finally getting accustomed to what I believe they call "home life". I have heard that most people on your planet live this way and I am willing to consider it for intermittent periods of time.

We finished up the tour in Pittsburgh and Chattanooga. As usual in these situations I felt a mixture of elation at the idea of spending some time at home and sadness at putting the brakes on what I think of as the touring equivalent of a Rolls Royce. If you're not into British car analogies let's call it the touring equivalent of the best hot fudge sundae you ever tasted.

I'm not talking specifically about the band, although we have been playing pretty good lately, but the whole gigantic rolling piece of machinery that includes the crew, the gear, the trucks, the busses, the expertise, the attitude, the spirit and the all around grunt that makes this possible. It's hard to put it to sleep. One thing that makes it easier is knowing that we'll be starting up again in April.

In the meantime we're still keeping busy. We just had a marathon meeting the other day about what kind of changes we want to make to the stage set & production when we continue. We'll be doing about six weeks in the States and six weeks in Europe and we want to expand on the show we've had out for the last two years.

We'll also be playing at the Grammy's so we had to talk for a while about how we want to present ourselves on the box. Believe it or not, there's a lot more to it than walking out there and playing the song. We actually have a lot of input into the stage set, the overall look, etc.

Speaking of the Grammy's, we're nominated for three this year. One for best Rock performance for Pink, and one for Pop performance for "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". I love it. One minute we're rock and the next minute we're pop. Guess I'll have to have a new outfit for each. Quick, call 911, I'm having an identity crisis.

The third is for Best Short Form Film for Pink. I always thought that that video didn't get the attention it deserved, so this one feels good. Let's all keep our fingers crossed. As a matter of fact, let's keep everything we have a pair of crossed!

As usual we have one particular project that I'm dying to talk about but can't. I know, you always say you won't tell but you always do, so now you have to wait.

Secretly yours,

TH

Man, all of a sudden we're in LA getting ready to do the Grammy's. A few day's ago we were all in vay-cay mode. Now we be workin' once again.

Yesterday was the flight out here, today was rehearsal. That's right rehearsal. Even though these award shows seem chaotic they're all carefully choreographed and rehearsed. Then when you do the actual broadcast you can tell the difference between what you're supposed to do and what's actually happening.

We drove over to the Shrine Auditorium about noon. I knew we were one of the main acts when I saw my parking place. Oh did I mention we don't use limos everywhere we go? Another music biz fact you may never have considered.

When I got there I instinctively went to the parking garage next door. Joey and I got out of the car and walked to the stage door and then found out that we could have parked right outside. Did I send an assistant or a security person to get my car? No, I did it myself. This is too normal for Hollywood. We've played this gig a few times and a lot of the people who work on the show are kind of becoming old friends. There's a small group of people who get called to produce and direct these kinds of events so, weird as it may sound, we're kind of getting a routine down with them.

Anyway we hit the stage at around noon and started running the song down. None of the other acts were there because everybody gets a separate time to come and do their rehearsal. Actually Rosie O'Donnell was there. She's hosting the show so she has to hang out the whole time people are coming and going to practice their bits. The poor host is always there as if they're the sole inhabitant of some huge lonely house filled with cameras and colored lights. Obviously the audience isn't there yet. Considering the show isn't until Wednesday they'd have to be awfully punctual to show up today. However, the first section is all assigned to various celebs and they have giant cards in their seats with their pictures on them so the camera people can practice zooming in on their faces. A huge part of the same area is filled with all the equipment they need to get it all on TV. They do an incredible job of letting you see everything but.

So anyway, we'll be hanging out here for a few days to do the Grammy broadcast and some other really cool but, at this moment, ultra top-secret stuff. I'll tell you about some of it but you have to promise not to tell ANYBODY€

OOPS, the phone's ringing. Gotta go.

TH

Okay, it's time to talk about the Grammys. It's taken a couple of days to digest everything that happened that fateful night. Ooooh, sounds like trouble, eh?

I'll get to the trouble part later.

The day started off just like any other day at a big TV awards show. We climbed quickly into the cars (this time using limos in order to avoid the tenacious, indescribably obnoxious, professional autograph seekers that have been lurking around the hotel). These guys make no bones about letting you know that they are on your trail. They hang out in front using two-way radios and writing down license plate numbers in order to keep track of us. It's the same group every time. The same ones we've signed stuff for countless times. It's all a game but one where they just don't give a crap about playing nicely. C'mon guys, play nicely.

It was a long drive to a place where reality is taking a lunch break. The first thing we saw upon arriving at the Shrine Auditorium was a crowd across the street. Half of them were fans and the other half were fanatics holding huge signs suggesting we give up music and repent. One of them read: "too much music." I thought too much music was something that you could never get no matter how hard you tried.

Just beyond that we climbed out of the cars to do the Red Carpet thing. I've mentioned this kind of thing before and you're all familiar with it. There's a red carpet leading up to the entrance of the building that's lined with press from all over the world and beyond. Every few feet there are camera crews with guys and girls with perfect hair who ask inane but hopefully entertaining questions. Most of them are from familiar shows like ET, Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, MTV News, VH-1 news, etc. The big coup this year was VH-1 using John Lydon (or is it Rotten) to confront and hopefully embarrass the poor innocent musicians who wandered into the trap.

We made some light conversation and then dealt with some appropriately rude question about the technical problems we had had at our rehearsal that morning. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we had to get up at six A.M. to get to the run-through of the show. It's a bit of a challenge considering that, for us, six A.M. is the middle of the night.

We survived that and even managed to tell Ol' Johnny that we were big fans.

We finally finished and got a chance to hang out and collect our thoughts for the upcoming performance. We were a little pissed off because we found out that the awards we were nominated for wouldn't be announced during the broadcast. We should be used to that by now. Our kind of music is still only politely tolerated by the people who run this show. The only redeeming factor was that we found out beforehand that we had won a Grammy for our performance on "Pink". We hung around our trailer for a while and had the pleasure of meeting B.B. King and catching up with some new friends and some old friends that were in the same area.

Finally we heard Madonna doing her show-opening song which meant we were next.

We hustled to the backstage area which was filled with people hanging around getting in the way of the stagehands who were trying to get all the amps and scenery into place on the stage.

After a few minutes of pure bedlam we were taking our places. We put our ear monitors in and noticed a loud hum but they were still working. It was getting close to our cue. Then the monitors went dead. We all looked at each other. Then they came back on. Then they went dead, came back on and then went dead again, this time for good. It's hard to describe what it's like to play without monitors. You can't hear each other! It's the equivalent of trying to play hockey without ice. Everybody backstage knew that something was drastically wrong but had no idea how to fix it. We figured the show would just go to commercial 'til it was fixed. All of a sudden a huge panel that hid us from the audience came down and they cued Rosie O'Donnell to announce us, which she did. We all looked at each other, this time in horror, realizing we were going to have to do the song with the technical equivalent of having our pants around our ankles. Steven was still on the side of the stage when the string players started stringing. He barely made it in time to come in on the second line of his vocal. We just prayed and plowed through the song having no idea if it sounded okay or if it was a complete mess. The audience at these things is usually mannequin like but this time it was mannequins knitting their eyebrows. Great, here we are playing to some of our biggest heroes thinking that we may wind up forever back in the garage. We got through the song and then hustled back to our trailer to find out the verdict. We still had no idea how it did or didn't come off to the people there and the millions of others watching it on TV. Did you ever have one of those dreams where you're at school and you look down and you're wearing nothing but your underwear? Multiply that by a thousand. Finally the word came in that except for some weirdness at the beginning of the song we had pulled it off. Steven literally pulled it out of the jaws of oblivion. Joey, not being able to hear any other instruments, held the song in control and made it float. What a couple of troopers!

After an hour of trying to analyze what had happened we decided to put on the brave face and go down to the press tents and do the follow-through. We expected the worst but nobody even mentioned it. We did the photo room, the print room and the TV room and slid through as if everything was just hunky dory. Wild.

So anyway, I'd be curious to know how many of you knew anything was going on. The next day all kinds of people came up to us and told us how great it sounded. The first few times my response was "Yeah but we had some horrible technical problems and€" but by the end of the day I would just say "Thanks, I'm glad you liked it".

Yours, from thin ice,

TH

I'm gettin' pretty frustrated ovah heah.

There's so much going on it's hard to keep track of it. And the worst part of it is I can't talk about any of it just yet. All we had to do was spend a week in LA and now the plate is chock full of cool projects. The only problem is going to be manufacturing time out of thin air, which is what will have to happen in order for us to accomplish all this stuff. All this for you, the eager, hungry, ravenous, impossible to satisfy, gaping-baby-bird-mouth customer!!!

Uh oh. I didn't mean that.

To tell you the truth the inspiration well is brimming over. It's amazing to have so many choices of near-fantasy work to do. As I said before, I can't talk about it yet so instead, snuggle up to your pillow or whatever you like to be close to and I'll tell you a story from long ago.

We were in the middle of out Get A Grip tour in a situation similar to where we find ourselves today. The label was getting ready to wrap up the "Big Ones" album and suggested it would be ever so nice to have a couple of new songs on it and wouldn't it be great if one or, gee, even both of them could be a hit single. We looked under the rug and found a couple of extra weeks and went into the studio to record "Blind Man", "Walk on Water" and couple of other interesting bits. As soon as that was done we went on our merry way and started a tour of Europe.

We got a way's into that leg when the phone rang and whoever was on the other end of it suggested we take another listen to the takes we had in the can. Sure enough, they weren't all the way up to being ready for mix down. We had to go back to the lab and conjure up a time, SOON, when we could re-record.

We had a break coming up and were considering spending it in an area in Portugal called the Algarve. No matter how hard we tried we couldn't avoid the inevitable. We'd have to blow off yet another chunk of precious time off and get this thing done.

Jimmy, our tour manager, commenced to search out a studio in that same area that was available. Our producer, Michael Beinhorn suggested a place on the fabulous Italian Mediterranean Isle of Capri. The Algarve made more sense, but, hey, who makes decisions based on that kind of stuff? Besides, Capri sounded more familiar. Didn't they name a car or a pair of pants after that place?

Everybody had family coming out at the same time so the momentous task of changing flights, ground transport, and hotels began. Every time we do that it's like a mini D-Day. Countless preferences and requirements have to be accommodated. Poor Jimmy, he had only recently started with us and must have wondered what he was in for, even though he's one of the most experienced tour managers in the business. Oh yeah, I forgot, he booked the studio too.

When the time came to go it was quite a project just to get out there. First we had to fly to Naples. Then we had to take a hydrofoil to get to the island. We had been warned in advance that the trip could be rough so go easy on the garlic spinach the night before. It was actually pretty cool. The hydrofoils were fast and really cool looking. Leave it to the Italians.

When you get to the island there's a small village snuggled up against a huge cliff. In order to get to the main area where all the houses and hotels are, you take a thing called a funicular, which is basically a small train that goes up. Yup. Actually it goes up at a 45-degree angle. It's kind of a combination of a ski lift and a trolley.

When you get to the top you start to realize why this place is famous. The view is unbelievable. Suddenly you're in the middle of one of those amazing paintings the ancient Romans used to do all over the walls and ceilings. Then you start walking up a pathway that leads into a village square packed with ritzy looking shops and even ritzier looking people. I think Robin Leach must have bought his accent here. Everything is Channel, Gucci, Prada, Yves St. Laurent and dozens of other exotic names I've never heard of. I didn't see the word "Levi's" anywhere. I think I forgot to mention there weren't any cars. Not even one. The whole island is a network of narrow pathways about five feet wide. When you want to go to someone's house you€walk. The paths go around little corners and up and down steep hills and every square inch of land that doesn't have a house, shop or restaurant on it is completely covered by flowering vines and exotic trees. The Roman Caesars used to come here to get away from their murderous friends and family members, so the landscaping and most of the buildings go back that far.

I'm starting to sound like a brochure.

We walked around a corner and there was the biggest building on the island and it was our hotel. I forget the name of it. Something like the Villa Del Snobbe. Just before we got there I stopped at the Gucci hardware store and bought some batteries. Then I ran into the Yves St. Laurent Quik Copy Center to send a fax. You get the idea.

This place was exquisite but one of the first things I noticed was a lot of signs around with rules on them. One of them said "No Children in the pool after 1:00 PM". Guess whose kids spent every hour of every afternoon at the pool. Then there was the indoor spa where children were forbidden altogether. Nice try. I seem to remember the hotel manager politely asked Jimmy if we could leave after about two nights. Yeah like there's a Holiday Inn on Capri.

The Studio was unbelievable. These people had taken a beautiful house and turned it into a state of the art place to make a record. The living room was the recording room and most of the rest of the house was the control room. They had a chef who would make a succulent version of anything you wanted and serve it to you on a patio that had the same view Julius Caesar looked at two thousand years ago. Damn! I forgot to order a Caesar Salad. It would have been perfect! The only drawback was that you had to climb up about three hundred steps to get to it. Boy, if we weren't such nice people we could have had a blast with the crew. "Uh€.Could you go down to the Gucci hardware store and get me some more batteries for my Walkman€€oh sorry, I had plenty.

Speaking of the crew, one day I had finished my bass track and had the day off. I went out to the pool to soak up the million-dollar sun and admire all the fancy European guys sneaking a weekend with their mistresses. I sat down and was inadvertently eating a plate of rabbit meat when suddenly I heard ..thwaaannngg€dwanng..chunka chunka..DAA DAA, da da DAAA, da DAAA DAAA ringing out over the canyon around the hotel. It wasn't coming from any of the rooms. It was coming from a good half mile away. I looked up and realized there was a direct line of sight to the studio and one of the techs was up there tuning the guitars with the amps turned up and the door open. It was so loud it was echoing all over the island. I kind of hid my face and tried to pretend I didn't know what was going on but it was hard since I was the only longhaired hippie musician type in the area. The climax came on the last night of our stay. Someone had left their underwear out to dry on the railing outside their room, which is a no-no at any hotel. Around dinnertime a stiff breeze came up and blew it off whereupon it fell softly down into the outdoor dining area below. I am NOT making this up.

Later that night when Jimmy was settling the bill for the next day's early check-out the hotel manager said: "You are like boat people!!" Yeah well at least we don't eat rabbits!!

TH

Well, here we are, back in LA getting ready to play on the Oscars. Just your average everyday, once in a lifetime experience. It's really an honor, especially when you consider there are only five musical performances on the show.

We got over to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion around Twelve O'clock. There were only a couple of camera crews and autograph seekers out front today but it's just the first few drops of a rainstorm of press that will be gathering over the next couple of days. Actually there was only one camera crew and it was from one of the TV stations back home in Boston. I like that; the home front keeping up on the home boys. Now maybe my parents will believe I've found a real job.

We were a little leery after our experience on the Grammys but the people here were great about coming down to the dressing room and reassuring us that there would be no repeat of the kind of technical problems we ran into last time. They seemed really sincere so we started letting ourselves get excited about the whole thing.

At the Grammys we played with an orchestra. This time it's just us. We're gonna get up there and fly the flag for Rock and Roll. The set they're using for the whole show is really cool and when we play, they're going to be doing some other bits that should put it right over the top. Of course I'm not going to tell you and ruin the surprise. I've felt like a spy lately putting out all this non-information of things to come. One of these days I'll get to spill it all. Then we'll really have something to talk about. Anyway, the rehearsal went really well and I'm looking forward to Sunday night.

We've done a lot of award shows but the Oscars are on a level of their own. The art that's being honored here is an international treasure.

I'll let you know how it's going,

TH

The Oscars were a blast. There's no use being casual 'bout it.

Anyway, in the two days before the show, there were four full run-throughs of the show and we were there for every one of them. We started feeling at home after a day or so and could concentrate on grokking at the stage set. I haven't seen a tape of the broadcast yet. I'm assuming it looked cool on the tube as well. And Pyro! We were definitely the only act that had fireworks. I think it would have been cool if they used the pyro on, I mean, behind Whitney and Mariah - nice mellow slow song with things exploding behind it. Or maybe even when Val Kilmer was up there with his horse. Whoooa Nellie! I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

After a full-on rehearsal on Sunday morning we went back to the hotel to chill for about a half hour and then it was time to get all dressed and painted up before the show. This time we did use limos. Is it still a limo if the AC doesn't work and the exhaust system keeps making a machine gun noise against the bottom of the car? The trip over there took a while. We knew when we were getting close when we saw all the fanatics holding picket signs. Not music or movie fans but delegates from the, let's say, world of people who can get pissed about anything. Pretty soon we were in line with all the other four wheeled toaster ovens. Boy, those limos wa spittin, out Stahs of every stripe. Within a couple of minutes we were on the red carpet that takes you through the press gauntlet.

I've never scene so many cameras in my whole life. The first thing you do is get your eyes blasted out by a mountain of people yellin' your name and popping their flashes. It's really a trip. Then we headed down for the TV camera crews. We met up with Liv and threw a few poses and continued on. One of the first people we talked to was Joan Rivers. Steven told her a dirty joke that got broadcast live. What a gas.

OK, we squezzed along like food through the digestive system. The place was packed with actors and moguls. Every so often you'd bump up against people and when you looked around it was somebody you paid nine bucks to see in a movie theater. It was kind of fun in all its chaos. We got to our seats and caught the opening of the show. We then headed down to the dressing room. Suddenly we were in our quiet little space where we could try to resist thinking about how many people we were about to play for. Everybody was ready to get it done and pretty soon were climbing the stairs up into the wings. We watched the show from the side for a few minutes while the crew wheeled the set pieces and our gear up to its' mark. It was really quiet back there.

We hit the stage and started the song. If you looked in the audience, it was a sea of tuxedos and flashes of familiar faces. I focused on the back of the room so I could keep my mind on what I was doing. Everything went great. The only thing was that it seemed like it was over in about a minute. Now, it was time to hit the various parties around Hollywood...

TH

Hey, we're back on the road again. Just like that! We started out in Columbus Sunday night. Except for the awards shows, we hadn't played since January. It felt incredible to be back onstage again. The crowd energy was unbelievable which made it that much more intense. Last night we played Memphis and it was the same thing all over again. If this is any indication of what the leg is going to be like then, baby, we're gonna rip! I have to say that the show last night was one of those moments that goes deep into the brain cells and stays there. I'm surfin' on it. Meanwhile, I have to catch you up on the rest of the Oscar night story. Consider this my sequel. (That's what Hollywood's all about, right?) When I left off I was about to give my spin on the parties after the Oscars. First after a victory dance in the dressing room, we went over to the Governor's Ball. I don't know if it was his right or his left. Frankly, I don't know why they would name a party after one of the testicles of the State Governor but, hey, it must be a pretty good one. Now that I think of it, the main color scheme of the place was blue…. Man, do they go all out. And, man, do they all go out.

The big ones definitely pour out of their mansion hideaways for this one. I'd give you a list but People Magazine already did it. The coolest thing we went to was the Vanity Fair party. We were probably there for fifteen minutes before we could even see the place. Come to think of it, we were in line in our limo for a good twenty minutes before that. And the street was closed.

We got through the security and press gauntlet and went inside. At first I just saw a group of typical, really well dressed people having cocktails and trying to make themselves heard over the high tempo dance music pounding away. Then I started recognizing faces. And there were lots of them. I saw Joe go over for a chat with Rod Stewart. Probably asked him a question about Jeff Beck. The next thing I know, Jim Carrey strides over and introduces himself. Says he's a big fan. Wow, I was about to say the same thing but he beat me to it. The clothes were outlandish to the point of being comical. Most of the men were in tuxes so they were pretty monochromatic. The women, however, were ready to show their fashion stuff. I'm not really into the costume thing but there were some pretty swingin' rags out there and the clothes weren't bad either! Steven, Joe and Brad went into the back room where it apparently got much more interesting. There were some stars, starlets and the one and only Monica hangin' back there. Everybody was on their way to being good and ripped and I understand there were some interesting pairings between a few of the Hollywood icons…Whoa, stop me! I'm in gossip mode!

We hung out and had a good time for a while and then eased our way back to the hotel. We had a lot of other fish to fry that week and we were focused on that - and it's music - and we were in the studio for a couple of days. Heh, heh, that's all I can tell ya. It's probably on a lot of news groups already.

Anyway, there's been a lot of other stuff going on that I hope to be able to post within the next week or so. If I can't then I'll just make something up.

Fictionally yours,

TH

Sometimes you smell something that triggers a memory. Sometimes even more than a memory. Sometimes it's almost like you were there. Sometimes, you ARE there.

I had one like that last night when we were walking to the stage in San Antonio. It was memory and reality at the same time. The show was in a big field instead of an amphitheater or an arena. I think that may have had something to do with it. Instead of being virtually surrounded with concrete we were surrounded by the smell of the grass, the sight and feel of a threatening summer thunderstorm and when the wind blew a certain way, the smell of the crowd. I mean that in a good way. I'M SERIOUS so shut up! Okay, more on that later, right now I've got some updating to do.

We spent the week in Atlanta last week basing for some of the shows in ol' Dixie. That's the southern United States for you reluctant geography fans. Greenville, Birmingham, Biloxi, and Lafayette. Those names could be a lot of places in the world and the ironic thing is, you can see that in the audience. We go to a lot of different cities, but something we've noticed is that it's harder to tell where we are by looking at the audience than it used to be. I guess that's a good sign. I can tell you first hand that people are basically the same everywhere. We get that message from a lot of different places but it's good to actually see it first hand.

The European tour is coming up so we're starting to do a lot of stuff to get that going. Last week at Birmingham and Biloxi we taped a couple of versions of Pink and Circle for some TV shows over there. Usually, we would fly over and tape them on the actual broadcasts but since we're on tour they asked us to do it from our live stage. We geared up and did a few takes at sound check and then taped the whole show both nights. We couldn't have timed it better. The band is hitting a new stride and we're psyched that we got it all down. The single of "Pink" is being released in the UK and "Circle" is going out to Europe and the Far East. We've also got a brand new video for Circle. And you thought we were a local band. We are! We're Planet Earth's hometown band. YEAH! OK I'll get humble now.

That whole bit went really well and we've got a brand new tape for the back pocket.

So we danced down memory lane and up the steps to the stage. The wind was kicking up so they had the lights and sound hunkered down closer to the stage than usual. It made the lights more intense and the sound really ballsy onstage. We kicked the show off with Toys in the Attic and then into Back in the Saddle a combination I find quite stimulating.

Another thing that was quite stimulating was the audience. I was mentioning the aroma before and even though it's pretty strong it's the absolute salt of the Earth. They were seething, writhing, undulating and screaming and all at the same time which takes practice. I've been trying to get it for a long time now. You always know it's going to be a great gig when the crowd sweats as much as we do. It was also an exhibition of exhibitionism. A lot of girls were somehow motivated to take their shirts off and, for all I know, a lot of guys were doing their equivalent. It's harder to tell if the guys are doing it because their naughty bits are hidden in the crowd. Thank the Lord. It's amazing how nature takes care of that for us. GROSS!

Speaking of guys, and don't get the idea that I spend a lot of time thinking about them, I love watching the guys who wind up having a girl on their shoulders for the whole show. They're usually these beefy dudes, who can't resist showing how strong they are in public. Not only that but they think it's going to get them something later. Most of them probably end up with a good night's sleep and a chiropractor bill. About halfway through the show they start looking pretty exhausted but there's no way they're givin' up. " I got a little bit of heaven pressed up against the back of my neck and I ain't puttin' it down 'til my spine separates!" So it was a heady mix last night. Please forgive the pun, but it was a "Full Circle" experience. The atmosphere and the vibe were identical to what we've known since our first outdoor gig. Not only that, but since last week we've been so jazzed by the audience reaction for "Full Circle" we've left it in the set.

Keep it turnin', Brothers and Sisters,

TH

Well here's some news I can finally lay on ya. We are going to part of a Disney Rollercoaster. You heard me right. The Walt Disney Company came to us a few months ago and said they were building this mega ride that they were going to call the "Rockin' Roller Coaster, and would we be interested? We thought they were going to give us a free ride on opening day. Then they told us that they wanted to design the ride around our music and they wanted us personally involved with some of the other parts of it. Are you kidding?! In how many languages can you understand the word "yes" because we about to say it many, many times!!

So, we've been doing all this cool multimedia stuff that will be used on the actual ride. Wow, I just got a weird thought. There will be people on that ride losing their lunch and most of their bodily functions to our music. Not the kind of reaction we usually go for. Hey wait a minute! I wonder if we could do that when we play live? That's what happens when I think. These things pop up and I can't stop them.

By the way, when you get on this thing it goes from zero to sixty in 2.8 seconds. Not even a Porsche Turbo or a GTO with the tri-power is that fast. Then you're upside down a few times, enjoy a couple of 4G loops, hear some custom tailored Aero Music from a separate sound system for each seat and then you try to remember how to breathe. Don't worry, when you get to the end we'll be right there virtually waiting for you.

Here's waitin on ya,

TH

Dallas was a gas this time. It always is. I grew up thinking of Texas as the land of the cowboys so every time we go there it has that extra vibe. It doesn't hurt that it was sold out. Knowing that people are waiting before you even get to town is a great feeling.

Our next show was Denver. It was to be only ten days after the nightmare at Littleton High School and we weren't sure if we should do it. We agonized over whether it was too soon after the tragedy to come into town. Finally, we decided that the worst thing would be to bring disappointment to the 12,000 people who had already bought tickets. We flew in a day early and went to some of the local hospitals to visit the kids who were still there. Most of these people have serious wounds and have a long way to go before they're well, but I was amazed at how good they looked. Every one of them could smile and did, even though they were in pain. Some of them were into our music so we took some requests. Anne-Marie likes "Pink" and Lance likes "Livin' on The Edge". Ironically, we had just put "Edge" back into the set after giving it some time off.

We woke up the next day and it was just pouring. The show was at an outdoor place with no covering over the audience. Not only that but the temperature was in the low forties. We watched the rain splash over the city in bucketsful and tried to figure out how we were going to be able to play with water and freezing wind blowing all over us, the audience and the equipment. For a while there, it looked like the show wouldn't happen after all. We went right up to the end of the day and just when it looked like no-go, the rain stopped for a little while. Just long enough to convince us to do the gig. As soon as we got over to the venue it started pouring again and the temperature went down into the thirties. By this time we were committed. The show was going to happen - even if we had to wear long underwear. Fortunately, we all have clothes in our wardrobe cases that we never wear because it's usually too hot onstage. This was everybody's opportunity to get that stuff out and try it..

Sure enough, right before we went on the rain stopped and held off. I couldn't help thinking back to the days when we played at the Barn up in New Hampshire and the same thing happened over and over again.

We hit the stage and saw the audience dressed in their ski parkas and reflected on the survival instinct it must take to live in Denver. Not one person turned in their ticket and, as a matter of fact, about five hundred people looked out their window, saw the rain, saw the wind, saw the thermometer and said: "Looks like a good night for a show, let's go see the guys". It was definitely freezing up there but it was okay as long as you didn't stand still. Then you'd feel the breeze. Ooooo. Halfway through the set my fingertips went numb which is weird but at least they didn't hurt. Everybody else had similar problems and Joey was getting sick. The highlight of the show was when we did "Edge". We had already to arranged to have one of the kids at the hospital to be on a cell phone. Steven took the cell phone on our end, brought it up to the mike and invited the audience to say hi to Lance. The whole crowd screamed "Hi Lance" at the top of their lungs whereupon we played the song. It was one of THE moments of the tour. Not only that but the acoustics on the stage and in the audience were incredible that night which made it a blast to play. After that we headed out to Las Vegas. We stayed at this new hotel and they gave us suites that were twice the size of the biggest apartment in New York City. Well, close. By the time we were there for one day my stuff was completely spread out all over the place into the different rooms. If somebody came to the door it took me at least ten seconds just to from one end to the other. I like luxury as much as the next person but this was more than I could handle. The show went really well the next night, even though the flu that Joey had was making it's way through the band. Now Joe had it. We did the show with those guys sick as dogs but it went great. I have to give them credit but also to the crowd that gave us all a wave of energy to surf on.

Part two is on the way.

Partly yours,

TH

We're chooglin' along out here and the time seems to be accelerating. Maybe because we're at the end of the North American touring for a while.

Actually I'm getting way ahead of myself. We've still got plenty to do before the road cases go into deep storage.

We played the Palace near Detroit the other night for the fourth or fifth time on this tour. I'm gettin' kind of a warm spot for this place. Actually, it started the first time we ever played around here and has gotten better all along. There's something about the crowd here. It's the perfect combination of urban, sub-urban, smart and crazy. They're cool but they like to show what's inside too. What I'm tryin' to say is that it was an easy ride like a Slip n' Slide.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty much the opposite. We battled bronchitis and near pneumonia as we plowed our way up the West Coast. At the same time the weather attacked us. You know, the usual stuff.

After staying in LA for most of the last two weeks we moved on to Salt Lake City and then out east to where we are now. It was actually nice to feel humidity again.

Some of us had a tour of the GM Tech Center while we were in Detroit. It was like having a backstage pass to where all the new cars and trucks are being designed for the next few years. They had some really insane prototypes in there as well as full-size clay models of ideas that may or may not make it into a garage near you. The ones that are coming out for sure were interesting to say the least.

I'm looking out my window at Chicago in the Distance and thinking about the show tonight. It's at a gigantic amphitheater called The World. It's by far the biggest one in the country and we're going to have a solid crowd there tonight. Other than Woodstock, this is basically the end of our run in the States. I can't believe we've been out here for two years. A lot of places and faces. I think I'll tuck 'em all into my bag for next time.

Sorry, that sounded like a farewell for a minute there. Far from it. I'll be checking in for the next couple of months from Europe. Can't wait.

TH

Yeah, Baby, we're in Swinging London. Just walking the streets and checking out the sights puts me in that Austin Powers head. This is where most of the music I've been obsessed with all my life came from. In a fit of reverence, I kissed the sidewalk and wound up with a cigarette butt up my nose. But it was a Rothman's! Cool!

The first thing we did when we got here was a press conference at Harrod's. We limo'd over to the back door, took some pictures, and then rode around to the front door in a horse and carriage. It might sound kind of silly but these were really nice horses. I'm not the horsy type but it was fun checking out all the cool leather and metal gear they put on 'em. We just re-re-released "Pink" over here so they braided pink ribbons into their manes and tails. Cut it out - it wasn't as fruity as it sounds. When we got there we were greeted by the owner of Harrod's, Mohammed Al-Fayed, who's son, Dodi was killed with Princess Diana. He was a nice guy and seemed to be having a good time even though they probably do this kind of stuff all the time. He took us on a high-speed tour of the store accompanied by a bagpipe section. I really love bagpipes although, as Shakespeare pointed out, the sound makes some people piss their pants.

After all this we did a press conference followed by a book signing. We had to hurry to get to the next event.

The Stones were playing a club show that night for about 2000 of their friends and we were lucky enough to get great tickets. The place was a more of a theater than a club and we were right in the first balcony. We're the biggest Stones fans on Earth so this was a once in a lifetime experience. We stopped into the hospitality room for a little while and said hi to a few people we knew and recognized and then went to our seats. Right behind us was Chris Evans who is the host of a TV show we were to play a couple of days later.

Finally, they hit the stage and the place went insane. I've seen tighter bands in my life but it felt really good to see how connected they are to their roots. When they played the classic bluesy stuff it was full of uninhibited emotion and choked me right up. At one point one of their daughters came out and sang background vocals. She was awesome, singing and dancing away in her black dress. From there it was back to the hotel to sleep off some jet lag.

More in the pipeline,

TH

Well here's some news I can finally lay on ya. We are going to part of a Disney Rollercoaster. You heard me right. The Walt Disney Company came to us a few months ago and said they were building this mega ride that they were going to call the "Rockin' Roller Coaster, and would we be interested? We thought they were going to give us a free ride on opening day. Then they told us that they wanted to design the ride around our music and they wanted us personally involved with some of the other parts of it. Are you kidding?! In how many languages can you understand the word "yes" because we about to say it many, many times!!

So, we've been doing all this cool multimedia stuff that will be used on the actual ride. Wow, I just got a weird thought. There will be people on that ride losing their lunch and most of their bodily functions to our music. Not the kind of reaction we usually go for. Hey wait a minute! I wonder if we could do that when we play live? That's what happens when I think. These things pop up and I can't stop them.

By the way, when you get on this thing it goes from zero to sixty in 2.8 seconds. Not even a Porsche Turbo or a GTO with the tri-power is that fast. Then you're upside down a few times, enjoy a couple of 4G loops, hear some custom tailored Aero Music from a separate sound system for each seat and then you try to remember how to breathe. Don't worry, when you get to the end we'll be right there virtually waiting for you.

Here's waitin on ya,

TH

The first show of the tour was in Stockholm at a place called the Globe. We drove out to one of the many airports outside of London and flew up there. I think most Americans know that Sweden is way up north but not many know how far north England is too. I used to think it was right across from New York City but if you could drag it straight across the ocean it would wind up in Canada somewhere.

So much for geography. I just (accidentally) put on the porno channel and the guy looks just like James Hetfield. Come to think of it so does the girl.

Sorry about that.

The show in Sweden was our first in two weeks and we definitely blew off some excess energy. The audience was killer. Really animated and enthusiastic. I think I should give a lot of the credit for that to the Black Crowes who went on before us.

After the show, we flew back to London and got up the next morning for TFI Friday's, a big comedy show. You might remember I mentioned the host, Chris Evans the other day. He's a great guy and really funny. He's always great to us - it could have something to do with what we know about his old sheep herding days.

We got over there about noon and right away it was time to get ready for rehearsal. Right out of our dressing room door was a little terrace overlooking the Thames. I didn't see one body float by so I guess it's fairly clean these days. They were filming bits and skits out there and it was fun hanging around watching. One skit involved a guy cracking a bullwhip. It was so loud you could hear it echoing like a gunshot off buildings on the other side of the river. In another one. They tied one of the stagehands to a big spinning target and whipped it around as the bullwhip guy threw knives into it. I thought it was the usual illusion where they pretend to throw knives while some other guy is actually pushing fake ones through the target from behind. Then I heard a blade bounce off onto the ground. I stood there transfixed while he threw the rest of the knives mere inches away from the guy's future.

So, we did the rehearsal and then a run-through and somehow, out of the chaos of making a semi live TV show, it all came together. We played "Pink" which as mentioned before, was re-re-released a couple of weeks ago. After a quick break Chris re-introduced us and we had a little surprise in store. We started playing "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing" but right after the second chorus we broke into "Train Kept A Rollin'" and did our best to blow a hole in the place. They seemed to love it. (That last sentence should be spoken aloud in the voice of Thurston Howell from "Gilligan's Island").

We've been rollin' around Europe in our buses. Munich was really cool. We stayed there a few days and hung out. I love German food but they sure use a lot of fat. The only thing is, you don't see as many overweight people there. I think it's because it costs a thousand bucks to get a driver's license. Everybody walks everywhere.

The night before the show we went to a party at a really cool club called P1. They had a cow and it's calf out front and everybody was saying how cute it was and it was only six weeks old. I found out later that the poor thing would only be around for another four weeks - then it was veal time.

Pretty nasty thought.

The party was great though. It looked like all the super models, male and female, were there in one place. About half of them were wearing traditional Bavarian-like Lederhosen. You know. The little leather hot pants those guys wear in the Alps in all the postcards. Just kidding. Not by much though. The girls we wearing peasant dresses with those bust tops that show their cleavage getting ready to spill out. And the guys had these studly leather knickers and big puffy white shirts. The rest of the crowd was in classic Euro designer duds. It was really cool to see cutting edge style and ancient tradition mixing together.

The show the next night was in a place called Olympiahalle. It was on the sight of the tragic Munich Olympics a few years ago. I was looking forward to adding our bit to the pile of good Karma that's been built there since those bad days.

Next stop, Linz, Austria. I had found a good pair of shoes to wear onstage so I was pretty excited. Hey, smash your feet against the boards a few times, you'll start to think about things like shoes.

Right before we went on we went into a hospitality room. We received gold and platinum awards from the Austrian region of the record company.

It was a perfect night for an outdoor show and the audience was primed. We played a lot more old songs, which is not what we usually do when we're in Europe. We even played "Rattlesnake Shake", which is pretty rare. The show went really well and we got to try out some of our new production pieces.

From Linz we drove down to Zurich. I'm going to assume you know what country it's in. We had a day off so some of us decided to go hiking in the woods behind the hotel. There was a trail that went up for about a mile to a ten-story observation tower. We climbed the tower and got a great view of the Alps. When we came down Brad suggested taking a new trail instead of the one that would take us where we needed to go. We wound up walking around the woods for and hour and then popped out next to a field where they were having an American Football party. They had it all set up with cheerleaders doing American cheers. Everybody in the place was Swiss. We went over to the snack area and got these big fat sausages. They were like an American hot dog that's been to the gym. I got one and asked for a roll. No hot-dog rolls. I couldn't resist kidding the guy about it. He says: "This is not America with your white bread. I asked him if he ever had Wonder bread. He seemed amazed when I told him you could roll it into a ball the size of a marble. He pointed out some fresh baked bread and said to take a piece. It was great, but a little hard to get around that big ol' fat hot dog.

From there we kept taking trails and streets that led downhill into the city. The only problem was that the hotel was up the hill. We wound up going into a café and calling a taxi. The second we got back we had to leave for the show. We got to the gig just as Lenny Kravitz was starting his set. We watched most of it - amazing. Great songs and incredible musicians. So I guess that meant we had better get ready to show our best. There was a big crowd, about thirty thousand. The stage was up high but we had some special ramps that brought us down to front row level. We did our show, the crowd clapped - so I guess it was good for them. It was great for us!

Shee yoo in shtootgart,

TH

A few days ago we found ourselves back in London after playing in Zurich, Stuttgart, and Cologne. In Germany it's Koln, but everybody else says it the other way. Anyway, we went on a tour to one of the many Cologne factories that ring the city. The air pollution from them is pretty thick but, hey, it smells great!

I hope you didn't believe any of that.

The shows we played that week were really good. When I say that, I don't just mean the band played great. That would be bragging. I'm talking about the combination of the band, the audience, the sound, the lights, the popcorn - everything. Actually, we did play really well.

All this was a great approach to the upcoming Wembley Stadium show in London. It's by far the biggest gig we've ever done in England. The population of the show was already at 70,000.

We took the bus overnight and got in about ten o'clock the next morning. Luckily, we had a day off to sleep off the long drive. We were feeling pretty good because "Pink" had gotten into the top fifteen on the British charts. A lot of the work we had done when we first got to London really paid off. Plus, as I mentioned before, the show was doing great.

Okay - so I'll talk about the show. We had Lenny Kravitz and the Black Crowes on the bill along with a band called the Stereophonics which, unfortunately, we didn't get to see because we got there too late. We didn't get to check out the Crowes either, but we did get to see a few songs of Lenny's set. He's amazing live. His band grooves like murder and he has excellent songs. He also has a couple of amazing horn players with him. I'm not a big horn freak, but I was suckin' it up this time. I'm actually thinking of becoming a horn freak now.

There was truly a sea of people there. We've done plenty of Stadium shows before, but this one just seemed bigger. Maybe because it was still light out and we could see the whole crowd. I could feel the energy clear up to the dressing rooms. It was nice. Not a nervous energy, but a thick, fat, smooth energy. Just the way I like it.

When we first hit the stage I thought the crowd was too far away. Since it was a huge place we had to have a high stage and since we had big video screens and multiple cameras there had to be a big space in front. At first I didn't like it but then I realized we were kind of in our own world. We were with the crowd but away at the same time. It gave it a relaxed vibe which makes it easy for us to open a can of whoop ass on the people.

The sound was great on stage and the people doing the giant screen had really cool graphic stuff going on as well as coverage of the band from about 9 angles. The only weird thing that happened that night was that the Fire Marshall came up to our dressing room during the show and confiscated all the Sterno. Pretty funny. Here we are onstage blowing stuff up every two songs, and they're upstairs taking the stuff that keeps the food hot. We got offstage and all our food was cold and stiff.

We went from there to Brussels. The entire backstage area of the building is covered with graffiti done by all the bands that have played there. We played a slammin' show to a killer audience and then went on to Brussels, Frankfurt, then Amsterdam.

In case everybody doesn't know it, lots of naughty things are legal in Amsterdam so it makes for some really good people watching. You've heard of storybook cities? This is the one. You feel like you're in one of those fairy tale books but instead of a troll, you've got some ratty little guy selling coke.

All in all it was a blast. I wish we could have stayed there longer but it was time to move on to Berlin, which is where we are now. We're playing at an Olympic boxing stadium that was built in the thirties. It's a cool place but there's a ton of mosquitoes. The legend has it that a certain dictator from years past used to give speeches there and was annoyed by all the noise from the frogs so he had them all killed and that's why there are so many bugs. Maybe I'll discover more at the show tonight

TH

Sorry. I just woke up. Actually I've been home for a couple of weeks now and I'm finally adapting to civilian (i.e. off the road) life. As a matter of fact, I'm starting to really like it.

We're taking a break now, but it's kind of a calm before the storm break because pretty soon we're going to go into serious album mode. We've decided we're sick of taking 2 years at a time to make records. Everybody knows what we went through on the last two and we're determined not to repeat ourselves this time.

I've got a lot of catching up to do on Europe, but first I want to talk about something more recent. We went down to Disney World last Thursday for the grand opening of the Rock' n' Roller Coaster.

I want to make something really clear here - this is not the Mouseketeers. Mickey doesn't show his face anywhere on it. It ain't Small Small World. It's more like completely blown apart, upside down, 60 miles-per-hour-plus in the dark world. We got down to Disney World the night before and checked into one of the hotels at the park. There were a lot of kids there on vacation and they started spotting us in the lobby with confused expressions on their faces. Some of them probably thought we were part of the cast like the people that dress up as Minnie and Goofy, and sign autographs as you're walking around. Speaking of Goofy, someone down there with us said they were feeling Goofy when they first woke up. Hubba hubba. They really said that! I heard it.

We went over to the park at about ten o'clock the next morning. The ride is at MGM right across the street from Tower of Terror. Great neighborhood. We stayed there all day riding the ride, which was a blast, and doing interviews and stuff. It was so organized it was better than the military. That really helped because it was 95 degrees all day long. They whipped us in and out of the air conditioning like a turkey on the day after Thanksgiving. The vibe was amazing. People at the park were psyched! They screamed at us the whole time!

That night we did the Grand Opening. Or the Official Opening. Or the Imperial Starfish Mega-Grand Opening. Whatever. That's what it was. First they had an artist named Denny Dent come out and paint giant pictures of the band while our music blasted out. He did the whole thing in 20 minutes. I wish we could make a record that fast. When he was done, we came out and did the big hello with the crowd. They gave Joe a giant pick so he could strum a huge chord on the colossal guitar that makes up the sign for the ride. Then the place went insane with pyro. Disney knows pyro. For about 30 seconds it was like Apocalypse Now. The final bang was a missile blowing the doors off the ride. Get it? We were at an "opening" - it was way better than cutting a ribbon. We went inside while they blasted Walk This Way with a huge group of fans following us. It's so great to just walk onto a ride. No lines for us on this one! Yeah!! We blasted around the track a bunch of times with the fans. The whole day was a gas. I still can't believe it.

I forgot to mention that Slash was there, as was Jesse Camp. That guy's tall, and his hair is even taller.

I'll get back to work on the Europe flashbacks.

T. H.

Hello. I'm back.

All of us went down to the Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary broadcast last night. (I can't believe how long it took me to type that.) We've been laying low, getting ready for the shift to album mode, but we couldn't resist going to this one. We heard that cast members going back to the beginning were going to be there. A lot of these people were semi-heroes to us as we grew alongside the show. It was fantasy fulfillment to finally be on it a few years ago and twice since then.

So we watched the show in the studio where they broadcast it every week. I was laughing so hard my face was sore. Steven got up and introduced something or someone with Sting who I think has a new album coming out.

After the show there was a party in this famous place called the Rainbow Room. It was in the same building as the studio so we just hopped into the elevator. One of the cast members, Cheri Oteri, was in there and as the elevator door closed, she got nervous and grabbed my arm. Then she said: "Whenever I grab a guy's arm it stiffens up, I wonder why?" I should have said: "Hey baby, it ain't just the arm heh heh heh," but I couldn't think of it in time.

The party was really cool. Much friendlier than a lot of these kinds of things. Most of the people at the party had a direct connection to the show, so it was like a big family thing. Everybody was in a cool mood.

Next: back to the archives: Barcelona

TH

Brad and I went to Phoenix last weekend to go to the NASCAR races out there.

Kenny Wallace, one of the drivers who happens to be a big fan, decided to put the Aerosmith wings on his race car. Everybody in the band likes cool cars and we were really inspired by the idea. Usually you have to pay big bucks to get your name on one of those things, but Kenny decided to do it just for the fun of it. How often does that happen in these days of mega wheeling and dealing? How often do people do stuff like that just to get their rocks off? Not that often.

The race was to be on Sunday, but we decided to go out there on Thursday so we could take in all the stuff that goes on in order to get the car ready for the race.

We got in late Thursday night and got a ride over to the track with Kenny's manager Danielle. The track was massive and the whole area was packed with RV's and fancy motor homes. It looked like a big luxury refugee camp. It was like a huge city made of metal boxes with people outside grilling and partying. We snaked through these city streets and finally came to the area where we had our very own RV in the driver's area. Brad got the bedroom in back and I slept on the fold out couch in the "living room." Who cared? We had satellite TV with the "good channels." I looked forward to a good night's sleep and being able to sleep late the next morning.

Well it was a nice thought. About 8:30 the next morning I woke up to a distant thunder getting louder and louder until it turned into a screaming roar. "Well I guess practice starts at 8:30," I mumbled to my half-asleep self. Brad (Burnt Rubber Breath) Whitford was already up and dressed and with each car that flew by I came alive and got myself ready for our first day of gasoline saturation.

We went out to the track and watched practice. It was really interesting to see how they made all the adjustments to the car as they figured out what was best for this track and the weather conditions. As a matter of fact I learned enough to get a head start on a computer racing game I decided to get.

We stayed around the track for the whole three days we were there. It's a good thing we like race cars. The place got really quiet at night and off in the distance you could hear the insane tribal parties going on in the spectator camping areas. Kenny had us over for dinner a couple of times in his luxo bus and even cooked. It was great sitting around comparing notes on the race biz and the music biz.

We saw three races and got to hang around in the garage area. Kenny got politely reprimanded for me wearing a sleeveless T-shirt. That's what you get for invitin' one of them sleazy rock people! The car looked unbelievable and got a lot of attention from the other crews and drivers. After qualifying on Saturday, Speedvision did a show and gave the car a lot of coverage. They kept calling it the "Aerosmith" car and every time they did I got a rush. Our logo looks good at 180 miles an hour.

The race on Sunday was an amazing experience. We hung out in the pits and got a close-up view of all the stuff the crew does in those lightning fast pit stops. They gave us headphones so we could hear all the drivers talking to their people over the radio.

Kenny had a solid finish and did a quick getaway after the race. Our flight wasn't until midnight so we waited for the traffic to die down before we left. I'll tell you something, we haven't taken the red eye in a long time and I hope it's another long time before we do it again. You'd think I'd be used to it.

TH

Just so you don't think we've been completely asleep lately, I'll fill you in on some of the stuff that's coming up for us.

First of all my fax machine has a hernia. Don't think because we're off the road that there aren't a swarm of things that need to be decided on, approved, re-approved and re-decided on. Laying low is pretty hard work these days. It used to be that we were either in the studio or on the road. Everything in between was blank - and so were our minds.

The next thing we're doing is receiving an award from Billboard Magazine. I used to dream of just being mentioned in Billboard and now they're gonna give us special recognition on their awards show next week. I know I should know what night it's on but I don't. I'm too used to getting a call from the lobby when it's time to go. I don't pay enough attention to the schedule. Attention isn't one of my strong points.

The big thing that's coming up for us is a tour of Japan over New Years. Or maybe its called New Millenniums. Going to Japan is always a big event for us. We're really moved by the enthusiasm for us there. Even though we've been to Japan time and time again it's still really cool. I hope I never see the day when I don't get excited about it. I doubt I will.

I'm not terribly excited about the time change, though. It's pretty mind wrenching. You basically reverse the clock. You get to sleep in the afternoon and wake up at midnight. The flight is a real trip. (I did not mean that to be a pun! I swear. You are not to read that as a pun, do you hear me?) How else can I say that? The flight is an UNUSUAL experience. There, is that better? You get inside the plane on one day and the next day you're still flying. It occurs to you that this giant aluminum can you've been riding in has been up in the air for thirteen hours. Forget that it's going five hundred miles an hour. Just imagine getting up one morning and watching a 747 take off. At lunchtime it's still up on the air. When you get out of school or home from work, it's still up in the air. Hours later you turn on the Simpsons and guess what, it's still up in the air. A while later, you put on your jammies and climb into bed and, that's right, it's still "you know where". All in a day and night's flight.

Anyway, back to the Billboard Awards. We're psyched. I believe it's on the night of the ninth and they're going to do a special number for us so please be there to share it.

Viva Las Vegas,

TH

Just wanted to fill you in our little junket to Las Vegas. We spent more time traveling and schlepping than gambling or award-receiving. The gambling was ehhh but the award getting was magnipotent!! Gee, I like inventing new words for the English language.

The first thing we did when we got to Vegas was go to see "O" which is the show that Cirque Du Soleil designed specially for Las Vegas. They built a theater with a stage that is so gigantic you practically need binoculars just to see all the way to the back. It goes back and forth from really eerie parts to spectacular ones with human bodies flying into the air and coming down in a huge swimming pool which makes up the floor of the stage. I had to keep reminding myself to close my mouth. After the performance they invited us backstage to say hello. They took us to a big room where the whole cast was assembled, still in their make-up. When we walked into the room they all applauded which I thought was backwards. So we started applauding back until it was a big clapping fight. We hung around for a while and then Steven noticed the trapeze they had back there for practice. Of course, the next thing you know he was up on it looking like a new recruit. I was dreading the sight of him way up in the air on this thing as I pondered the upcoming tour of Japan.

So anyway, here we are at the holidays. You know, the pressure season. Especially this year. The economy is good so we're all expected to retail our little asses off buying presents for every last person we've ever met. I hope everybody out there has a great season. Just try to avoid mall strain.

The next day was the show day. I kept expecting to get a sheet under my door saying we were supposed to go to a rehearsal or something but it never came. I'm not much of a daytime gambler so I decided to sleep in (my usual decision) and then wander about for a while. Before I knew it, it was time to get ready. We all crammed into a room at the hotel filled with clothes. Our wardrobe person, Keiki, brought tons of cool stuff to try on. I started to wonder why I worked so hard to bring the right stuff from home when everything I needed was here already.

About four o'clock we went over to the MGM Grand for the show. We had a little motor home out back where we all met up. It was time to decide what to say when we got our award. We already knew we were going to get it because we were the only ones nominated for it. Everybody knew what they wanted to say so it was pretty easy. Unfortunately, Brad couldn't be there. He's fine, but a member of his family was sick so he needed to stay home. I have to hand it to the guy. We missed him that night.

Ben Afleck popped his head in to say hello. He was the one chosen to present us with the award. We, of course, had all kinds of great things for him to say about us but luckily he had a few words of his own. The backstage area was jammed with celebs, some we knew, some we wanted to know. We ran into the Metallica guys who had just escaped being blown off the roof of one of the hotels the night before. They were trying to do a film sequence for the show but the wind picked up into a near hurricane and they had to bag it and do it inside. They were doing it with an orchestra and I heard something about the harp getting blown over. I wonder if they meant over the side of the building. I never did get that cleared up.

Finally, they led us into the pandemonium of the audience. Did you ever see one of those Fellini movies where weird characters suddenly appear in front of you no matter where you look? That's what it was like except they're all faces you seen before on MTV or in the movies. It was actually really cool. Instead of the black suited Grammy or Oscar people, it was Hey-party-check -out -those- weird- colors people. It made it loose like we like it.

After Britney Spears demonstrated her new haircut it was Aero award time. Ben Affleck got up there and did a really nice speech about us and then introduced a video clip of images from all our past videos. It was amazing to see all that imagery coming at us fast and full especially since a lot of it was stuff we've sort of forgotten. I got a little vibe like, whoa, we HAVE been working all these years. Then he yelled our name and we climbed up onto the stage and each did our little hi how are ya. Of course, immediately afterward they took us down to the press torture tents. Just kidding. It's kind of a goof doing the press stuff. Of course, at the time you're doing your best to not forget what you're talking about in mid sentence. The torture part is the tent with the photographers. I know I've blabbed about this before but it's still weird. Lotta flashes, LOTTA flashes…

Now it's two days before Christmas and three before we fly to Japan. I'll be glad to get on the other side of that flight!

TH