June 23^rd- Manage to sleep on through the night. Grab some breakfast and head down to the hotel gym for a workout. Jean along with Phil and his girlfriend arrive to work out and I get on with it whilst watching Phil and wondering how a fifty year old bloke could grate carrots on his bloody abs!! SWINE!!!! Heheh!

We head down to the venue about 2pm. There are hordes of fans already lining up outside the venue entrance and also at the backstage gates. Drop off my gear in the dressing room and have a wander out to the gates area and see four of the girls from the Def Leppard website forum. They've come from various places around the States to see the guys. Walk out and say hi and pose for a few pics and a chat with them. Great people and loyal to the band as you can be.

Pop into the Whitesnake dressing room and hang with Timothy and Doug a little. It's always good with these guys as they're so nice and real. Doug and Timothy are personal friends so it's especially good being able to spend more time than a few hours in a trip to LA like usual. Chris Frazier is zapping his shoulder muscles with one of those electrical pulse devices with the sticky patchesrns out he has spinal problems also like me, not good news for a drummer. It must be turned up well as he has a good ol' twitch going on. The backstage area is starting to fill up with family members of the guys. Rick's parents arrive with a bunch more family members and Sav's wife and kids turn up shortly after that. Set up a light in one of the hospitality rooms and do some family shots for Sav and then for Rick. Rick's Mom and Dad are very sweet and were especially kind to my Mom the other night in Manchester.

Have a walk out into the venue and see my friend Cindy from Phoenix with one of her friends. She's on tour with the Queensryche guys right now but took a day off to come see the boys play to the home crowd. See Kristine backstage and get a big squeeze from her. She's very cool to and funny as hell to hang out with, never a dull moment when she's around and Joe's daft sense of humor fits perfectly. I was told that it's one big family before I came out on the road with these guys and it turned out be thankfully very true.

Tonight's crowd are tuned in and electric and the guys in all the bands are amped up as they know it's a home crowd for the Def Lep fellas. As usual, Black Stone Cherry take thousands of unsuspecting Def Lep and Whitesnake fans by total surprise. They're a refreshingly sonic kick in the teeth. I got an advance copy of their new cd last month and it is better than the first one by far! Makes me happy that the Kentucky boys are gaining such momentum. Whitesnake are on and DC is at his Peacock song and dance routine at full throttle. The energy reserve though is most definitely for the Def Lep guys. I forgot to pack my earplugs into my case for this show and lived to regret it dearly as the boys ripped through hit after hit. My ears still buzz now as I write this and wonder if I damaged my hearing tonight.

After the show there's a lot of family craziness with the band, get some more shots in the hallways and then find the quiet room at the end of the hallway where the techs are hanging out and having a beer and some downtime. Crack open a cold one and decide to hang with Wolfie & co until all the family fuss dies down. Later on Joe, Kristine and I get in the car to head back to the hotel. There are still fans outside the gate waiting at 1am so Joe tells the driver to stop and being the trooper he is he gets out and does autographs. I get out to help stop stampede and after ten minutes we get back in and head back to the hotel bar. The rest is............ hehehehehe.... ;O)