Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - Guest blog from winner of Rock N Roll Camp!
August 18, 2008 is a day that I will never forget. It was the day that I got to go to Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp, courtesy of 104 the X. The camp was held in New Orleans. Unlike most rock stars, I arrived at the Touro Synagogue early. Yes I said Touro Synagogue. I know what you are thinking and everyone attending thought the same thing, "why in the world are we rockin' at a synagogue?", but whatever. Shalom. As I mentioned earlier, I arrived early due to the fact that I didn't know what the traffic situation was like in that area. I parked behind the synagogue and waited for 8 o'clcok to roll around. I listened to the songs that were suppose to be on our set list, this prove to be kind of a waste of time, (explanation later). I got out of my car and notice there was a dude parked behind me doing the same thing. I walked around to the front and ran into another woman that was there for the camp. This was her second time at the camp. She did it in Oklahoma as well. I asked if she played an instrument and she said that see was a singer. We then processed to the doors to go sign in. There was another girl sitting outside the doors and I talked to her for a bit and found out that she was a drummer. We then proceeded into the building and was greeting by the RRFC crew. We got our 'artist all access" pass, signed a bunch of waivers, and got some free shirts. It was now time to eat. As we sat down for breakfast, more and more people came in, each one playing a different instrument. So far I was the only one that didn't play an instrument that well. Then two people from Harley Davidson in Gretna came in and the girl said that the only instrument that she played were the drums on Rock Band. The food finally arrived so we all began to eat. Around 9:30 the counselor arrived. This included:
Gilby Clarke – Guns N' Roses
Elliot Easton- The Cars
David Ellefson- Megadeth
Mark Hudson- song writer/producer for Aerosmith, Burt Bacharach, Ringo Starr, Ozzy,
Bon Jovi, and many more
Glenn Hughes- Deep Purple, Trapeze
Chris Slade- The Firm, AC/DC, Damage Control
Mark Slaughter- Slaughter, Scrap Metal
Earl Slick- worked with David Bowie and Lennon
Kip Winger- Winger
When they entered, the atmosphere changed. They were very laid back and all very funny. Mary Hudson caught my eye due to his colorful beard and this awesome outfit. We were then introduced to all the counselors and told exactly where all of us were to go. After breakfast it was time to rock.
I was grouped with Kip Winger, Mark Hudson, and Elliot Eston. Also in my band were a couple from up Maryland and one of the people that was from Harley Davidson. The husband of the couple played the drums and the wife sang. They play in a cover band back in Maryland. The other guy didn't play an instrument. He played a little piano back in the day so they decided to get him to play keyboard. I ended up playing guitar and cowbell. We then started to talk about songs that we were to play. The whole set list that we received before the camp was thrown out the window. We went through 8 different songs before settling on 3 final ones.
The songs that were chosen were:
Some Kind of Wonderful, Any Way You Want It, Proud Mary (CCR version). The main deciders on the song were the married couple since they were in a band. Now it was time to play. Mark Hudson then took over. He started changing the song around, the tempo, the solos, and anything he could to make the song ours. The building was so loud. We could hear AC/DC, Sabbath, Nirvana, and other sounds coming through the walls.
For the song "Some Kind of Wonderful", I started playing the percussion shake, but all of a sudden it broke. All the little metal beads inside spilled on the floor, so now I moved on to playing the cowbell. We then heard someone else playing Proud Mary (Tina Turner) version, so we decided that we had to outdo them. Mark decided to add horns, more guitar, solos, cowbells, and whatever else we could throw in. It was turning out great. On the Journey song, I was having trouble with the chords but then Kip gave me some pointers and it was it was all good from then on. During the whole day there was a camera crew filming us.
It was now time for Lunch. We all headed down to the main room to eat. At lunch we had to draw numbers to see what order we performed in that night at the House of Blues. We performed last. We also had to make a band name. Mark called us "The Cosmos Kids". After lunch there were three workshops: 1- Drumming 2-Stage presence and Voicals 3-Guitar. I chose to go to the guitar one. It was conducted by Elliot Easton. He taught use how to do better solos.
After the workshops, we got back together with our bands to practice again. We were now joined by another guitarist, our trumpet player, and 3 kids (one played drums, one bass, and one guitar). After we practiced they just jammed with us.
It was now 4 o'clock. We loaded up our stuff and headed for the HOB. We got there and sat around for a little bit. Then we got to met all the guys from Extreme. It was now time to go into the HOB main hall. We were given last minutes instructions and just told to have fun.
6:30-Showtime. The first band went on, then the second and third. During the third bands second song, our band was escorted behind stage. We tuned up and got all our stuff together. It was our turn now. They announced us on the stage and we headed up. King's X had their setup in front of Extreme's, so the stage space was very small. It was even smaller since we added extra people to our band. During the first song, I stood by the drummer and on top of one of the amps. I then moved to the front of the stage so I could play guitar. We got to our last song, Proud Mary, we started playing and it was awesome. We just kept adding to the song. Stuff we didn't practice we added. It was like a jam version of Proud Mary. It was insane. The crowd loved it. Many of them told us that we made the show. That song was the best. At the end of some of the songs I threw in a couple Coheed licks. Some in the crowd heard it and cheered. We then exited the stage and enjoyed the rest of the show. We were all on a natural high. King's X and Extreme soon came on. Extreme was killing it.
RRFC was a once in a lifetime opportunity and it was awesome. I made some new friends and got to jam with great legends of rock. I will always remember this day.
