Nashville. A place of huge belt buckles, the Grand Ol' Oprey and meat. LOTS of meat. Pork, lamb, beef, venison .. I mean these people are serious about their meat!! And it was also the scene (this past weekend) of the Summer NAMM Show, and subsequently the Gibson NAMM party which I was invited to play at as part of the 'Rock Star Jam'. Now I can put my hand on my heart and say that I feel a little weird about that particular way of billing it......but I had a really fun time, Gibson (as always) went above and beyond in their hospitality, and we played a sweaty, loud and loose rock set for a crowd of about 3000 NAMM goers, Gibson peeps and general all around Nashvillers. Check out the (not one, not two, but....) THREE Sunburst Les Pauls in the pic below...
Here we are again. Another Random Note from the dusty, cobwebbed inner workings of my mind!! Except right now, I have had a huge spring clean in there and all the dust and dirt have been swept out by the crazy series of shows that Camp Freddy just performed here in Los Angeles. Some bright spark (er ..that would be me!) decided that we should do five shows at The Roxy one a week for the month of May. No big deal, one might cry (dont cry .youll smudge yer eyeliner) ..except that we decided to have a different set list and different guests each week! By the end of the month we had played over 40 songs and had welcomed 45 guests to the stage! For a complete round up of it all, you can CLICK HERE FOR BILLYMORRISON.NET, or you can CLICK HERE FOR CAMPFREDDY.NET. Suffice to say that those shows, along with another show in New York for Tommy Hilfiger, the MAP Awards (with Chester Bennington, Steven Tyler, Robin Zander, Jerry Cantrell, Duff McKagan, Slash, Billy Duffy and Wayne Kramer) and a photoshoot for Italien Vogue Magazine (yep ..Luomo Vogue .black and white .fashionista .written in Italian ..) left me wiped out on my couch playing video games...
If a picture is worth a thousand words ..then I just wrote a novel with these! I mean, it really doesnt get much better than that rockin Mama Kin with Mr Steven Tyler. Or doing Paradise City with Chester Bennington and Slash. Or doing Surrender with Robin Zander. Or even jamming the Sex Pistols classic, EMI .WITH two of The Sex Pistols! The Camp Freddy shows have been off the hook and we still have three more to do this month. Im like a proverbial pig .wallowing in shit!!! Hhahaha!! Here I am back on the Modern Guitars tip, with an all new blog just for you guys. I have also included a nice little video recap of the first Roxy show that we did with Camp Freddy, as well as a clip of Whole Lotta Love from the recent MAP Awards ceremony...
Billy Morrison, reporting for duty SAH!!! Checking in with the Modern Guitar tribe and letting you all know about a few things happening in my world over the coming months. And (completely non music or guitar related!), the first thing is that this weekend, I am appearing at the Fangoria Horror Convention at the LA Convention Center. It seems that I will be appearing on the Black Gate Films Panel (I have no idea what a panel is, but Im on one!!) at 3.30 p.m. this Friday 25th May. Entry to the Convention for the day is $25 and the place is a nirvana for all Horror fans!! Plenty to see and do all day, films to be seen, blood to be spilt etc!! And the first screening of my last movie, Basement Jack happens the next day (Saturday) at 6.00 p.m., so if you wanna see yet another musician running around on screen trying to act, you know where to go!! Check out the pic of me in full zombie make up from my previous flick, Evilution...
OK. So lets get the self defamatory, disapproving stuff out of the way first. I do believe that I just reached a new low in terms of . I really must get around to I gotta remember to .. or even .theyll never notice Im not doing it! I do a few blogs here and there, a couple of written pieces now and again, but by FAR the most enjoyable column I have done in recent years has been this one for Modern Guitars. I am actually surprised and honored that these guys even wanna hear from me! So with all that said, how does one wait TEN MONTHS between journal entries??? Well, step this way kiddies, and I will explain...
My life is very bizarre! In the last few weeks, we have begun gearing up for the summer touring, July 3rd album release and all the other various Circus Diablo activities ..interviewed Marco Pirroni from Adam And The Ants for this very site, begun shooting my second movie, called Evilution (in fact I am typing this from the set, covered in fake blood and waiting to be called on to set again), continued to do the weekly Camp Freddy Radio show .. I mean I couldnt have written all this if I had tried!! Check out the pics from the movie set hmmmm, now what if I go onstage like that every night?? Think wed go down well on the Ozzfest???!!!! Its a real laugh doing a horror film, because its all fake blood and splatter effects. Next week I shoot some seriously grizzly scenes in the basement of the set (an old abandoned hospital and VERY creepy!) so I am looking forward to that...
Now I am really pushing it! Two column entries in a month ..I must be getting serious about this thing! And first of all, I have to congratulate the folks here at Modern Guitars for becoming a force to be reckoned with here on the marvelous World Wide Web - Modern Guitars was recently ranked the second most popular online guitar magazine by Alexa! I am actually involved in an idea with these guys thats very exciting I am going to interview a few of my own Guitar Heros and Icons, and record the interviews exclusively for Modern Guitars. My list of victims is an interesting one, with a couple of obvious choices and a couple of less obvious ones. The first interview is scheduled for next week, so once it's done and we know it's gonna actually appear on the site Ill tell you who it was, and when to expect to see the interview here...
So, the kind folks here at Modern Guitars are allowing me to continue my sporadic ramblings, even though it has been literally months since I last wrote a column And I am not really sure where to begin! All the various bands and projects seem to be doing really well, and I have to stand back, take stock, and remove myself from the minutiae the details to see just how much I am achieving with it all. And nothing helps more than posting, writing, blogging etc. When I am into the details on a daily basis, I am concentrating on what is not yet locked in, what is not going according to plan, what I can do to get it sounding better, working better, earning better...and yet when I step back and outline it all, I see how much progress is being made...
If it seems like months since I wrote anything here on Modern Guitars .... its because it IS!!! So much goes on around me that I just lose track of where I am, what I'm doing and who I'm doing it with ..... until the good people who run this site kindly send me an email, just sending out an exploritory nudge to see if I am still awake!!
Back again kids. And there seems to be a lot of 'behind the scenes' goings on happening at the moment. From TV show pitch meetings, to talk of some Camp Freddy movie soundtrack stuff, to the announcement of some Circus Diablo dates. As usual, there are a ton of irons in the fire, and in my experience, if ONE of the things even gets green-lit, we'll be doing well!! It's funny - you get into the business when you are young to play loud guitar, get laid and get drunk. You end up meeting thousands of people who talk champagne and deliver beer. Most of your time is spent in meetings, talking about stuff thats never going to happen. And less and less time actually playing an instrument...
How long has it been? Who knows. Who cares. Life has a way of overtaking things that you REALLY mean to do - " I MUST clean out that cupboard".... "I REALLY should pay that parking ticket" ...... "I SHOULD write another Modern Guitars journal!!"..... I love having the means to write this journal, but I just never seem to remember to do it!! Oh well, thats why I got into this business in the first place - the ability to not have to do anything regularly!!! So here I am again, and of course, lots of goings on in Chez Morrison. The first thing that comes to mind is the new band, Circus Diablo. Billy Duffy (The Cult), Ricky Warwick (The Almighty) and myself got together late last year and wrote a bunch of songs. We liked what we came up with, so we spent the first few weeks of this year recording them with Matt Sorum (Velvet Revolver) in his studio...
Ah, it seems like ages since I posted in this journal. Oh - wait a minute - that's cos it IS ages. Oh well. Here I am again, rambling on about whatever crosses my mind. So let me update you. Immediately after the show at Sundance, I started work on the Circus Diablo album. This is a new band, with myself handling the lead singer thing, Ricky Warwick (from UK band The Almighty) on rhythm guitar and Billy Duffy (him of The Cult) on lead guitar. We also enlisted the talents of Mr. Matt Sorum (Cult, GnR, Velvet Revolver) on the drums. As it happened, Matt has just finished building his own recording studio, so we just sat ourselves down in his place and did the work...
In the immortal words of Staind (and a lot of other bands over the years as well!) ..... "Its been a while"!! I have been crazy busy recently and have been meaning to write another journal for Modern Guitars since NAMM. So as I find myself drinking my morning coffee and smoking myself silly on this grey, Saturday Los Angeles morning, I think to myself ..."Now, Billy. Now is a good time to reflect on the last few weeks". I dont need to be in the studio until 2.00pm, I've watched the last few episodes of 24 that were on the Tivo ..... So here I am...
Modern Guitars. All about that wonderous plank of wood that gets a few strings and a bit of electronics thrown on it, and then, when handled correctly, changes lives. Puts a smile on a face. Causes revolution. And I havenât picked one up in weeks!! I hate the holiday season. It gets in the way of Rock and Roll, and any kind of creativity. And I cannot help but get dragged into the melee in some form or another. However I try and whatever I do, I always spend two or three weeks without even picking up a guitar, let alone getting any better at playing the damn thing...
I can hear it. The shrill warblings of an enormous female, shrieking at the top of her lungs. Yep, the fat lady is singing at the end of another year. Move over 2005, we are heading forward. Into 2006. And I wanted to wish everyone at Modern Guitars a very Happy New Year. Be safe, don't drink and drive, and turn up the volume!! What a year its been for me. Camp Freddy has gone from strength to strength, and we have some amazing plans for the coming year. We played to 15,000 people at the Tsunami benefit concert. Opened yet another club in our home away from home, Las Vegas. And they STILL kept us on air at Indie 103.1FM. Despite weekly madness from Navarro and myself, Camp Freddy Radio goes into its third year. Unbelievable...