Hello Cats and Kittens, We're back on the road again. And you know what that means! It's time for a new tour update! We've actually been doing a lot of three and four day trips on the weekends that we are not on a regular tour. So for us, the tour never ends. Right now it's the Warped tour. But something did happen on that last tour that we did in the spring and I've got to let you know. We began to do more meet and greets with the fans and a funny thing happened. We are getting more and more in touch with our fans as well as other benefits. "Meet and greet" also known as a "grip and grin", is a term used in the music business as a meeting between the band and "key" people. Radio people. Record people. Agents. Promoters. Promoters' aunts' son and his kids. And honestly, we have met some very nice people, but real honestly, who is more "key" to us than the fans? This is one revelation that has led us into going out to either our merchandise booth or another area to meet the fans. We've been doing this just about every day that we can. We've been staying as long as three hours! So on the Warped tour, we will be at the Revho tent, at about thiry minutes after each set that we play, to meet the fans. Beware, on the Warped tour, they don't tell us when our set will be until the day before at the earliest. Also, sometimes, it is just impossible to do a "meet and greet". You know, we've always loved our fans. I think it's great that we're getting over that backstage party thing. We've had some fun times, but, some of those backstage party people are really annoying. Many times, they are people who did not even watch our set! Some are people who act like they deserve to be there because they have drugs. And they think that I would rather talk to them than to my fans?! Some are just very aggressive people who are rude enough to trap you into a conversation about whatever talent they possess while some person who may be very important to me waits in the wings. You can imagine...maybe my mother, a childhood friend, or my nephew is waiting patiently while some guy who didn't even watch us play brags about his car! It's funny that those patient people are more understanding about our "meet and greet" duty than some idiots who think that they know the music business! So, the Vans Warped Tour is great. We have met so many fans. New fans, old fans. And we have seen a lot of people who we have not seen for a few summers and it's good. I think that the concensus among Jimbo, Scott and I on our favorite band on this trip is The Pie Tasters. But, our opinion is extremely biased. I like the Cherry Poppin' Daddies a lot now (that's a no-brainer, huh?). We did a show with the Poppin' Daddies about four years ago in Spokane. It was a great show. It was also about 2 degrees above zero. Anyway, I've heard a lot of great bands on this trip. I love Rancid. I love this one song that Civ does called something like "I Can't Wait One Minute"...It swings! Hey, this reminds me of something. A song can still be a swing even if most people think it's something else. I am reminded of some music critic who tries to pigeonhole everything in some weird-sounding catagory. Hey, if its got a swingin' drum pattern and a walking bass line, it's a swing. Even if Michael Wrongsky calls it a post-punk anthem. It's not an anthem. It's a swing. Green Day has several great swing songs. I like Green Day (another no-brainer). But, don't blame Michael Wrongsky (my fictional music critic from the "Local Objector"), he does the best a music critic can do with little knowledge about the real difference in types of beats. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a funk beat. A little quick funk beat, but, a funk beat. Bo Didley made up his own beat. It is called the "Bo Didley Beat". Coming up with a beat that is truly personal like that is rarely done. I think that Bo Didley is the grandfather of Rap. The Warped tour was shortly graced by a great band called The Living End from Australia. Chris and the boys were great players. Maybe we'll have to get them back up to the States to do a tour. We took a two day break from the Warped tour to do The Hootnanny. The Hootnanny is a festival that has been held in Irvine, CA for about four years. It's a roots, punk and rock-a-billy festival that features vintage cars and hot-rods, fifties records and clothes and a ton of the hottest roots-influenced bands. This year was a stand-out. Social Distortion, X (with Billy Zoom who was amazing), The Cramps (Lux gave me a kiss and I was flattered), The Palladins, The Supersuckers, Buck Owens (wow), the amazing Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys and of course, us. The crowd seemed almost as big as the Warped Tour the day before also in Irvine. The Hootnanny will be touring in the western states in the early fall. If you want to have the real deal in your city, call your local promoter and say HOOTNANNY! O.K...it's time for a Spin magazine update. You remember Spin. That magazine that told our labels' press agent that Reverend Horton Heat fans can't read. Back in '95, a music critic for Spin, clad in Doc Marten boots, his new Seattle-correct flannel shirt and sporting his half-matted Kurt Cobain hair-cut, predicted that Reverend Horton Heat was as big as they ever deserved to get. Actually, I think they said bands like Reverend Horton Heat and Luscious Jackson got as big as they ever deserved to get in '95. I haven't talked to Luscious Jackson about that old article, but I'd like to. Anyway, I'm glad to report that Reverend Horton Heat is approximatly (according to record sales and concert sales) four times "bigger" than we were when that prediction was made in Spin (at least he had the smarts enough to cover his prediction with that "deserve to get" thing). And the music critic who made the prediction? He's happily sporting a fifties hair-cut with Murray's grease, just got a hot-rod tattoo, and is listening to the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. My prediction is that this poor guy is finally going to get at least a little more attention from the opposite sex since he started with the swing-dance lessons. Therefore, I'm happy for him. I just hope he's careful never to call Dave Matthews the "King of Rock" again. He may end up back with flannel shirts. And worse yet with Birkenstocks. Still, my prediction is that swing-dancing will save marriages in the future. Happy Trails To You, Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath p.s. Call all of your local radio stations and request "Lie Detector". Also, call MTV and request our new "Lie Detector" video. As if MTfriggin'V is gonna give a damn about playing little ol' us. Oh, well bug the hell out of them anyway. Matt Penefield will probably play it (he's a cool guy), but, you gotta call. See you at the T-shirt booth with our other beautiful fans.