Stuttgart, Germany

I never made it to the musical instrument museum today and I got thinking about how lazy I occasionally become on tour. It's not really laziness though, more like prioritizing. Here I am in Europe and some of the greatest cities in the world and there are days I never get out to see anything. This morning, rather than getting a wake up call and creating enough time to get everything in, I opted to sleep in (very important when touring), go to the gym and have a leisurely lunch. Our time is our own here on the road with only two serious unspoken responsibilities, the first of course is playing the show to the best of your ability each day, in other words being professional and the other is turning up for lobby call on time. The latter is nothing more than common courtesy, not to keep other people waiting and creating late arrivals for the plane or gig. So with that in mind, after lunch I was left with a couple of hours before lobby call. I could have hurried over to the museum and dashed through it for a little while then get back to the hotel, but decided I didn't want to be racing around and chose to practice guitar for a while instead. The main thing everybody has to do is budget their time and energy each day and in their own way to be in top form for that evening's show. It is the reason we're out here.

I soon realized after waking up that I was back to my old self after a week of digestive warfare. After a work out I went to the hotel restaurant where they had a Sunday brunch buffet and indulged in more food that I'd eaten in the last six days combined. Freshly squeezed juices, fruits, salads, bread, eggs, bacon, sauerbraten, spinach and spaetzel, desserts and pots of hot coffee with real creme--a feast.

Good gig tonight, our first of many in Germany throughout the coming weeks. A capacity crowd of 8400+ at the Schleyerhalle. We're all finding new and different ways to play things within each song. By that I mean every song has a structure or form that remains static as well as certain elements within that frame work that must be the same each time it is played like chord structure and certain key lines or parts. Without these formalities it would be musical choas, but there are other areas that are open to interpretation such as solos and fills and this keeps things interesting for us and the audience. We took the stage at 8:00 p.m. sharp and were back at the hotel by 11 for a nightcap and an early evening.

So long,

Richard