VEGAS BABY, VEGAS!

So we headed down to Atlanta for a show Friday (May 15) in Atlanta with our buddy Dierks. It felt like home being back with those guys after touring with them for so long. We played Lakewood Amphitheater which we've played a couple other times. Great crowd, I think we had about 12,000. After the show we got to spend a little time with those guys, I sat on the bus talking to Tim and Rod from DB band about life. We rolled back to the hotel and readied ourselves for the ACM's.

Chris Newsom and I flew early A.M. to Vegas while the band and ML followed later in the morning. We flew Delta which, by the way, has turned into a really nice airline. Every seat had personal TV's with free movies, free TV and games. I watched Charlie Wilson's War and it helped pass the time. What a great movie. We landed in Vegas and stood in a line for 40 minutes to get a cab. Vegas is big on lines, I picked up on this on the trip.

We rehearsed for the show on Saturday afternoon and then had a little time for R&R on Saturday night. We all went and partied with our buddies Ed and Tommy from Joe's Bar in Chicago. They rented out a bar inside the MGM and all of Ingram, Keith Urban and a bunch of other band/crew dudes showed up to help us celebrate the festivities.

Sunday was back to all business. We rehearsed again Sunday morning and then came showtime. We played "Gunpowder and Lead" for the show and our performance was early in the show. It went off great (backdrops, pyro and all). We finished and headed to the bus to get ML changed and re-seated. We weren't tuned into the show and my wife called to tell me that my old boss Jack had won Best New Male Vocalist. I was elated, but not nearly has much as when ML took home the Album of the Year award in a surprise upset. I jumped about six feet off the ground. Very electrifying. The night became one to celebrate...and celebrate I did.

We went straight from the show to the All Star Jam and Miranda played a couple tunes. I did sneak a picture with one celeb. Alex assbagged me and jumped into my picture at the last second. He's got a knack for doing that.



Then we headed to the Sony party which had a spread like you wouldn't believe. Shrimp, crab legs (pre cracked...high class baby), and lots of other goodies. After a couple quick pics we headed to the West Wing Bar inside the MGM where we'd rented the back room. We had a blast. My buddy John Eddie showed up and suddenly I looked up and it was 2:30 am. I stumbled back to the room and, after a short time of praising the porcelain gods, I was in bed. I set four alarms for various times the next morning...our lobby call was 5 a.m. At 5:10 am, after sleeping thru four alarms, I finally awoke to Eddie Perez asking if I would be making the flight. I sprinted to the elevator and jumped in the cab. We made the flight, but it was a rough travel day.

I landed in Nashville around 2 pm and was hungover until 10 pm the next night. Well worth it, though. Oh, and I did the sprinkler.