Howdy friends and neighbors. This is a little tour re-cap of a tour that we are currently in the last week of. I'll do a re-cap of the last week of this tour around May 15. This has been the "In the News Tour". Wherever we went, there were really big news stories. We were in Tucson when the University of Arizona won the NCAA basketball championship - wow what a sight! They had this big riot. Some crazed college kids threw a cop car at me! I took it in stride. Except as they were running away I did remind them - "don't waste beer". Then we were on our way to San Diego where they had the "Heavens' Gate" suicides. Oh yeah, if there are any English teachers or students out there, it's heaven's if you are showing intent and heavens' if you are showing the possessive. The apostrophe before the s if the apostrophe takes the place of the i in is. That is showing intent. The apostrophe after the s shows possession. If that's right, then Chili's and Wendy's probably don't know that their signs imply that "Chili is" or "Wendy is". Is what? Shouldn't it say Chili's'? Wendy's? As in it's Wendy's restaurant? Let me know if I'm wrong here. Or, let our webmaster know. Back to business. Oh yeah, "Heavens' Gate". Not much to say here except that it caused our drummer, Scott Churilla, to do the whole tour calling himself "container" and "my vehicle". Also, while we were in San Diego, we had an earthquake. I did not feel it. The boys told me that I did feel it, but, I just can't remember. O.K. Then we were in the L.A. area for about one and a half weeks I think. Sometimes it all runs together. We were on tour with Red Five - who are great. Go see them open up for Social D.! We sold out the House of Blues two nights in a row. We did a show with the Paladins that I'll remember forever. I think I can remember every gig I've ever seen the Paladins play like it was yesterday. When I saw them on this tour I knew that they are still just as, if not more so, electric and exciting as any band can get. Thanks to the Paladins! Really I guess L.A. was pretty un-news worthy considering that we were there for a riot clean-up and an earthquake clean-up. When L.A. is un-newsworthy it is really at it's best. Then we went to the Bay Area for about a week. This stay included what could be an annual tour of San Francisco. We sold out three nights in a row in S.F. alone. A radio station called "Live 105" had me scheduled to do an interview at eight A.M. with a d.j. named Alex something or other. Before this, they wanted to promote our "Tour of San Francisco". We said o.k. if "Live 105" adds the C.D. to their playlist. "Live 105" said they couldn't add our C.D., so we said "you can't promote our shows". I was going to do the interview anyway when they called and said I had to play a song on acoustic guitar without my band. Then they went so far as saying that if I didn't play a song, they would cancel my interview with this Alex guy. So we said, (nicely), no thanks because that's not our trip. (I HATE the un-plugged concept. It's like MTV saying "we want to do rock bands but they're oh so loud, so let's cut their balls off and make a little show". I hate that concept and I am not here to do "Reverend Horton Heat Solo", I'm here to do my deal with Jimbo and Scott at full tilt - with our balls). Anyway, we nicely said that we couldn't play so "Live 105" cancelled our interview. Everything would have been o.k. except that, the next morning, this Alex guy called me "Reverend Horton Prick" on the air, and, he said that I was the biggest a**hole in show business! At our show that night, a sold-out affair, I asked the crowd if there was anyone there because they heard about us on "Live 105". "NO", they said loudly with mixed-in booing. Live one-0-jive, we don't need stations that don't have the balls enough to play our music anyway. So... the news in S.F. and the area was about us! We had a great time. So from there we went to the Great Northwest. Portland and the band "Down By Law". The air smells good. Not much news there, but, a really good time. In Seattle we did two sold-out shows. Got to talk briefly to Eddie Supersucker and Cammy. One of my favorite all-time couples. I know it sounds lame when I say "not much news", but, this usually describes a great gig with great screaming fans. Most news is bad friends, and, we don't need that. So we saw several friends but no one from Sub-Pop. We played an all ages show at Rock Candy in Seattle. I wore my "un-lucky disco ball shirt". Whenever I wear this shirt, my amps screw-up, my strings break, my cords go out. So when we played Rock Candy, I was not in the mood for show-offs getting on stage and mimicking us. Those little acts could be dangerous while I'm wearing my "un-lucky disco ball shirt". We love the Northwest. From what I can remember...it must have been extra-great! Then we went to Idaho where we played a little gig in the mountains. NY Loose joined up with us in Hailey and sounded as good as ever. It was good to see them but we knew that Jimbo and Danny (Loose bassist) would have to be watched. We all know well their beer and Jagermeister antics. Danny was over-heard saying, "I'm not going to eat any more so I won't spend any beer money". Kids, don't let Danny be your role model, but, enjoy him none the less. We played a gig in Boise where, pound for pound, they were the loudest crowd of the tour. "Noisy in Boise". Then we played in Colorado where, we stayed in the Hotel that was the secret location of John and Patsy Ramseys' recent press conference. Creepy. That's when we decided that this was the "In The News Tour". Well, when we considered that we were headed for Fargo, where the flood was taking place, we called it that. The people were great in Sioux Falls and Fargo. But the news was not the flood to us. To us the big news was that Jimbo fell up a stair and cracked a big hole in his head that forced us to go to the hospital to get stitches. Cory, our tour manager, got thrown out of the hospital for no good reason. Kevin and both Scotts waited inside for Jimbo. We all guessed how many stitches he would need. Some said seven. Some said thirteen. I guessed three. He had three stitches. They stitched Jimbo up without anesthetic in no time at all. I guess he had enough "anesthetic" already. In usual Jimbo fashion, he did not want to leave in a wheel chair. But they finally talked him into it. Anyway, Jimbo's all right, of course, he's the ultimate trooper. Always ready to play no matter what. I guess that's about how it is for all of us that work with Reverend Horton Heat... Falling up a stair must be easier than it sounds. That leads us to tonight in Green Bay Wisconsin. They may hate us because we're from Dallas, but we'll play that to the hilt. Easy as falling up that stair. Love from Reverend Horton Heat.