November 27, 2002
HELLO HELLO!!! I want to start right off by saying thank you to everyone for making our last little tour of the year the most fulfilling, flattering, full of tears, emotional, exciting, and beautiful experience ever. I mean, winning two big awards, chilling out with my idols, a vacation in Paris, performing for thousands of you guessed it...screaming girls, and seeing my big stupid head riding around on busses all over one of my favorite cities:) What more could I ask for? Well, I guess I'll begin where we left off a while back now when we got home from crazy South America, before the rhythm section of the band disappeared to la la land. There wasn't too much time to chill when we got home since we did a show right away at the Staples Center in LA for Star Radio. As most of you know now, that night began nice and ended in shit. The quick recap: An acoustic performance with Aaron and I for Star winners (oddly enough, mostly drunk parents) was followed by some funny talks with Ryan Seacrest and his lady and maybe a little wine drinking myself. My like whole family was there for that but more importantly for what I was doing right after...singing the National Anthem....at a Hockey game. Needless to say, things went downhill from there. I kiddingly joked last tour diary about being worried I'd forget the words since I had never really, as most American, known the exact words. But I can assure you after the amount of practicing I did there was no way I'd forget and I didn't (the words were practically in front of my face anyway when I sang it). The second I walked out there in front of thousands I was already being screamed horrible things at. Mid song after the higher part I took a 1.3 seconds dramatic pause and took a breath and was literally immediately booed at. Everyone thought I forgot the words! How much more stupid and judgmental could these people be? Anyway, I finished the song barely being able to hear myself over the loud booing. I know most of you guys heard it somehow and I'm glad you did so you can see what I'm talking about. Afterwards I wanted to get the f*ck out of there as quickly as possible. My Dad walked me out because he was worried for my safety and he was right to be. While walking out I was screamed at by passing by people, some really retarded things I can't even repeat and I almost got in a fight with this one guy. So that sucked. Ironically enough a few days later unrelated and not mentioning me there was an article on the cover of the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times all about how singers should never do what I did cause it always goes bad...and there were all these horror stories and a quote in particular I liked form Nat King Cole that said, "If you do one thing in your life, make sure you never sing the National Anthem at a ball game". I guess a hockey game is even worse. Whatever, honestly it was a big deal at the time and made me sad but I got over it pretty quick with all the great stuff that has followed...and I had all your support which always keeps me going:) So bad things always come in three for me and that was just the beginning. As you all also know during many endless talks to make things work, Billy and Nate quit the band shortly after, but Aaron and I will get to that on a separate letter. So we had to do Regis in the midst of those talks with just Aaron, Dino and I and that went really good as usual. Always nice to go back to New York and see my Orange pumpkin friend Regis:) It's always a guarantee that on any big TV show in America we do, the host(s) always seem to f*ck up the tittle of our songs and(or) album. What is up with that? This one was the most classic: Kelly said, "And here's the Calling with they're new single 'It could happen to anyone'..uh I mean 'Could it happen to you'..uh eer...'Could it Be Any Hard...Harder'." That definitely wins the award. Later that day afterwards we got to go to Diesel and get a hook up with some new duds. I've been trying to get them to work with me forever and they finally broke. So needless to say, I got a few things...well, a lot of few things...? We grabbed some famous New York Street roasted nuts and headed back home. While at home during down time, Aaron and I did some writing for a really big movie. I don't believe anything is for sure until I see a signed deal in front of me, so until then I won't say what it is, but let's just say it would be the biggest thing we've ever done. I'm really, really proud of this song and can't wait for you guys to hear it. So our little break went quick. I caught up on lost time with my bro's and family, saw Paul McCartney live which was amazing and a whole bunch of other stuff (like try to answer a zillion questions for you guys:) Then it was off to Europe for the sixth time this year for yet more press and performances and what would be our last tour of the year. Most of it was just me and Aaron stuff so we weren't worried we didn't have a band at that time. That trip started in lovely Barcelona, Spain for the MTV Europe awards. I went there feeling flattered that we were even a part of it and happy to just get the chance to be there...when we left I still couldn't believe what happened. Walking in there I was suprised to see what a huge production the show was. We went to a rehearsal the day before and watched Eminem rehearse for a while and then practiced our presenter yapping. This was my first time in Barcelona and I really fell in love with it. It's such an amazing architecturally beauteous city with some of the most interested looking cathedrals and building I've ever seen by this amazing guy named Gaudi. The night before the awards we were invited to a very small (maybe 50 people) MTV dinner with all the celebs and heads of MTV. I mean, I was pissing in my pants...Bon Jovi sitting on my left, Moby on my right, Marilyn Manson looking very deathly behind me, clouds of marijuana wafting over from Wyclef's table across the room, P Diddy and his posy of like 100+ looking bad ass, Cold Play sipping some vino, it was already unbelievable...but it got better. Imagine one of your idols for your whole life coming up to you and introducing themselves, telling you that they have your record and really love it, even quoting song tittles and words! Bon Jovi was the coolest guy and we talked for like an hour about everything while my girl was quizzing her favorite artist Moby, behind me. After we walked out of the party I, like the emotional dude I am, began to cry. It was just such an amazing experience and seemed so surreal. I could have gone home a happy man then but things were just getting started. The scene back stage was very entertaining the next day. All the stars running around yelling at people for things, Wyclef riding up on his motorcycle, it was mayhem. We said hi to Christina Aguilera, I hadn't seen her in a while, and I got to meet Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters who apparently later in an interview said he wanted to "do" my girlfriend:( He's a really funny guy. Those stupid frikkin moron TATU girls we presented with were driving Aaron and I crazy! They didn't understand English at all so we could say funny slightly bad things quickly to them without them really getting it. It was good fun. Marilyn Manson was a super cool guy. I was definitely not expecting that. It was funny cause he kept saying dirty stuff to those TATU girls too in the pressroom but like way worse than what we were saying earlier. We did the red carpet, which was like a river do to the heavy raining all day. So by the time we got to the end of it all our shoes were completely soaked. So the show started and we got to sit in the nominee area with all the celebs. Kylie Minogue was right in front of us and she kept winning awards so I was like, "hey we're going to be on TV a lot in the background...that's cool." Not in a million, billion years did I think we were going to win and I didn't for one-second think of what I would say if we did. I mean we were up against frikkin Shakira (who by the way I've never said anything bad about) and Avril Lavigne and The Strokes...I mean how many times did you guys vote? I really can't put into words what it was like to hear our name be called and try to compute what that meant. Because it was an arena there was a slight delay and echo and my girl read the lips of the lady who announced us milliseconds before anyone heard and my girlie said, "Holy sh*t, you won." My jaw dropped literally (I watched it back and that was one seriously surprised expression!) and the walk up there felt like an eternity. I gave Aaron a cheesy handshake on the way up while what I really wanted to do was just fucking cry. Aaron and my speech was so frikkin funny. Our voices were all shaky, our eyes filling up with tears, and our minds blank:) No one was thanking the fans, and you guys are the reason we were there and the reason we made it on the stage, so of course I thanked the fans first. But somewhere in my pea brain when I tried to move from the "I want to thank all my fans" sentence to "I want to thank my girlfriend" sentence I somehow blurted out "I want to thank all my girlfriends!!!!" What an idiot. I'll tell you, it took a while repairing that one:( Anyway, it was just incredible. I felt like such a little bitch when we walked off stage cause there I was again crying due to such a full heart. They gave us champagne and we had 10 minutes to kill back stage before having to go back out and present an award with those little brats:) Yah, we drank maybe sometime all the time maybe. I never drink cause I'm such a light weight but in this case I went as far as to walk back out stage forgetting that I had a frikking champagne bottle in my hand! I swear I was in such a dazed dreamy zone of excitement and love and it wasn't from the booze...It was from realizing I've achieved my dreams, what a feeling. Man, those silly girls were supposed to kiss each other when we presented and Aaron said, "Do something Rock and Roll for my Grandpa." Instead they just shouted "F*ck your Grandpa" or something of that nature in Russian. So needless to say, they cut out that section. Kylie won that award and it was cool to give it to her when she came up. We were then thrown in the circus pit of media whore frenzy afterwards where we did lots of press because we won. I was on a role of saying the wrong thing and making a fool of myself cause I was still so nervous. I even thought these two guys I've hung with before that host The Fridge on MTV were in a band called Kent. I was like, "Hey nice to see you again...did you guys win your award tonight?" And they said, "We work at MTV dumb sh*t." Doh! So after all that we went to the MTV after party to schmooze with BMG folks. We ended up getting lost trying to leave that party for no sh*t almost an hour. It was held in this Olympic coliseum that just never ended...just kept walking in circles for some reason...kind of like "the ring". We went and checked out Eminem's party where he came out and sang with Marilyn Manson...that's a weird duo. So it was pretty much a completely insane night of a plethora of emotions and a huge, huge achievement. We are the first band on RCA ever to win an MTV Europe Music Award. Thank you guys again so much, I know you worked hard for it. So the next day we did some press in Barcelona and radio too. We went and saw Coldplay perform in the same club Eminem had his party at the night before. Aaron became chummy with the lead singer of Coldplay...they still have what I think is the best record of this year, I can't get enough of it. After that it was mini vacation time and I wanted to go to nowhere else but Paris, France. I spent four glorious days there sightseeing, eating, and most importantly...I'm not even going to say it, you guys know me:) I also became obsessed with crepes. They have stands everywhere all over the city where they make them fresh and roll them up into a little funnel like holder with jam. I swear to God I had like a crepe an hour for four days, I wouldn't be surprised if I just dropped dead from CO (crepe overdose) any day now. We rented a shity little scooter and blended in with the locals, all bundled up, riding throughout the city freezing our arses of. Every time we'd enter one of those big roundabouts it was like "HOLY SHIT!! WATCH OUT FOR THE CARS!!! AAAAAH!" How do they drive over there with no stop signs and practically no streetlights? I swear they just rely on ESP. We took boats down the river and went to the Eiffel Tower and Versa and all the coolest restaurants. It was so nice. We were then off to Strasbourg for NRJ's big radio show for like 9,000 yelping French girlies. We hired these two English guys to pretend and play bass and drums for the next few days which was easy since everything is to track in Europe:(blah! They turned out to be super cool guys and I'm sure we'll have them audition when we really start looking for the real goods. My Mom came that day and brought my three little brothers from Germany that I hadn't seen in like 8 or 9 years so that was a trip. They were so sweet and excited that I really existed and I wasn't just a singing dude on TV that happens to be their brother. Aaron bonded with them (cause they're 11 and 8) by trashing our dressing room and smashing cups against their heads all night, screaming Shytza and shvatz (<-spelling?) which means shit and dick in German, their language....what a good influence we are:) I had so much fun with them, it was really cool to hang after all these years. Life's too short to hold grudges and I have to much love to give. That gig of merely two songs was a breeze and really fun. The crowd was so enthusiastic it was almost creepy. I got a white sweat wristband like the one I wear but someone had stitched a red Kokopellli on it. I'm wearing it right now. I also got a letter from a fan's cat to my cat Parigi!?! I guess this fan's cat hurt it's leg and was in a cast and wrote to say how he understands how my cat feels about losing his leg. This fan even went as far as to put ink footprints of her cat on the letter...it was really cute but slightly strange. So after sleeping for like an hour we flew out stupid early to London. Karima, our 1st French fan and leader of the French Streetteam was there to see us off and gave us cool gifts including a video she made of a tour of Paris for Aaron and I and cologne that I'll actually wear...thanks Karima! So LONDON, London, London, why do you rain so? Why is everyone on strike everywhere every time I come there? This time, no firefighters, no subway, no tunnel, and a possible strike at the airport, which would not let me, come home. Putting that all aside I love London rain or shine, strike or...strike. I kept seeing my Gap add all over the place like you guys were talking about...on the bus, at the bus stop, on a billboard, but wait....what's this? In the stores it's MY body exactly with some random dudes head pasted over mine?..sort of oddly funny. Anyway, these last two days of the tour were spent in bloody London doing what started out to be really, f*cking lame but what ended up as a really positive experience. We played and were up for an award at a show called Smash Hits Poll Party. I'd never heard of it nor had I heard of one single act that was there with us. It became painfully obvious very quickly that we had walked into a show cheesier and faker than the Teen Choice Awards with categories like 'BEST FLOP TOP MOP" and "BIGGEST PARTY ANIMAL" or something. I think I was the only performer who actually sang. All to track of course. We did lots of press and interviews with Radio1 and BBC types, a bunch of pics and a lot of hurry up and waiting. They told us we didn't win the day before and then changed their minds the day of the show. So we did end up winning best rock band of the year but it was conveniently an award that isn't given out during the show...whatever, I've already thanked all my girlfriends:) So not too shabby, two awards in two weeks thanks to you guys! So even though I felt a little out of place at that show I'm still flattered to receive an award over bands like Linkin Park and Nicklecrap...I mean Nickleback sorry. So it was fun. That night was our final night of the tour and we were invited to go out to dinner with our buddy Prince Azim, the Sultan of Brunei's son. I've never laughed so hard as I did at that dinner. The stories him and his crew told us about all the crazy artists they've had come to Brunei to perform are outrageous. Bobby Brown falling drunk out of the plane on arrival, Michael Jackson bringing a nine year old boy dressed identical to him, mask over the face and all riding the same rollercoaster over and over all day. Then this restaurant had desserts like "Spotted Dick" and "Woodcock" and Aaron kept asking the snooty waiters questions like, "Does the Spotted Dick come with creme?" and "Which is a bigger portion, the Dick or the cock?" Everyone was dying with tears of laughter. They're good people. Wow, what an amazing place their country sounds like, especially the ridiculous surroundings the prince grew up in...at least two or three of every sports car in the world, movie theater, private arena, tropical beaches, and even a McDonalds! McDonalds really is frikkin everywhere. So I'm on the plane home now...everything going smoothly, so far. No flying horror stories this trip, we got a break. So now it's the holiday time coming up...I'm going to be hanging around, maybe ski some, record this secret song for this secret movie, and keep writing our next record with the A man. Next year is going to be even more amazing for us I can feel it. We've come a long way in the last year and with the support of our fans we're going to keep going farther. There's a little Christmas presents for you guys from Aaron and I that I though you'd get a kick out of hearing. I'll send it to you all shortly. Well, I'll be dropping by before the end of the year to say hi but I wish everyone the best holiday and all the love! Thanks again for the awards a and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!f*cking incredible year With lots of awards, The Sultan of Toomuchcry --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 14, 2002 Home! America! Popeyes! Krispy Kreme! Starbucks! Cell phone! Car! Cats! Sniper shootings. Bad economy. Terrorist threats. Smog. Billions of dollars worth of food rotting at the docks. Looming possibility of war. What's wrong with people? Well, it's good to be home nevertheless. It's hard to focus on your own personal world when so much bigger shit is happening...but that's life isn't it? Well, in our own little Calling world things have been fantastic. This trip kicked serious ass! From making masses of girls pass out in London to being chased by thousands of crying fans in Brazil, the last two weeks of this tour were full of moments I'll never forget and will tell my kids and my kids' kids for years to come. Good thing Aaron and I video everything, cause my memory she'sa not so good. So let's take it back a couple of weeks to that day off in Sweden after recovering from snaps overload and caterpillar appetizers. Tour diary #3889724689369696969696969 is now in session. So I made my way down to the lobby of our hotel in Sweden after sitting in my room all day doing nothing and loving it. I opened the doors to the outside cold and bright light and as my eyes readjusted from being blinded I noticed that there were barricades to the left and right of the hotel entrance and they were filled with a huge amount of anticipating girls. What's this? Wow, we're really doing well here I guess? Well, not that good stupid, it appears that all these little girls are clenching on to Nick Carter pictures and posters and now you've stepped into the snake pit of sloppy seconds. So I signed and what not but I wasn't who they were looking for. Later that night at dinner with everyone, Mr. Carter and his gang of thugs (yes that's right, he thinks he's black in every way) came and sat next to our table. I have no "ish" with him and he seems like a nice guy, but when he proceeded to talk shit about me knowing I was two feet away from him, my open-minded too nice thinking thoughts were shattered. Whatever, it's meaningless to me, what can you do? The next day of press was a lot of fun. We did this show called "Wimans" and it was so crazy. We talked about important things like farting and belching and Billy even got to do some skateboarding moves right on the host's desk. I was bummed we couldn't play a show in Sweden this time. I hope we can come back. So it was time then to head over to the lovely London, England again. Always happy to go back to London. Right when we arrived and I got into the car to take us to our hotel, "Adrienne" came on the radio blasting. That was a good sign and supposedly the song is doing better there than it did in the US...Yay! Man, we did A LOT of frikkin press in London. Tons of TV shows, magazines, radio, you name it. We were really anticipating the show there since it was sold out and our first real full performance in England. That night was f*cking crazy!!!!! We hadn't played in like a month and a half, so I was a little worried we'd suck, but it wouldn't have mattered one bit even if we did. The audience that night was the best we've ever seen. Between the opera style beautiful venue, screaming/crying girls, water being thrown and just about everything else, I almost was brought to tears realizing how amazing that night was. My real Mom who I had seen the week before for the first time in Germany came for that night to see me play for the first time as well. It was a really emotional time for me, just all the success and seeing my Mom and her experiencing my crazy life and how proud she is of me was a lot to handle but in a very good way. Oh yah, and we like killed a bunch of girls too! We'd be playing a tune and right in the middle of it I'd see girls just passing out cold left to right and being carried over the crowd all limp and taken away! What the hell?!? This was like The Beatles' audience in the 60's that you see in black and white old movies...I mean really, could this crowd have been anymore excited? Granted it was hot as shit in there and that had a lot to do with it, I almost passed out myself, but luckily every other minute the water that was being passed out to the faint audience was being thrown at me and the band:) Is that a good thing in England? I hope so. After the set was over and I caught my breath I went back to the nurse's office to visit the girls who had passed out just to give them some extra love. Right when I was opening the door to say hi, the people working there were like, "don't go in there, you'll kill them for good!" Needless to say, they were fine and a pleasure to meet. There were a bunch of fans that came from really far away places, even this one girl who came from Norway and brought us all incredibly good chocolate... THANKS! These other chicks made us the funniest frikkin cartoon caricatures of each of us. Aarons as an example was his giant head on a little girls body with her skirt flying up in the wind, and Dino's had his big old melon on a little skinny hairy Speedo wearing body holding open a fur jacket! They were really great. I wanted to sign for everyone outside but it became complete mayhem quickly. Pushing and shoving and jumping and screaming, etc. I pulled the plug as soon as I saw this one girl getting squished big time against a dumpster and she started screaming and freaking out from pain and pleading to be given space...yah, that's when I got to go back into the club. It was funny, later that night when I finally left, the few fans that were still there spotted me as I was leaving with my lady and my guards were like RUN! So there we were running down the alley to the getaway car of freedom with tons of girls chasing after us saying "Alex, I love your accent!"....accent? me? No, I love your accent, the English accent is super hot...I sound like a dumb American. Oh and I also got the pleasure of seeing all the hard working UK street team girls...you are all doing an amazing job over there! Thank you so much for your continued support and I can't wait to meet up again! So that night kicked serious ass and the next morning we took the train/subway to Paris, France right under the water. I felt comfortable knowing you can't get lost on a train. So our trip back to Paris this time was a success. The club we played there was a quarter the size of the London gig but it was packed with French cuties. It was also really hot, and full of technical problems, oh well. Mid show I noticed this one girl's giant poster she was holding up that said, "You guys rock!" and I was like that's cool...until she flipped it over and it said, "And You Guys SUCK!!"...heh? I didn't know what to think. We got a lot of gifts that night and I later noticed a letter with the same hand writing as the big suck poster, so I tore it opened and read it..."We love you so much, you guys rock, thanks for coming, blah blah blah...oh and YOU SUCK! YOU GUYS SUCK SSOOOOOO MUCH! YOU'RE THE SUCKIEST SUCKERS!! YOU SUCK SUCK SUCK etc.!" ............................?........................It turned out this girl had learned from some American playing a joke on her that "You Suck" is a very complimentary thing to say. Well, the band and I got a kick out of it. We had to get up super early the next morning to fly to Brazil so I couldn't sign that night and it was nuts trying to get to the car and out of there. I always feel so guilty leaving a country we rarely ever go to and not meeting people or signing, but sometimes we have no choice. So if any French fans are reading this, we love France! We'll be back soon! The show was f*cking awesome and you guys SUCK! Just kidding. So the long never ending flight of 134356467523 hours to Rio, Brazil was shitty. I had heard that we're very popular in Brazil and stuff but the band and I were not in any way prepared for what we were about to experience. It was Thailand all over...tons of fans waiting for us at the airport, at the hotels, at radio, at TV, I mean hundreds of them. Our surroundings were so beautiful in Rio too, huge hotel/spa right on the cliffs looking over the crystal clean ocean with tropical air, palm trees, and giant mountains with thousands upon thousands of little homes built right in. We did giant press conferences with tons of press and never ending interviews that unfortunately left no time for sight seeing. Our show in Rio was really fun although we were a little nervous playing in this crap club cause we couldn't touch each other on stage (that sounds gay, let me explain). The electricity was all funky and we were told right before we went on stage that if any one of us touched me they would get 50 volts to 220 volt zapped through them and I would be fried...and let me tell you Aaron wasn't interested in that...well, neither was anyone. So during the show I'd run up to Dino's side of the stage like I normally do and threaten to just give him a friendly pat on the back and he'd give me this look like "dude nnno...g g get away from me!" Then I'd make my way to Aaron while rocking out on some tune and he'd give me the look of "get the fuck away from me bitch". It made the show very entertaining for me :) The crowd was great, I can never get sick of a thousand people that speak Portuguese yet are singing every word to every song of ours in English, what an experience. So after a few days of work in Rio, we made our way to Sao Palo via officially the scariest plane flight to date. Imagine rocketing down the runway at twice the speed you normally do, abruptly lifting off the ground at a 90degree angle over water, the G force stuffing your brains into your feet, then immediately taking the sharpest turn possible hurling you into the old woman next to you without flipping over where looking out of one side of the plane you see straight down to the ground and looking out the other side you see nothing but sky and fucking space, then throw in a few nice long freefalls and a really steep angle of decent and a shit slam bam thank you mam landing and you get the worst flight ever. Oh yah...and the smoke clouds wafting through the cabin and the smell of cigarettes? What's that stewardess? Oh well, the captains got to smoke you know....no, I don't. Aaron and my fingers were blood red and practically had to be ripped off of our seat's arm rests once we landed. Not cool. Flying over Sao Palo you can really see why it's the second largest city in the world...I swear it looked like Lego Land. Picture Los Angles' massive size but replace every house with an identical skyscraper in different colors and you get the biggest looking frikkin Lego Land ever. I swear that's what it looked like, Lego Land. Just endless. Our greeting at the airport there wins the award for the craziest so far. We had like 15 body guards creating those ever so popular human walls while we ran through, Aaron and I filming everything as we passed by the girls freaking out and lunging towards us through tiny cracks in the human wall, throwing letters and gifts and flowers at us. Then once inside the car they all surrounded us pounding on the glass windows till they cracked, screaming "Billy! Billy! I want to love yours! I want it to love yours!"...wha? The first letter I opened after we started to drive away said, "Alex, I want make love with you" written in what seemed to be blood. So this is how our life was for the next week, but it only got crazier. Every radio/TV we went to that same situation would happen but add in these few things...1) Once coming back down outside to leave, finding the SUV's we travel in completely covered with lipstick kiss marks and writing from one end to the other all in broken English over and over 2) The sight of at least two hundred girls literally chasing the cars once we drove away, like Terminator 2 style, and they would actually catch up do to traffic and short cuts they knew through the city to run through so it was never ending. Oh the footage I acquired is priceless. We performed on this one TV show that was hosted by what looked like 6 transvestite ex prostitutes with an audience of young girls all in the round. We were awarded our platinum record plaques on the show from BMG and then performed WYWG. I didn't even have to sing because of how loud this frikkin audience was singing it already. I caught a glimpse of the interview part afterwards and noticed that Dino was making out with his Platinum record the whole time behind me. It was, well, it was like nothing else. Our show in Sao Palo was huge! Way over two thousand anticipating fans and press all suited up with hand made Calling shirts and hats. That was a seriously outstanding show right up there with the London one. No dying girls though :( We did get this one letter that was all rolled up. We unrolled it on stage later that night to realize it was at least 50 feet long and in little hand writing it said over and over again, I LOVE ALEX, I LOVE BILLY, I LOVE AARON, etc. I mean, I swear this must have repeated at least 100,000 times if not more and probably taken at least a month to make. That one I'm keeping for sure, it's in my luggage. Has anyone seen that picture of me from the gig that night where I'm mid flight/jump (depending if you want to rhyme or not:)? It's pretty damn funny. By the way, for you "get Alex a new wardrobe" people, I travel with 12 different jackets, 25 shirts, 15 pants, and 6 pairs of shoes yet the few photos that surface the net always seem to have caught me in the same red jacket. Oh, and that jacket is spray painted to look beat up pleather that isn't really dirty in anyway, just thought I'd let you know. I'm an extremely clean person (I like my sunglasses too). Can you tell I read The Loft? And while I'm on that subject I did write a little note on there again under the name Alex888 but anything else is bullshit. There won't be anymore random name posts from me, so don't believe anyone. I will from now on use an official name through Zach to make things easier on you guys. I don't want anyone confused and sorry if you have been before. So back to Sao Palo. We did this big show at MTV there that was going to be shown on TV a million times and at that point we had played three shows in a row, 4 TV appearances, 5 radio stations, God knows how many interviews asking important questions like, "Hey Alex, who do you like more, Brittany or Shakira? What's your favorite color? What kind of underwear do you have on? FUCK OFF!!! What about the music? Anyway, the last night was crazier than anything we ever did just when I couldn't imagine anything getting crazier. We did this late late kids TV show. We had partied earlier that night and were all plastered and dizzy with fatigue and jet-lag and felt like we entered the Twilight Zone, I swear I even heard the creepy theme song, but it was just the sound of my liver dying. So wired up already, the host walks into our dressing room looking like a hippy with a black Brazilian midget dressed as Rambo and a 7 foot tall crow with a giant yellow beak!?!?!? He said the show is off the wall and he wants us to do whatever we want when we perform...cool. So we immediately went into hair and make up like good little boys. 30 minutes later we emerged anew. I had a black beanie on with dark sunglasses. Nate had full girl make up with a Calling T-shirt that had a picture of Homer Simpson sucking a $%^@ on the back drawn by yours truly. Dino's Calling T-shirt said in Portuguese "Attention all bitches, no peeing on the floor"...How, do you ask, does one come up with that in another language? Well, I just walked around the studios writing down random words from random signs all over the building and the bathroom and put them together not knowing what I'd get...It was brilliant! Billy was complete with a messy spiked up "do" and a French style mustache drawn on with a Sharpie. His shirt had a giant arrow on the front pointing down to his $%^@ and the back said something so horrible I can't even repeat it. Aaron after a lot of mouse, hair spray, and a whole bottle of gel, sported a real tall MO-hawk and an unlit ciggy hanging from his lip. What was happening? So to make a long story short, we performed, there were hundreds of screaming girls, I danced with the black Brazilian midget dressed as Rambo, the crow was hitting himself in the face really hard with a ukulele, Billy dropped his pants and exposed his bottom to 10 million viewers, the crow ran like a fucking football player and tackled him, they rolled on the ground and fought while the rest of the band destroyed there instruments and fell into the drums, all while playing WYWG! IT WAS COMPLETELY INSANE!!! The next morning we were sad to leave Brazil, but it was off to Mexico City, Mexico, the biggest city in the world. Our success level was equal there just not quite as crazy fans willing to jump in front of the car to stop it like they were doing in Brazil (honestly it's truly amazing no one got run over at certain moments). It was nice to be in Mexico cause we felt very close to home and since Los Angles is 99.9% Mexicans these days we felt, well, like we were home. Jethro my bud is half Mexican...word up Jethro! Mexico City was really cool and all the fans there were very very sweet. We played a sold out show at the Hard Rock for fans and press. The stage was really awkward and like 20 feet high, so I couldn't reach the audience which was weird for me cause like half of my gig is being able to communicate with the listeners. Besides bad technical problems with my in-ear monitors and the 6000+ feet altitude that made me want to puke half way though the show, the audience made it all worth while. They threw more shit then I've ever seen on stage. Later I turned to realize near the end of the show that Aaron was playing wearing a black sparkly Sombrero hat on his head that was bigger than Nate's entire drum set and Billy was wearing this giant straw hat that cover his whole face. I got so many bracelets I started throwing them back. Mexico and its people, food, and atmosphere are terrific although oddly we couldn't find any Mexican food that wasn't shit. You'd think in Mexico you'd get the best Mexican food...nope. We finally had a day off the next day and that would mean in almost four weeks we've had only 2 days off. What the heck? Anyway, we got to go to the pyramids for the day and learn all about the Aztecs and the history of the ruins that date back to 500 B.C. It's creepy, there were like 9 temples along this main street that represented the nine planets in our solar system, and one giant pyramid for the sun and one smaller one for the moon. First, how the f*ck did they know 2500 years ago that there were nine planets and here's where it gets weirder. The measurement of space in-between each planet temple and sun/moon pyramid is exactly what they really are in space, just on a smaller scale. Also the pyramids in Mexico are on the exact same Longitude as the ones in Egypt. Weird stuff. Aliens? Michael Jackson maybe? Who knows. We climbed like a gazillion steps (really only 250 or so) to get to the top of the big pyramid and people were up there praying in big groups. The view was incredible. Needless to say we all should have put sunscreen on that day, cause now we're all really "red necks"...well, and Aaron's red face, and raccoon eyes. I didn't know the top of your head can get sun burned if you have a full head of hair...well, it can. No hats for me. We ate that night at this famous Mexican restaurant from like 1900 that was in a giant cave underground. It was really cool although it smelled like rotting cow pie...yummy. They had like tribal dancing and music while we ate. I ordered steak and it smelled and tasted like a barnyard, but I'm still alive so I guess it wasn't too rancid. So the following morning we made the early trek again to an airport and got on the 10 hour flight to Atlanta, GA...The US! That flight wasn't quite as freaky as the Brazilian one, yet it was really turbulent the ENTIRE time. We went through a giant storm over the Amazon then right through this huge hurricane by Texas. We actually had to fly at 41,000 feet which is about 11,000 feet more than average cruising altitude. But you couldn't get a drink or food or get up to pee or anything forever. Too much cranberry juice!!!! Bladder exploding...must get to toilette....eyes turning yellow...I'll just let it go right here in my seat...yah...just let it go...aaaaaaah...warm. NO, just kidding, the flight arrived safely in overcast Atlanta. Oh my God, it was so annoying, because of beefed up security or whatever, you had to go through customs, get your luggage, go through customs again, recheck all your luggage, go through security screening again, take a tram to 6 terminal stops later, then recollect your luggage again...and this was all just to leave the frikkin airports! Airports! Flying! You are the bane of my existence! Anyway, your probably wondering why we went to Atlanta huh? Well, there's this guy named Jeff we don't know, and it was Jeff's 40th birthday, and Jeff wanted The Calling to play his party at a big place called The Tabernacle, and Jeff is not poor, The Calling likes Jeff. In fact, I dedicated every song in our 70 minute set to him, it was really funny I was like, "Well this first one's for Jeff. Yah this one goes out to Jeff. I want to dedicate this one to Jeff! Jeff, if you're out there, this one is for you! It's Jeff's birthday, I'd like to sing this one for him! Jeff...I love you." It was good fun, although the crowd was how you say, not our demographic? Maybe Generation Gaps? And so hear we are now, home. Now that I'm home for a little bit, I'm going to really try and answer everyone's questions that you've all posted on The Loft as much as I can. Could It Be Any Harder is making its way slowly at radio and the video should be playing on MTV/TRL momentarily. Well, it's getting close to the Holidays now and this is my favorite time of the year...the time of giving, and sharing, and...presents :) Yah, presents. Anyway, our work isn't over yet. The near future holds some TV such as Regis for the third time and presenting at The European MTV Awards and more UK visiting and possibly back to France. I'm going to sing the National Anthem for the Kings hockey game here in LA at The Staples Center this week and I'm nervous!! Why you ask? Well, let's just say my school was too cool to teach us brats our anthem and now I'm cramming for a test :) The band says hi and all is good, I'm looking at Aaron as we speak and he still has that giant sparkly sombrero hat on walking through the airport...knocking things over left and right. So everyone, until next time, keep up the good work, drive your radio stations crazy, vote a million times for our MTV award, and I'll contact you soon to start pounding TRL. All the love in the world and the best wishes for all my readers! Running low on clever names, Runninglow Onclevernames P.S. Was this too long? Shit, now it is. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 30, 2002 Aaaah, a nice long break, a minute to rest, a breezy drive in a convertible, a breakfast in bed, a day of shopping, a video game session with my brothers, a wake up time of 12 PM...wake up time of 1PM...a wake up time of 2PM...a wake up time of whenever the f*ck I feel like it..then, Aaaah, a major plane malfunction on takeoff, a band that gets off the plane, a flight to Europe alone, a six hour layover in London, a two hour night's sleep, a full day of never ending work alone, a scary performance on MTV alone, all alone, and...a band returns, a real Mother arrives, a mistake booking on a propellor plane, another flight ditched, a 9 hour drive from Germany to Paris, a realization we drove 4 hours in the wrong direction, a band getting lost in 4 different countries, a rental car being pushed to 250Km an hour on the Autobahn, a mobbing in Roman ruins, a walk along the red light district, a run in with Lifehouse, a run in with Avril Lavign, a run in with hard-core fans all over Europe, a drunken late night in Sweden, a serving of caterpillar at dinner, a million photoshoots already, a million interviews already, a million acoustic performances already, a million wake up calls already, a day off finally, and now a chance to look back on it all and laugh, priceless. Hey everyone! We're at it again and there's so much to yap about that I decided to cut this trip into two or three tour diary entrees so you'll all be up to date. Our break went great and all, blah, blah, blah, but that's not what we're here to talk about. We want the gossip, the inside shenanigans, the tell all. So here we go. It all started with a little plane ride from LAX to Cologne Germany. We were all ready to go. Talking it up in business class. The plane started its fast excel down the runway from LA. Just as we were lifting off the ground the plane slammed back down and came to a harsh stop screeching on the brakes. That's when the captain came on and said, "uh oh, that didn't go well, hold on here" (real comforting). That's when the worried looks throughout the packed flight set in. I thought LAX had blown up or something of that nature. We made our way back to the gate and parked. The captain came on again and said that a hydraulic pump had went out just as we were taking off and had to be repaired. We sat there for a long time as they worked on the plane. Aaron and the other guys weren't too keen on flying this plane even after it was fixed so they expressed their concern with the not very helpful stewardesses. Just as the plane departed again from the gate, the other captain came back to talk to who he knew was The Calling. In his attempt to calm us and reassure us all was fine he did just the opposite. He said, "look, honestly, we didn't even fix the problem(?!!), there are 8 hydraulic pumps on a plane and only one wasn't working and it was fine to fly without it". Needless to say this did not help my fellow band's fears. They were getting off. We drove back to the gate yet again and waited one and a half hours as the crew sifted through the 1000+ baggage to find the band's luggage. Rumors of what was happening spread through the cabin and talks of a stupid band being scared and getting off was everywhere. Naturally, this delay meant practically everyone on the flight missed their connection in London including me. Why did I stay? Well, I'm a hard worker and didn't want to miss a whole day of promo in Germany and my biological Mother was going to be there for that one day and I didn't want to miss seeing and talking to her for the first time in over five years. The rest of the flight was scary for me because of the regret that maybe I should've gotten off. Every bump and free fall was like EEEK! What am I doing, I should have gotten off. I understand why the band did, trust me they had every reason to be freaked out. Anyway, I got to London really late and missed my flight and had to be switched over to another airline and wait like five hours. No worries cause there are lots of stores in the London Heathrow Airport:) I kept getting nasty stares by other passengers on my flight because of what happened. Whatever, what can you do? So I made it to Germany very late and got very little sleep. The band arrived the next night after I had done everything by myself. I even played Adrienne acoustically alone on a music TV show which was weird without my pimp Aaron, but it all went cool. The band, my Mom and I all went to Avril Lavign's show in this little club in Cologne. The show was great and I got a chance to say hi to her and congratulate her on all her success. We both happen to be on BMG Records over seas. I got to see one of our biggest German fans at that show and she was really sweet. Lots more press and TV later and we were on our flight to Paris, yet of course something had to go wrong. We rushed to make our flight after a usual jam packed day to find that we were mistakenly booked on a shitty propeller plane. There's only like one rule that we ask for on tour and that's not to fly on propeller planes. I've had way to many bad experiences on them and it's was raining and shitty weather that night so I really didn't want to. Remember the story I told in another tour diary from our first European tour when we flew that plane to Italy called the "Fokker" and it was the biggest crap plane ever built and the scariest ride ever? Well, this was a f*cking "Prop Fokker", even worse. So we all flipped a coin and said if it lands on tails we would go, and heads we would drive. It landed on tails and we were all like, "f*ck that, that's the kiss of death, I can see the headlines now: Calling die in plane crash late night over Holland after a deciding coin toss". So Aaron, Billy, our BMG girl and I decided to drive....far. We rented a nice new BMW which would be fun to drive on the Autobahn (a freeway that runs through Germany and a few other countries with NO speed limit). It was a rode trip that started fun and ended almost nine hours later, 5 hours to long. Why you ask? Well, let's just say we got sort of lost...in Germany, and in Belgium, and in Holland, and in France. We ended up realizing hours into the trip that we had gone 4 hours in the wrong direction and ended up having to make a huge U-turn. We first got lost in Belgium on a road called "the ring"...we just kept going in circles for some reason...I know, we're retarded. It was fun though. We all took turns driving. We would redline the car's engine at like 155 MPH the whole way to make good time. One thing I don't recommend is putting your head out the sun roof at that speed. I tried it and almost died. I stuck it out for like .5 seconds and came back in with a mo hawk and slobber all streaked down my cheeks, my face stuck in a massive smilly freak grin. It was funny. We stopped to get food and got lost again. I had a rancid chocolate milk for dinner which made me sicker than Aaron's driving. After 9 hours and a lot of oh so helpful phone call directions, we finally made it to Paris. I went to sleep at like 5 AM. Needless to say, I was a zombie the next day (oooh, more rhyming). It was great to see all these fans in all these countries we've been at. In Paris a girl named Karima I think gave me the coolest "Calling Magazine" with pictures from shows all over the world, info about us band members I didn't even know, and even a Ferrari fund dedication page! You guys are nutz, but I love ya. Oh yah, before I forget, I wan to clear up some heavy debated rumors that were spreading around the Forum...Yes, I did try to talk to fans in the chat room late at night unsuccessfully, and YES, I did for the first time look at the Forum and write a little message explaining that situation during my break, and YES, I had a great frikkin time reading the hundreds of posts debating whether it really was me or not that had left that message...just lettin ya all know. After Paris we left to fly to Rome Italy. I hadn't been back to Italy since we shot Music In High Places (which is coming out in stores near you, buy a copy, or maybe two....oh God). Well, our one day in Rome was up there with those crazy days in Thailand back in the day. There were hundreds of girls attacking us at TRL and our in-store and following us on there little scooters and falling and grabbing...anything and everything…I'm pretty sure my "you know what" was snapped at like 50 times that day:) It was so cool to do TRL right in the middle of thousands of year old Roman ruins...who's life is this? Dino was in Italian Stallion heaven in Italy...he even dare I say it, partook in some red meat face stuffing! It was funny cause BMG had gotten us all massages for a good days work, but when we got back to the hotel that night there were these three scraggily women who were freelance masseuses with names like Ezmorelda and Frederikashamapagafanama haha ya?...etc. Anyway I was like, o.k. I could use a massage, until one of them pulls out this f*cking dental floss looking G string and said, "you wear only this like good boy, no?" Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but let's just say it was a creepy yet highly entertaining few minutes. It's so strange to go to Italy now and cruise the streets in this fashion after I've spent a lot of my life there and both my parents grew up in Rome. It was almost like the feeling when we came back to Los Angeles at the end of last year to find our song on the radio every second, our video on TV, and people, a lot of people, actually attending one of our shows. We went to Amsterdam next. When we were there earlier this year I didn't get to see anything cause I was working so hard, so this time I was determined to see at least one naked prostitute standing in a glass window with a red light over her head and be offered every kind of drug just so I can say the one thing I know in Dutch, "nokin in da Kokin"<--(having sex in the kitchen). Amsterdam is really beautiful, don't get me wrong, but when we went to The Famous Red Light District even though it was crazy and interesting, I almost felt sad. There were all these phenomenal looking women just selling there bodies and inviting in disease and trouble at every door opening all for some cold hard cash. The American hating taxi driver thought it was funny to drop Billy, Nate and I to the super gay part of the district. We got out and said thanks taxi man, and as we look around in horror, we all started to quickly realize that the store "Cockrings" was just the beginning. Billy was like, RUN! Run as fast as you can, before they take poor little Alex! So the next day we learned that on sheer coincidence Lifehouse happened to be staying in our very hotel doing the same MTV shows we were doing and oh, did I mention they even have our old manager now? I unfortunately didn't get a chance to see Sean and wish him the best, but I did run into Jason. You know I'll say it again for those Lifehouse fans out there. I have NO problems with these people, Jason is incredibly talented and I am a fan of his music and I don't want any bad blood between us. I was and am just human with feelings, and mine were hurt from both sides. But I hold no grudges and I wish the best for them contrary to what some people debate about. So now were pretty much caught up to where I am now, Sweden. IT'S TOO COLD! But I like Sweden a lot...maybe even one of my all time favorites. There's Good food, cute chicks, beautiful scenery, great fans (MAYO you rock! The "Alex" lighter is the coolest), and last but not least, cute chicks...oh, I already said that. Last night we got here we went to a really nice restaurant and had a lot to drink. I was seeing how many toothpicks I could fit in my mouth and mature stunts of that nature when our food was brought to the table. Billy ordered a huge Lobster and I swear I thought I saw a giant green Caterpillar crawling on his plate. Well, there really was one, but the waiter came and snatched it up before I could get documentation. It was sick. So you'd think we'd get dinner for free? No, I guess not. The funniest thing about most European countries are the names of stores that sound a little strange in their language. I just saw a super market here called "Slut Spurt"...what the hell? So we finally just got to see the finished "Could It Be Any Harder" video and I'm very happy for the first time with one of our videos. It makes you feel something, that's on a very deep level without being overtly TRL friendly and obvious...of course though, that makes its TRL appeal a question in my mind. But look, no matter what, we're all going to try just as frikkin' hard as we did on the other videos if not harder and see what happens. You guys will get to see it first as I've promised, so sit tight and get ready for our final attempt to make a Calling video #1! So I'm going to sleep now for as long as humanly possible and be lazy for a day after visiting 5 countries in less than a week you get a little wiped out. Talk to you soon! All the love! Never be's doin' grammar good, dnaB xelA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 23, 2002 WAAAAAZUP!! Hey everyone! I know, I know, another very long overdue tour diary is finally here. What a crazy ride this tour was! We're on our way home now, finally, for almost a month which will be quite a treat for us tour veterans. There are lots of exciting things to tell you all. The last few weeks have been full of insanity, so let's just jump right in to where we left off. The final week of July was to be a week overrun by flights back and forth from home to the tour for me and it was sure to be jam packed with lots of airport searches. After a quick trip home for 24 hours on 7-22 for an important party I had to go to, I flew back out to Salt Lake City for our show. I swear I've never gotten on a plane without getting stripped searched a million times, so I was expecting it. There was this cute old couple ahead of me getting harassed just as we were about to get on our flight. I know 80 year old Americans are the prime suspects for terrorism and all, but come on! So this bone head security guy is making them take their shoes off and proceeded to go through the grandpa's backpack. As the meat head opened it, the bag overflowed with diapers and the old man looked horrified in embarrassment. So the security guy was, like, "Where's the baby?! HUH, Where's the baby?!" O.K. either this guy was a f*cking prick or a complete idiot. Either way, these searches are an invasion of privacy on the highest level but obviously in our world completely, unfortunately necessary. I heard in the news this lady was getting on her flight and had bottles of her breast milk with her baby. The security guy as they commonly do, said she couldn't get on unless she takes a sip from each bottle ensuring it's not hazardous material. So this lady was forced to drink her OWN BREAST MILK! Yuck! I know this yuckiness from experience because once when I was younger growing up in a house with two baby brothers, I accidentally put breast milk on my cereal and lets just say it didn't end up pretty! Anyway, moving right along to our Salt Lake experience. It was great to go back there again after doing that Olympics show earlier this year. The venue was small but packed with anticipating fans ready to rock. The show was kick ass and we actually got our first stage crasher. This fan jumped on stage to dance with me in the middle of the show and I was like "Yah, you rock!". Needless to say she was thrown off by security, but it was good fun. I had to fly back home the next day again for this Gap shoot. That's right, it's very unlikely, but you will see my face in Gap ads later this year. I was really proud to be a part of it even though I've never stepped foot into Gap in my life. The following day I flew yet again, out to Hillsboro, Oregon for a fair show. Dino told me the night before on their day off in Hillsborough him and Billy and Nate went to Borders Bookstore and just set up shop and played a jazz gig. When people started to realize who they were, they were asked to play Calling songs. So they played "Wherever You Will Go" and "Adrienne" jazz style. Needless to say, no one was happy with that, but they had a lot of fun. The following day, right before we sound checked, I was hanging out and noticed a motorcycle and more store next door (I didn't mean to rhyme). I was like, "You know what I need? A child size ATV for all these fair shows." So me and all my crew went over there and I bought this f*cking four wheeling mini death machine to go on tour with us. It's red of course and it fits right under our bus in the luggage bays. To some of you this might not sound exciting, but for someone who grew up in a big city like Hollywood, ATV's just aren't a common household item. We were like freaks on this thing. Billy went flying through the audience before the show screaming and causing commotion on it. The show was a lot of fun until I said in my too-much-flying, brain dead, state of mind: "Well it's good to be playing in our home state of California." DUH! STOOOPID! You're in Oregon shithead! I'm a mumbler so hopefully no one heard....of course now you all know, so... Later that night, when I was signing, this fan was, like, "My ex-girlfriend's name is Adrienne and she sucks". So I said let me call her up and tell her how you feel. So I left this girl a funny message saying she sucks and she should listen to track six on our record to know how her ex feels about her. It was mean but just devilishly lovely. Before we left I noticed this huge lit up sign at the front of the fair that said "The Calling at 8 and Truck pull at 7". No, I thought, this wouldn't do, I must drive my newly acquired ATV for no reason and change this sign. So as we drove away I admired my work and took some video of the sign that now said in giant letters: "THE CALLING PIMP'S AND HO'S". Don't ask. It was on to California then, starting in Santa Rosa. A true fan and one of the first ever came to the next few shows and it was really nice to see her after over a year. Shannon, your gifts rocked and Alex Land is a master piece! The show was great and I even put on a disguise and enjoyed walking through the fair to indulge in funnel cakes and corn dogs (guaranteed stomach ache). Fresno was an odd show but still a lot of fun. It was a radio show with a few other bands and us headlining in this big outdoor shed. The only problem was the size of the crowd compared to the venue. I got a lot of good items thrown on stage that night and even got another stage crasher who was really cute so we tried desperately to keep her up there. When security went to grab her, Billy and Aaron would block them from getting across the stage. It didn't work, but we tried! San Fran rocked. It was a little club, but it was sold out. Like a block away from the bus and the venue, there was a huge gay parade called "Up Your Alley" going on all day. So, like, all these shaven head half-naked men with their ass cheeks literally hanging out of their pants were walking by the bus. It was pretty wicked, but they were having fun, so whatever! A fan from Asia won a contest and was flown out to see that show. My peeps looked for her afterwards forever but couldn't find her so we never met. I'm sorry! You came all that way and I was dying to see you! We'll make it up to you when we come to your country! San Fran was the only night on this whole tour that I couldn't come out and sign for everyone afterwards because I had to jump on yet another flight back to LA. This time it was for the Cosmo Girl Calendar that sponsored a charity against drugs. I really wanted to be a part of that and help out, so it was my pleasure. I got to see Enrique Iglesias again and a bunch of other stars. One of the most famous photographers in the world shot it named Herb Ritts. He's shot just about every huge star on the planet so I was really nervous to be in his presence. I think the pictures should turn out great though. The following day I flew to Boulder, CO to play at the Fox Theater. Why we played a college town when college isn't in session is beyond me. The show was fun even though we were greatly disliked by the street people. Billy walked out of the bus and these skater kids were like "Fuck you, fuckin' boy band." Billy went off on them like a scene right out of a movie and challenged them to a skate off. He said he'd do any of their tricks ten times better and if he wins then they would have to leave immediately, feeling really stupid. Of course Billy murdered them on the board and they walked away with their heads hung low. There was a bad review in the record store about us and we got heckled by the store workers. Who the hell thinks we're a boy band? Who can write an article ripping us apart if they've never heard our record or seen us live? Because we're on TRL? F*cking Linkin Park was on TRL! What are they? It just makes me mad. Anyway, Sidney, NE was a blast. We found jumps for the ATV but they were in the middle of a huge cow corral covered in sh*t. So, I was like hanging on to the back of the vehicle wearing a bandana across my nose and mouth with Billy driving, his legs flung over the handle bars while sh*t was flying up in the air as we drove. WARNING: Don't go off jumps on a kiddy ATV with two people on it and sh*t covering the ground unless you want cow pie all over your face for dinner... Yes! That's right, I ate it, in more ways than one. But I'm alive! Thank sweet Jesus! This old man had a little stand at the fair selling his own home brewed root beer. We're all fans of the root beer, so we cleaned him out. Now our tour bus fridge if full of "Grandpa's old-timer root beer." We headed back to CO the next day to play the Ogden in Denver. All went smoothly. The following day we traveled to good old Rock Springs, Wyoming, or "wohmin" as Billy pronounces it. His Mom was born there, so he became one with the locals. That was a really fun day. We went to this crazy huge hunting store the size of a mall. It was really creepy with dead animal heads on the walls and fake duck costumes and guns guns guns. Do you need a AK47 to shoot a duck? I don't know. The boys got Wyoming hats and wore them proudly that night. Billy and I found a motocross track and practically killed ourselves again doing jumps while Billy would scream "I love Gold!! Isn't dat vierd!?!" We drove through the course at like 5 miles an hour though...like a roller coaster taking it's slow clicking accent we would drive up these giant jumps and just peak at the top and role down to our death. We were like right out of the movie "Dumb and Dumber." I thought we were all bad ass until this four year old motorcyclist came and was, no shit, jumping over us. There was a slimy pond next to the stage at this fair and Aaron decided he wanted to fish. He went and bought this aptly named "Dino the Dinosaur" purple kiddy fishing pole and actually caught a stinky fish. He didn't eat it though, which was probably a smart decision. The show that night was so good. That crowd kicked major ass! There were even girls flashing us in the crowed... but, uh, I didn't look :) We got over six bras thrown on stage that night and there was a moment when I turned around to find Nate wearing one across his chest and a leopard one on his head. Aaron had one hanging from the neck of his guitar, as did Billy and Dino. What goofs! Anyway, we flew yet again back to Los Angeles for three days to shoot our third video and go to the super-lame Teen Choice Awards. What a big load of sh*t that was, I'm sorry to say. We were up for more awards than practically anyone, but guess what happens when we win for Rock song of the year?...nothing. No "and the winner is.." No "I'd like to thank.." Just, "oh by the way, The Calling won for best rock song,.. and moving right along..." I'm sorry but that's crap. But hey, we still won, and I have no one else to thank but you guys. Thank you so much for voting for us! Even though the show itself made me want to vomit, I am proud to have won. Honestly we were tadpoles in a sea of big fish that day, so I'm not surprised. It was funny, Aaron and I started to notice that the winners of each category were the only ones there from that category, so when our first award came up for best love song Aaron grabbed my shoulder and was like, "It's all ours man!" So, they were like, "And the runners up are...The Calling! (Big applause and some screams)...and Enrique Iglesias! (Stupidly loud screams, giant applause, sense of defeat)..and Ashanti! (deafening ear piercing screams, nose bleeding, hands red with applause, strong sense of complete destruction, smile to frown)... So, needless to say, I'm amazed we got as far as we did. It was an entertaining evening. The video shoot was a blast and surprisingly very easy. We only shot one day and all the story line was the following day without us, so it went pretty quick. I think it will turn out really beautiful. Our performance takes place at the recording studio and it revolves around a story about this girl and hardships in her life. You see her growing up at different ages and she suffers a loss at the end that isn't going to be very apparent but you will understand. There's more to the story, but I don't want to tell it all. It will be a very deep video to go with my favorite and darkest song on the record. Although I think like a lot of our music it is uplifting as well. I can't wait to see it! Oh, and Aaron wrote the whole story line so we definitely we're involved in this one. We left to Lawrence, KS to play a show the next night. That's right, another college town... What the hell? I really like that town though. Nice people, it's clean, good thrift stores, and good food. The show was fun, but the stage was so small I was just trying not to fall into the crowd. But you guys would treat me good if I did, right? Sioux Falls, SD was a good stop on the tour. Lots of fairs on this tour... and hot hot hot sun baking shows. We played Grand Island, NE and, like, minutes after our show, a tornado came through the town. So we were locked up inside for a few hours to let the storm pass...and the only thing to eat all day was Wendy's... NO!!!! Actually this tour has been Subway all the way, every day listen to what I say, or you'll pay ?why don't I eat some hay ?I just may, what do you say ...Rrrrright Columbia, MO was interesting. Another college town. All I can say is thank God you fans were there to help us out. My life-long friend Jethro came that day to spend the rest of the tour with us. He's an amazing photographer and filmed like every hilarious second of every day for a future DVD or something. He even interviewed a lot of fans and, let me tell you, there are some of the most ridiculously funny moments on tape...you guys rock! We made our way to Adrian, Michigan the next day to play another fair. This was a fantastic show although the rain threatened to almost shut it down. The crowd was great that night but the security wouldn't let them come to the front of the stage, so I jumped down in the mud to get to them and caused a little craziness. Some girl ripped one of my bracelets off and took it. Later that night another girl happened to bring me the same exact bracelet so it was all good. It was cool to play a city the same name as one of our songs, although after I dedicated it to them I realized the words aren't very nice pertaining to a town: "Adrienne, I should have left you... etc." It's all good though. It was so nice to go back to Pittsburgh after all this time and we actually got a day off there which was a plus. Metro and I saw the biggest piece of sh*t movie called "XXX." It was like a crappy Mission Impossible, I don't recommend it. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city and we had a lot of fans from all over the country that day. Unfortunately I was a little under the weather and it was the cursed technical problem night. I still tried to come out and sign for people even though I wasn't feeling well, so sorry to anyone that got sick of waiting around. Oh yeah, earlier that night we went to a little sushi restaurant nearby to eat dinner and we were spotted by a table of people in from Taiwan. I mean, we get approached all the time, but never before from the Taiwanese! So Metro got them all to sing WYWG really loud, right there in the restaurant for the video camera. "So ratery, been rondrin." They were so cute and sweet and did a great job. I know I would suck trying to sing anything in their language. Louisville, KY was a trip. We played on this Astroturf football field and the stage was like a hundred feet away from the bleachers where the audience was. I had a really long catwalk that went out towards them, but there was a staircase down 15 feet and then another staircase up to the bleachers. It was like 100+ degrees and 100% humidity and that was the killer. I take back all the times I said it was the hottest show ever cause this night was deadly and it blows all the others away. I was dripping from head to toe and just trying not to hyperventilate and pass out. At the end of the show I decided I should run down and then back up into the crowd and then run across through all the fans and go down the other side and then go back up to the cat walk to get back to the stage. Sound easy? Well, it would have been if there was a staircase on the other end of the audience but there wasn't. So I just jumped. Like 15 feet, over the gate and over the baseball dugout and onto the dirt. I almost broke my back but I'm alive to tell the tale. Our final headlining show took place in Oxford, Ohio. We played in the middle of this college in a park at night for the welcome back to school show. Lots of drinking, yelling, and cute sorority girls. Dino unveiled his fake fur jacket with no shirt on and became "The Dino", an Italian stallion. Next time you see him, ask to talk to The Dino. You won't regret it. We didn't sleep that night and went directly to the airport to fly to our final show of the tour, but our first show ever in Seattle, WA. Other than being run down beyond repair, having not slept for two days, and only eating some beef-substance filled pita called the "fun clam," this show went remarkably well. It was a huge radio show with all the regulars we've played with so many times...Michelle Branch, O-Town, Shaggy, Avril Lavine(HOT!), and...P. Diddy! HEY! Everyone SING! "It's Diddy, it's Diddy." How he fits in I don't know. Nick Carter hosted it and was a surprisingly nice guy, contrary to what I've heard through the bullshit gossip grapevine. Well, so here we are. I'm on the plane flying home yet again. We almost didn't make it, let me tell ya. This morning's flight became a nightmare because of security, blah blah blah. All these random new rules spring up out of nowhere. "Sorry sir you can't bring your guitar as carry-on today." "?"Oh yeah what about tomorrow "."Don't get fresh with me Without going into detail we were almost thrown out of the airport for arguing and being...fresh? So now, on this flight home, our fucking thresholds and pain-in-the-ass meters were tested once again when they said Aaron had one to many carry-ons. To make a long story short after arguing heavily, we got the idea of putting two of his large carry-ons in a giant plastic Alaska Airlines bag to create, ONE CARRYON! Can you believe this worked? I was in a lack of sleep/laughter/sillyness/anger/dysfunctional behavior mode and the words "this is bullshit" crept from under my breath as we finally passed through. "UH AH! No you didn't! You come right back here! No one curses at me white boy! Security! I want him removed from the airport!" I said, "Miss, if you want to get technical, I was cursing at the situation, not you, and that is my free right, thank you very much." And continued on my way. I am not a jerk, nor do I have any problem with the extra security checks, cause again we all know we need them, but things are just getting stupid and unorganized. I mean minutes before, Billy was brushing his teeth out on the curb while we were checking our bags, just like any normal person(?) and practically got his head chewed off from a cop and almost given a ticket. Can't a man have clean teeth? God knows how much fur have accumulated on those bad boys. Thankfully it's all over, for now and we made it. So I've been noticing there's fans from all over the world now visiting this site and all your devoted fan sites like every second (congrats Joy on winning best fan site! It was nice to see you!). You guys are doing a great job of keeping them informed of everything even if they're on the other side of the planet. The award goes to Katie Raskin for sure as the #1 Calling informer and fan. When I saw her the other night in Pittsburgh and she asked all the questions everyone's been dying to know and gave me 20+ pages of "hug requests" from you guys, that really made my day. To be perfectly honest, some of this tour has been bleak with audience attendance because of A) we have no hit song on the radio at the moment so there is no show promotion and B) the whole touring industry is sucking these days. However, the people that are coming are some of the most amazing fans we've seen so far. I mean really really devoted people that come and fill up the sometimes half empty clubs with so much love that it doesn't even matter that they're a little sparse. I mean this group of 7 girls have been to 26 shows in the last few months! These have been some of the most exciting and fulfilling shows The Calling has done so far. I've also received some awesome gifts in the last month. Many books with letters, poems, and pictures (no porn!), of course more random hamsters, a framed collage from my New York Street Team peeps (thanks guys!), fantastic drawings, and lots more bracelets. I even got this very unique gift that was a chain at least 30 feet long made out of paper and each link had one of the fans name and info on it from all over the world. It was a really cool present. Thanks! Oh yeah, I also got a lot of toothbrushes and dental hygiene products and at first I was like, what are you trying to tell me? Maybe I should give them to Billy? But you loyal Tour Diary readers explained you were replacing my toothbrush that took a swim in the toilette a little while back. Thank you all! So, like I said earlier, we're practically home and boy will it be nice. I can actually eat real food which is a good idea. I can see my cats that practically hate me now. I can spend time with my family and my chick. I can drive my real vehicles which is a joy after being driven around forever and cruising on a 6 year old's ATV. Aaron and I can get some new songs together. And we can rest! I won't give it all away yet, but on September 14 we head to Germany and six other countries in Europe including England. Right from there we go to Mexico and Brazil for a week and I'm so excited to see those countries! After that three and a half week tour, we will of course be.... drum roll please.... touring! In the US that is. "Could It Be Any Harder" is released this week to Adult radio (the first step) all over the country so please call your local stations and request it! I know most of you have had this record for, like, ever now but this is our final chance to make an impact and I think we can do it with this tune... But not without your help. Our career and future in music rests in your hands and we need your support! You'll see the video hopefully on TRL next month, but I promise I'll let you guys see it before anyone else soon enough. Anyway, it's home free now. 28 days of nothing. Well, there's always something, as you all know. Always something on the horizon or something popping up. Some show here, some TV appearance there... Yeah, it's a hard life :) Well in some ways it is. But you know what? I'm eating it up and I could use a little extra weight. Until next time guys! Stay Safe and don't succumb to the powers of "American Idol!!!" We love you guys! Thanks for another great tour and we'll see you soon! Peace out, 'Lil Al --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 25, 2002 So it begins. Another round on the tour roller coaster. Another giant box full of fan gifts and goodies, each layer containing hand written stories and priceless Nina Hamsters. Another 5 loads of laundry to do cause every night I'm sweating like a little bitch, stinking up my jackets that I really shouldn't be wearing in 100+ degree environments. Another bracelet lost on stage and 10 more gained all displaying everyone in the group's names in little white cubed letters. Another tour bus crash throwing you from one end of the bus to the other like your doing a f*cked up run on crocodile mile. Another set of "pig racing" farmer style hats stolen from the "swine arena" perfect for the boys in the band to wear with overalls and nothing else underneath except naughty body graffiti artfully drawn by giddy fans with sharpies. Another set of empty stomachs trying to decide "hhmmm, do I eat random pizza for the 6th time in a row or try my luck with this blood sausage from the fair and see how long I can live off that?" (and people wonder why rock stars are so f*cking skinny). Another night of staying up till 3AM. Another night of staying up till 4AM. Another night of staying up till 5AM. Another night of just staying up. You know your hurting bad for rest when you fall asleep standing up brushing your teeth...is that possible? Yes. I don't recommend it though unless you want your nice obsessively clean toothbrush to end up dropping right in the nice disgustingly dirty tour bus toilette. Oh yes, that's right, I'm a moron. A lucky ass moron with another chance every night to create magic onstage and connect with each and every fan who's spent their hard earned dollar to see a simple rock show. Hello everyone, I'm Alex and welcome to another long over due tour diary entree. Putting aside the little tidbit I wrote you all announcing the new guitar player, we last left off on my flight home for a, uh, sorta break. Well, I apparently survived that flight home from Paris despite the mad ramblings of death that were going on in my head and the fork imprint on my face. As you all know now my few days off were spent trying desperately to find a new guitar player in-between dropping clothes at the dry cleaner, picking up prescriptions at the pharmacy, replacing empty bottles of my girly haircare products, of course buying a new toothbrush, visiting family, picking up my brothers from school, moving all the sh*t I own from three different places to my new living abode and unpacking it all, and recording a cover song for an upcoming movie called "Sweet Home Alabama" with the rest of the boys, and realizing I just wrote what my English teacher in high school would say is "a run on sentence that is the reason you, Alex, get D's in my class". I really hope they end up using this song we recorded cause it is f*cking hilarious. Have any of you heard of an old hillbilly song called "Keep Your Hands To Yourself"? Well, lets just say there's yodeling in it and a line that talks about milking cows. Probably the last song on the planet you'd ever hear The Calling cover but it's all about the bejamins baby...and the comedy of course. You can catch Nate on drums as well as bass cause Billy was out to lunch. Anyway, back to the auditioning world. Dino's the man, that's all I can say. I can also say Dino is our new guitar player for those of you who don't know yet. He's been totally exceeding our expectations every show and I'm glad he's part of the team. He's turning Aaron into a vegetarian freak though which makes finding edible food on the road next to impossible for them. I'll be eating a burger and Aaron's like "that's horrible for you, they slaughter the cows laying in a bed of their own sh*t"...mmmmm. Next I was eating chicken at dinner and he's like "the FDA says that eating today's chicken is like letting it marinate in the toilette for a day first"...YUM! But what's this now? I'm eating ice-cream and he's like "so and so says all dairy is really bad for you and shouldn't be eaten if you want to stay alive"...I love Aaron, different strokes for different folks. I love bacon too, like on a daily basis, so I'm already on the road to destruction. So getting back to those crazy break days, we left right in the middle of the two weeks as a four piece for the longest shortest European trip ever. We didn't have a guitar player lined up in time for these two 100,000+ audience shows so we decided to do it stripped down with me playing guitar. We left early morning Friday, flew 15 hours with a 3 hour layover in London to Denmark, drove straight 2 hours, played a huge festival, drove back, slept 3 hours, flew 4 hours to London, did a day insanely full of press and played a show for our biggest crowd ever, got on a plane and flew 12 hours back home...barf...that's all I can say about the traveling aspect of that weekend. Now, the excitement, the rush, and the sense of real accomplishment those two days brought me are incomparable. Denmark's show for technical reasons was one the hardest things I've ever had to do. It was like all my sh*t I relied on just decide to take a vacation and I couldn't hear sh*t for most of the show which made me sing or should a say not sing a song or two while the band played them. Although a mess, it was a rock show and the crowd loved it, so whatever...it's just a long way to go for everything to go wrong in those 45 minutes in stage. Denmark fans, we are forever yours, you waited at the airport from 4am on for two days to witness our arrival and departure and shower us with gifts. This one girl even told me she just had a kid last week and named it "Alex Billy" after her two favorite Calling members...wow, scary, but wow. Our kick ass BMG crew for the UK greeted us with gold record plaques for outstanding record sales and a #2 single debut over there. That really is a big accomplishment for me and honestly made me cry. I mean every amazing band I worship and grew up listening to originated there, barely no American artists can ever break into that music scene, and we stand out there as a real band in a radio world totally run by boy bands and pop idol filth. So when I walk out onto that stage in front of 100k plus with millions watching on TV while Aaron started to pick "Wherever You Will Go" the intensity of the people in that amazingly beautiful country was breathtaking. Celebration had to be carried out and who better to do it with then my boys. Aaron and Billy thought it was a good idea to wear only their prestigious robes from the swank hotel we were staying at to our fancy dinner feast that night with their gold records under their arms! You should have seen the looks on the faces of the people eating in that really nice restaurant with Aaron's big hairy chest hanging out and his shiny gold collection of proudly displayed Jewish star necklaces! What's the fun of life if you can't be silly once in a while? I thought the "exotic fruit" desert sounded interesting, boy was I way off. I swear this plate came full of some of the weirdest fruits from the most remote places of the earth that I had never heard of or seen before in my life. So after a little drinking and a good meal we each took turns passing around every different piece of fruit and tasting them. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. They were each uniquely completely the most foul disgusting strange colored things I've ever eaten. So I was the first and would be like "Nate, it's not that bad try it" and right when he would take a big ol' bite out of what looked like an ultraviolet pod person from mars fruit I would spit all mine out. Billy like embraced it and by the end would stuff the entire piece of fruit in his mouth, turn green, and practically puke it onto the table with laughter and disgust. Needless to say the waiters were happy to see us children pay the check and leave. Right when we walked out of the restaurant to walk down the street to our hotel, that "tiny" crowd we played for earlier were letting out in massive groups coming right towards us. As soon as the chickadees got a look at us in our robes it was pandemonium. We were running down the street with hundreds of them chasing after us while Aaron and Billy were trying to keep their robes from falling off mid dash. We just made it into the hotel lobby which had security to keep them out but the whole face of the lobby was all glass except for a little hiding spot we ducked behind. So quickly word got out that we were in there and hundreds of people were up against the glass fogging it up with their "Calling! Calling!" chants. So unable to sign for them all in fear of being ripped apart, Aaron and Billy did the next best thing...they took turns running out into sight of the mob and flinging open their robes flashing them all! Going back and forth on half naked piggyback rides all for 2 second jumps in front of the glass each time allotting a giant roar and scream from the masses! It was good fun. I was like "can I please go sign for them?", and my tour manager just laughed and said I was nuts. Did I mention when we received our gold plaques there was one engraved to "The new guitar player" and in parenthesis it said "even though you haven't done much yet". I thought that was pretty amusing. So our work was done and it was time to go home. Jack Black the comedian/musician/actor (known for his group "Tenacious D") was on our flight home and being a fan and all I decided not to be a big pu*sy this time and talk to a celeb. He was really cool and said..."hey aren't you the guys I saw in my hotel lobby yesterday flashing hundreds of your own fans" and proudly I said yes. We were home again for what seemed like two days...well it was two days, but anyway we rehearsed the whole time with Dino and got ready to embark on this here tour. Our first few shows were all outdoor fair type dates that started in the small town of Clio, Michigan. It was a little nerve racking for us and Dino since it was our first show with him and all, but he's got big vegetarian balls and went out there and rocked. A really sweet fan who's an aspiring musician sent us the most amazing gifts. They were personalized jackets that were hand painted and came in this giant box. Thank you so much for those and all your sweet words. Nate wore his on stage that night. Peoria, IL and Lansing, MI were both a lot of fun. It was nice to go back to Cincinnati and play Bogarts as a headlining band. I received by far the weirdest fan gift that night. An aspiring porn author wrote multiple dirty stories all starring me! The scarier thing was that she was a really good writer, but I was how you say a little taken back. Well, we finally made it to Cleveland the next day! After what, like two or three cancellations? Thanks guys for not hating us and still showing up and giving us support! I almost died on stage from how frikkin' hot it was that night. My pants were literally sliding off me. That was by far the hottest show I've ever played. Our bus's generator broke that night and we had to drive all night in the complete darkness with no power whatsoever....no playstation! Oh it was sad. It was on to another stop in Ohio at a little town called Bucyrus. Now here's where things got interesting. A huge storm all the sudden broke through right when we were pulling into town and a van smashed right into the bus flinging all us skinny little bi*ches around like hockey pucks. Luckily nobody was hurt too bad, but it reminded me of fall last year when our bus driver drove into a tunnel that was too low at full speed sandwiching our bus and causing a three car pileup. Ah, good times. All the locals started coming out of their little stores surveying this very untypical scene in the middle of their main intersection. The weather died down and we headed into the fair. Right when we were entering there was this huge hand drawn sign that said "Tonight THE CALLING from Los Angeles!"and there was this horrible drawing of me with my shirt totally unbuttoned exposing a really overgrown hairy chest! I was like what the hell? They obviously aren't too familiar with me! Because of the rain there was major mud like everywhere that day so we thought it was a good time to break out our baseball bat and tennis balls to play. I got so insanely muddy and after my first pitch Aaron hit the ball right at me by mistake and hit the crap out of my arm throwing me to the ground...that ended that. Later that night the guys got racing pig hats and wore them on stage. Billy had to sacrifice not wearing his hunting hat he hadn't taken off since he bought it a week before at a truck stop. I took off to Milwaukee, Wisconsin next with a crashed up, no power bus, and a big muddy bruised arm, but in good spirits. Almost a year ago now, which is amazing to think how time has flown by, we started our first big tour in Milwaukee with LifeHouse and Michelle Branch on September 10th. All my memories of the tragedies of the 11th took place right there in Milwaukee during the 4 days we were stuck in the hotel, so it felt strange going back to play The Rave. But now we could go there in a much better light and we played one of the best shows we've ever done. A really really great crowd took us over that night and will be locked in my memory forever. Some of our most dedicated group of fans that have been to so many shows gave me this HUGE banner that has little signed notes and messages all over it from fans across the US...F*cking awesome gift! Thank you guys! Yesterday's outdoor show takes the melting cake for the hottest experience of my life, way hotter than Cleveland...110 degrees to be precise. It was even too hot to wear a jacket, duh. The show was with LifeHouse of all bands which was strange knowing Sean was there, but all was good and we watched each other's shows from the side of the stage. I swear I thought I was going to drop dead 30 minutes into our set because of the stupid heat. At the last second of our closing song I literally dropped my mic, ran like hell back to our air conditioned bus while ripping my clothes off, pored water over my head, quickly punched in the code to our bus which is: ....I'm not giving you the combo! What do you think I'm nuts? O.K. O.K. I am, but no way! Anywho, I threw the door open and seriously fell to my hot sticky death on the still muddy tour bus floor. I laid there for an hour or two or three and well, here we are. So now your all up to date. This tour has been a blast so far and I'm excited to keep it going. We've got our third video shoot coming up for the next single which is going to be "Could it be Any Harder", so you'll hopefully start hearing it on the radio next month. I'm really excited about that! Well, I hope we win an award at the Teen Choice Awards...you guys did a great job voting no matter what happens so I owe you all big time. If you see Dino at a show, give him a hamburger. Until next time! ,Love, Peace, and signatures no matter how f*cking tired I am Alex Bandinski --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 12, 2002 Hey Peeps! I wanted you guys to be the first to know that we found a new guitar player, finally! It was not an easy task, let me tell ya. In-between the 50+ who tried out, we even had a fan fly in from afar to audition and he really impressed us, but just wasn't the one. Anyway, the new guitarists name is Dino and some of you might remember him from Laura Dawn's band. He's a great guy and a bad-ass guitar player. He, unfortunately, will probably be able to play with us for this next US tour only, but let's all show him love and treat him like he's part of the team. We've been working our butts off as usual and are extremely anticipating getting out there and playing for you all... and we'll finally play Cleveland, YAY! Anyway, I got a good tour diary in the works and am constantly living up more crazy sh*t to write about, so I'll get that to you all soon. Hope you're all well and keep voting for the Teen Choice Awards if you have a chance. See you soon! Always naked, aLeX BaNd and the Boys --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 27, 2002 It's been too long! Sorry I haven't written in a million years, but man has sh*t been completely nuts. Well, we all know Sean's gone, which is bizarre news... I'll get back to that later. I'm on a plane right now flying home from Paris, wondering... would they let you bring a parachute on board with you? I mean I know no knives, guns, etc. allowed, but, for some stupid reason, I would feel safer in a plane with a parachute in my carry-on. I mean, when was the last time that big pathetic life vest you blow through the little yellow tubes saved any lives in a plane crash? Granted if you jumped out of a plane falling a thousand miles an hour, you would probably be ripped apart by the pressure before you could even try to breathe the oxygen that isn't there or freeze to death first... But, couldn't you hold your breath until you've fallen to a level where there is air, then pull the rip cord just in time to safely land in the middle of the Atlantic and try not to get eaten by hammer head sharks and giant squid the size of oil tankers, while you doggie paddle your way back to good old America? Lots of time, lots of retarded thoughts. No matter how many times I've flown, there's still a sigh of relief and appreciation of life after you land. Anyway, I just pretty much adjusted to the time change in Europe after a week and now I'm coming back home! Wow... how scary do you look in the dead orange lighting of the airplane bathroom after sleeping on a fork and drinking to much complementary champagne? So how did we get this point... Well, we last left off mid-radio tour in the States when things still felt oddly normal. There has definitely been some high highs and some low lows. Let's start with a high. After some great radio shows and two sunny days off in Florida, it was the night before my 21st birthday and we were an hour away from going on in Miami. I was just warming up and doing all my pre-performance rituals when the radio station announces to me that Steven Tyler from Aerosmith is on his way in to our dressing room! Huh? To make a long story short he's a fan of our music and it was my birthday surprise. Aaron and the band knew about this all day and had rehearsed and learned "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith and we were going to perform it at the closing of the show with frickin' Steven Tyler... I was going to sing one of the coolest songs ever written, with one of my biggest idols ever, for 15 thousand people, in, like, less than thirty minutes!... FUCK! I have absolutely NO clue what any of the words are for that song! I mean I've heard it a million times, I've grown up with it... "Hey kiddie shmiddy... blah dah feet flying up in the air... me she's foolin... I knows you poolin? something something... Walk This Way!" I got that part! As my heart starts pounding I realize: How am I going to learn all these words with no CD in, like, a few minutes. .1 What a complete moron I'm going to seem to him when I have to say... "I'm your biggest fan... this is amazing... I can't wait to sing it with you... heh heh heh, I don't know the words!" .2 Anyway, as the nervous sweat beaded off my palms, in walked Mr. Tyler. Immediately he took over the whole room and eased everyone's racing minds by being, seriously, one of the coolest, most down-to-earth people I've ever met. After we talked about lots and lots of stuff and I asked all the questions I've always wanted to know, I had to tell him I had a little problem. He right away said "Hey man, you think I know the words to my songs? I have monitors at every show with all the songs so I can see them for myself!" So, he wrote me a verse to sing with him and we both were casually glancing down at it taped to the stage by our feet. The performance was an incredible rush and he even sang a little Happy Birthday to me! This was by far the most amazing experience I will never forget. Thank you thank you thank you to Steven Tyler for liking our music and doing that for me and to Y100 FM for putting it all together. It made the stroke of midnight on what was now my 21st birthday really start off with a bang. So that's my little story about that. The next day, on my actual birthday, we flew to Dallas, Texas to headline a big show. I got so many cool gifts from you guys around my Bday. I especially liked the collages, mini-Ferraris, and silly attempts to actually give money to the Ferrari fund! You guys are nuts! This one girl gave me a huge envelope full of E-mail's you all sent me with BDay wishes! I sat there for like two hours and read every one of them. Thank you guys! You're so sweet! That same girl even made a South Park drawing of the band which was so freaking hysterical! The show was fun and the band stopped in the middle of "Could It Be Any Harder" to bring out a cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to me, which seems like a tradition in The Calling these days. :) That night, before I passed out from exhaustion, Sean decided to completely, randomly announce his departure from our band and told us he was going to play with LifeHouse. This really came out of nowhere and I was shocked he told me on my Bday and shocked he was only giving us a week's notice. I will admit I was upset, but, like I wrote in that little letter I sent you guys, there are no bad vibes and we love Sean and we were really sad to see him go. I don't hold it against him in any way, it just makes my life harder. To clear things up to you guys and Lifehouse fans: when I said that Lifehouse was a band I once respected, I meant that exactly how it sounded. What sort of people would offer and take a member of our band away from us to better themselves? Yes, it was Sean's decision to go, but there should never have been an offer in the first place. I like Jason, the rest of the guys, and their great music and I apologize if I offended anyone, but I'm sure you can see where I'm coming from. Also, contrary to what some of you might think, we are a band, just as much as Lifehouse, no different in structure... Yes, Aaron and I write the music, as does only two members from Lifehouse sometimes, but that doesn't stop us from being best friends, heading towards the same dreams and goals, completely unified. Our management does not control anything pertaining to the inner workings of this band, we do. So the girl who calls herself "Emily" on our forum can chill out. You have no clue what you're talking about. Stop contaminating our FORUM! You are the weakest link, Good-bye! So, case closed, and we move on. The rest of our little radio tour went off without a hitch and Sean was super-cool, finishing all our US shows with us. Even though we all knew what would happen in a few days, Sean and us were all professional and really enjoyed every minute until the end. His last show with us was in Modesto, California and we had a blast. You did good Sean. My Grandfather passed away out of nowhere that same day, so it was a lot to handle. The words and emotions in our songs take on a lot of meaning when something like that happens and I know a lot of you have experienced the same. One of the greatest thing in my life is to hear of our fans' hardships and know they rose above them with the help of our music. With everything going on in the world right now and most of us living in fear of just leading our daily lives, I always take a second and realize how lucky we all are and we need to love everyday to it's fullest. Honestly I was a little scared going to Europe next, but I had my partners, my friends. We left the next day as a foursome to conquer France, Spain and England on what was, luckily, what I like to call a full bullsh*t tour. Lots of talking, lots of photos, and lots of European TV shows that won't let you really play. So, we were able to pull it off just fine. No Doubt was on our long flight over to Madrid. I'm such a pussy cause, literally the whole flight, I wanted to go up to Gwen and introduce myself, tell her what a big fan I am and how much we love their music. But no, I suck. I had, like, a thousand-and-one chances to do it, too. There goes my philosophy. I've really been wanting to go to Spain for a long time, so it was exciting to be there even if it was only for two days. I like to go somewhere new and beautiful and try to win people over... It's a challenge and it's like starting over again in every new country we go to. It was good to go back to London where we now had some great fans to support us. The head of our street team there in London and her friends were really nice and showed us support even at all the cheesy TV shows where we had to play along to a track. Nothing rock-and-roll about that. That's one thing I love about America... TV is a little more real with bands. What you see is what you get. But not in Europe. Billy likes to plug his bass directly into Aaron's guitar for those things, which adds a nice touch. And don't even ask what Nate's doing back there, secretly playing his double-kick drum patterns, Slayer-style, along to "Wherever You Will Go". You know, what was really cool, was at "Top of The Pops," we got to see Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin, perform some new songs. I've been a huge fan of Zeppelin since I was born and my Daddio used to blast it in the house. You could just hear the history of all the drugs and sex and drugs and drugs in his voice... Man, what an incredible life he's had. Aaron and I luckily got to play a few songs acoustically for Capitol radio there with some winners, too. The DJ kicks ass and, when he told me he had a new Ferrari, I was like, "you bitch!" So later on he gave me a model one that he signed "dreams." Thanks man! It turned out the Sultan of Brunei (one of the richest men in the world) has a teenage son who's a fan of ours and had flown all the way from the little Island of Brunei to see our acoustic set (and to buy some clothes cause he's definitely into fashion, the way he was all dressed up "bad ass"). It was funny cause he rolled up in, like, a bullet proof Mercedes cars with at least five big bodyguards and had this whole royalty thing down like he was right from the movie "Coming To America" (if you've never seen it, rent it, Eddie Murphy at his best). But, he was a super cool guy. So if you read this, dude, thanks for coming so far to see us and I hope we can play for you and your sister some time with the whole band. Rock on! It's really strange to think our song is playing literally everywhere now. I get such a kick out of seeing all the fans on this website from so many different places. Could this get any better? So we did our work in good old England and headed over to Paris, France! In all the many times I have traveled to Italy and all over Europe growing up, I never got to see Paris. My grandfather, who, as I mentioned, just passed away, was born and raised there so it was really moving to see it now. I'm definitely in love. Hands down, for my taste, the most gorgeous city in the world, by far. We actually had a day off there but I was so burnt by then, I slept till 3 PM. I didn't want to experience Paris for the first time without my girlfriend (and she'd kill me if I did!), so I'm saving it. I did see a lot of the city while we were driving around all day doing press and that was enough for me to fall in love. Wow, and the food kicked serious ass! I got Billy and Nate to try caviar for the first time which was funny and I swear all we did was silently grunt in approval for hours at the dinners. I'm a big fan of the "Moulin Rouge" movie so it was weird to see the real thing as it is today. We even got to see a sex museum with some of the most twisted and surprisingly artful things dating from hundreds of years ago to the present. Our hotel, as stunning as it was, was a little creepy cause we were right next to, literally attached to, the American Embassy. These days, with all the horrible bombings and hatred towards our country going on, I was a little hesitant staying there even though there were tons of cops in full-body armor patrolling the area and all the streets were closed off. God, if I hear about one more f*cking idiot ending his own life and killing tons of innocent people, I'm going to scream! What the hell is wrong with these people? I pray that things in Palestine and Israel can be changed for the better. We've got it pretty good in the USA. So I'm here, still on the plane. I've watched the same crap movies like three times, choked on the dry roasted peanuts, spilled cranberry juice on myself and now I'm contemplating if gas masks are legal carry on. When I was a little kid, once on a flight to Europe with my family, I spilled milk, a lot of milk, all over myself. So my Mom said she'd hang up all my clothes and underwear in the airplane windows to dry. So I put a blanket over me and chilled there naked for the last few hours. As I fell asleep, a stewardess was coming by checking everyone for seat belts for landing and when she got to me she yanked my little blanket off to check. Aaah! That was a wake up I'll never forget. So anyway, now it's home! Home is good for a change. Although our little break will be full of auditions and rehearsals, it will still be nice to go home. We're heading back overseas the first week of July for like three days and then I bet you can't guess what we're doing for the summer? Hmmm, maybe... touring some more! This time with a new teammate, a new song, and maybe a cover or two. You guys keep it real for us. You're the driving force behind The Calling. Thanks for sitting through this pathetically long diary entry... Uh, I'm sick of myself by now. Go check out the teen choice awards website and vote for us! That would be so cool to win an award... I know who I'd thank first. ;) Your Fearless Leader, Alex Band --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 3, 2002 Greetings children! Sorry I haven't written in a while. So, where did we leave off? Ah yes, coming home to our break. The last few days of our overseas tour were spent in Italy shooting "Music In High Places" for MTV and Direct TV. It aired last Friday and will rerun a lot. It really turned out great, I was proud of us boys. They shot it all on High definition windscreen cameras which weighed like a hundred pounds. You should have seen the camera men trying to chase us around on scooters and horse and buggy rides running all over cities like Florence and Sienna. I never thought in a million years that we would show up in a remote little city like Sienna and be bombarded with fans! Throughout the three days we got to play a bunch of songs acoustic for hundreds of people in some of the most beautiful settings in the world. Unfortunately, by that time, the band and I were barely alive. We were all running on fumes the last day. Luckily we got to go back to my parent's place outside of Rome for the last locations. I guess they couldn't rent us scooters so they bribed some local kids to let us destroy theirs...Thanks guys! Man you should have seen us. All that pent up need for speed after two moths of driving nothing. Sean was doing peel outs, I was doing pop wheelies, and Billy kept jumping off and running along side his bike like Mission Impossible 2. If you didn't catch the show I strongly suggest getting your hands on it...They did an amazing job putting it together. As expected our short break was slowly getting eaten away at by more gigs. Literally 12 hours after we got home, Aaron and I and our ladies got invited to Skywalker Ranch for the premier of Star Wars! Even though I could barely stand up with exhaustion, how could I pass that up?! We flew yet again up to San Francisco and enjoyed the festivities. The movie was way better than the last piece of $%^#@ they called Star Wars. I'm sure you've all seen it by now. Carson and the TRL gang were there along with lots of celebrities. We got a tour of the offices. It was funny seeing where these people work, really hard conditions: A mansion on thousands of acres, vineyards, lagoons, deer prancing through the fields, not too shabby. The following days I slept like the whole time trying to recuperate. We got to do Jay Leno again which was cool. We found out we were doing it at like the last minute, but that's how my life is. Aaron though it was a good time to debut his afro on national television...anyone see it? How could you miss that heed, it's like a watermelon on a toothpick. After he reads this he's going to cry himself to sleep on his big pillow (a little Mike Myers humor). Anyway, the rest of our time off was good. Aaron and I saw lots of movies, spent time with our families and girlfriends while the rest of the band...played music? Sean sleeps spooning with his guitar mumbling "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston. Well, maybe not, but you get the point. Of course the last three days of my precious time off was spent sick as a dog with the flu. It's funny, it only really happens when my life slows down and I actually have the time to get sick. I spent most of my time at home driving all over doing errands and stuff always listening to the radio in the hopes I'll hear "Adrienne" for the first time on the radio. It went on and on for two weeks with nothing. I swear if I heard Venessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" one more time I was going to puke (It's a great song the first 46,576 times). Finally, on the last day of the break, I was in the car going down into an underground parking lot listening to Star radio as usual when they said "Here's The Calling's new hit Adrienne"! I was all like Yah #$%*ers play it! But it started to break up cause I was going too far down and there were like 20 cars behind me in a line to park all honking their horns cause I couldn't turn around so I just stopped. "Go #$%^ head! What's your problem buddy!" I said "You don't understand, I have to listen to this song, this is important." One guy a few cars back screamed "f*ck your song!" Anyway to make a long story short I sat there for 4 minutes and 5 seconds making everyone behind me tune their radios to Star and listen to Adrienne...it was a bonding experience. The band and I packed our bags and embarked on yet another tour that started in Orlando Florida...Disneyland! Where the best ride is the ride home (just kidding, I love Disneyland). We played the Hard Rock and we were greeted back to this world with a great crowd full of you guys! The next day was truly a once in a lifetime experience. We played Atlanta's Centennial park for 100,000 people. We were part of a great radio show with India Arie and John Mayer. I can't explain the rush and the feeling you get walking onto a stage with that many people staring back at you. I was just trying not to trip and fall on my face cause I almost did that the other day and now I'm going to have a complex. We just played a show with Alanis Morisette and she did the same so I don't feel as stupid. Tripping aside, her performance was incredible and I keep having to pinch myself and realize how amazing it is that we're playing shows with these huge bands. We did this Fox show that was called "Teenapalooza" or something. We met Craig David, he was really nice and just overhearing his vocal warm up you could tell how bad ass his singing was. We got to hang with good old Regis and Kelly again on their show in New York. They actually let us play two songs which was a first for that show. They only let bands play 2 minutes and 30 seconds of their song which is a minute shorter than practically every song in history. So we were flattered. I think they even canned Rupert Everet's appearance to yap to us which was really sweet of them. We're playing a show at an all girls catholic school graduation today...so hard my life is. I heard the "Adrienne" video wasn't on TRL last Thursday. You guys have done a fantastic job so don't be down about it. Let's just keep up the good work and try and get it back on. I know I'll be calling. The other day a fan named Shawna gave us an amazing collage of hundreds of pictures from our last US and over seas tour. An amazing gift that we will treasure forever. Thank you, all of you for all your love. Until next time. ,Much love Alex and the gang --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 10, 2002 Life is crazy. I say that a lot, but now I really mean it. I'm sitting here in the eleventh country I've been to the last month. It's kind of wrong to say I've even traveled to some of these places because I never stopped working the whole time I was there. Everything I pick up about a place is through the people I meet and the car window I look out. I will admit that places are starting to blend together sometimes. I forget where I am. I wake up in the middle of the night completely disoriented with my surroundings, tripping over my luggage for the fifty-millionth time. I live out of three bags, granted they could each fit a whole person. That's not too bad for over a month and a half of travel. I just wish I didn't have to lug them around myself. I'm a little dude. It's not all glamorous and easy doing what we do. A lot goes into it and I don't think people get that when they see a band on MTV or something. The work load is unimaginable but the rewards are incomparable. I think last time I left off in Australia, after the electrocution and Karaoke. I felt the most at home in Australia, especially Sydney. Did you know Australia was originally inhabited by criminals, that it was a place England would send their delinquents? You can kind of get that feeling from the locals. All the guys were like twice the size of me and all buff. I'm exaggerating, but that's O.K. The people there were the nicest and most intelligent we've encountered. Being an uneducated American, I was assuming there would be Koala's hanging from the lamp posts, kangaroos jumping down the city streets, and aborigines living in the parks. Surprisingly none of that, but the parks were over run with possums that were really aggressive. Aaron was telling me he took a nice walk through the park with his girlfriend at night and all of the sudden they were surrounded by creepy furry animals. There little eyes poking out up in the trees and stuff...like hundreds of them. The possums chased them out of the park. I thought that was pretty funny. It was so beautiful there. The weather was great and I can't forget to mention Bondi beach. You should have seen the look on the band's faces when there were like hundreds of half naked women just lying around. They were like children in a candy store...but without any money. Billy and I got to check out the local zoo in Sydney which was cool. I'm a huge animal lover. Did I mention we ate kangaroo? I know that doesn't make sense but how often can you try that? It sucked. The shows went great in Australia and I can't wait to go back and see what kind of progress we've made. I recently heard our single is number one there! The flight to Vienna, Austria was ridiculously too long. 22 hours of flying with a two hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. When we landed there the stewardess said over the loudspeaker "We'd like to welcome you to Malaysia, but if you're caught with any drugs on you, you will be killed immediately." Lovely. It's times like those I'm glad we're a drug free band. Anyway, Vienna definitely is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. Like the other stops on the tour we had people from all of the surrounding countries such as Hungary interviewing us. The place we played there was the smallest and weirdest of the tour. I think it use to be a car garage because my mike stand was made out of an old tire rim and a pressure gage...what the hell? It was really funny cause my scrawny ass couldn't even lift it. Putting all aside, the show was still victorious. We headed onward to Milan, Italy next. It was one whirlwind day completely packed with press and radio...no show though. We got there and drove to the main Cathedral area in the middle of town. Right when we got of the car, a plane came over head and crashed into a huge building. It was so unexpected. It just brought back horrible resemblance's to what our country went through recently. Although it was very unfortunate for the few people who died, I was relieved to hear it wasn't terrorist related or some commercial jet filled with lots of people. It was just so weird that we were there at that moment in time. Later on we went to some rock station and Aaron and I were pulling out all the Italian we knew. Most of it was really bad things though. The DJ was like "go ahead, it's O.K. to say that stuff here". She was eating her words after some of the things that came out of our mouths. We must have sounded like such creepy perverts on the radio. After driving around I was upset with how much graffiti I saw in Milan. On like every single historic building there was just mad amounts of graffiti. I don't get why people would do that. Anyway, we finally made our way after a month of straight work to our weekend off. I've spent much of my life in Italy. My Dad and Mom grew up there and my family has a pad just outside of Rome that we've been going to my whole life. Aaron and I have traveled there a few times in all those years of not making a record bullshit. It was exciting to go there with the whole band and crew. We pretty much just sat on our asses, drank wine and ate pasta all day long. I was sad to leave but we had to get back to work in Amsterdam! It's a strange thing to go from Malaysia where you'll be killed if found with drugs, to a place where they're all legal along with practically everything else. I must say I was bummed I never got a chance to see the red light district the whole time we were there. The rest of the boys did. I mean, I would just be window shopping of course. That's just not something you see everyday...even in Los Angeles. The promo show in Amsterdam was cool. We actually opened for a popular band there called "Kane". They were really cool guys, a good band too. You should check them out if you get a chance. Germany was the next stop for The Calling. We knew going into it that the Germans were going to put us to work for those few days. We had more pictures taken of us there than in every other country combined. Our face hurt from smiling so much...come on Alex, give me a smile..just a little smile smile smiley...NO! AAAAAH! We did "Top of The Pops" which is a famous music show over there. It's mandatory to play to a track of your song at most of the shows in Europe. This is a screwed up thing for us musicians, to get into it if your not frikkin really playing it. At least I can really sing but that's it. Sean decided he would play this show to millions with his guitar strap set to like the highest setting so his guitar was right underneath his chin. It was really funny looking. Nate changed all his drums to lefty and made all the symbols on his drums like 10 feet high. He had black eyeliner on and a big fake tattoo on his forehead! He had to like reach and jump out of his seat to play the songs. And Aaron wore a skirt! I got to get a copy of that tape to go with the memories. Even funnier was the next day when we did another big music show and Sean debuted his "Viking look". He found this big creepy brown furry rug and taped it around his shoulders. I don't think he wore a shirt either which made it even more ridiculous. Norway went really great. I'm running out of adjectives. I need to go back to school. Norway reminded me a lot of Canada. The people there were very accommodating. It was a little cold for us Hollywood sunshine boys. Sweden was awesome. It's so beautiful with a charm that's hard to explain. I like their architecture and the way their furniture is so simple and straight. Aaron and I had this one interview for a kid's show and the interviewer brought us some Swedish foods. I love gummy candies, so when she busted out the licorice I was excited until I put it in my mouth. They're HEAVILY covered in salt...to the point it makes you gag. What's that all about? Anyway, that was a lovely treat compared to what we were given next. I was handed a blue toothpaste like tube with a picture of a friendly boy smiling on it eating a piece of toast. She said "we put this stuff on our eggs or just squirt it right in our mouths". So I just squeezed a little out and, oh my god...come on...I swear it smelled like a rotting fish that someone left in their sweaty shoe in the garbage that hasn't been taken out because it's full of your little brother's dirty diapers. It was "caviar" or fish eggs made into a paste. Don't get me wrong, I really loved Sweden, but that was sick and this is coming from a guy who's eaten tongue, raw liver, frogs legs, kangaroo and beef sushi in the last month and a half. The smell was so potent that I though I should carry a travel size toothpaste tube of the stuff in my "man purse" to let others smell it. I went up to our BMG local, Marcus, who despises fish and was like, "dude smell this beautiful thing". Because I'm a little shit, when he smelled it I pushed it onto his nose. He started dancing around the room gagging and like spitting...it was all good fun though, honest. Now looking back at the whole tour I can safely say our show in Sweden was the best. The fans there were fucking amazing and it was way too hot with lots of people drinking lots of booze...rock and roll. I was surprised to see so many of them singing along figuring the record had only been out a week. It was so frikkin hot that everyone else in the band took their shirts off except Nate thought he should just wear his underwear. When we switched instruments Nate put a banana in his boxers and stood front and center to shred on the guitar. It was a blast. The following day we arrived in Denmark. It was a great feeling being greeted by all these female fans bearing gifts and flowers and cameras that want to take pictures of you even though you look like crap cause you've been on plane all day and haven't slept in 24 hours. A little Danish I learned "Jeg elsker danske piger"! That one's for the ladies. Wake up. O.k....proceeding on with the Danish. I had to eat a Danish pastry while I was there and it went down in the books as the best I've ever had. I mean it was no fish paste but... We played at a little club but it still was a kick ass show. Our dressing room was like three times the size as the club along the lines of the presidential suite at the Plaza. I got to play mini Bono cause the stage had a little cat walk that went out into the audience. At the closing song we all took turns walking down, it was fun. London was our final stop or so we thought. I haven't had Starbucks in a month and a half so that was London's first gift to me. Honestly since every band I am obsessed with is from England I was the most nervous being there. I wanted to make the right impression. Of course this was a good time to get sick like I did, but I survived. Our show actually went damn good and the crowd was way more into it then I thought they'd be. I was really happy the way it turned out. I had been to London before when I was very young but this time I could really appreciate its beauty. We made our driver keep circling around the famous round about while we would say "look kids...Big Ben, Parliament..." over and over. I even got to see a really good play with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. Before our last day Aaron got our make up lady to give him an afro for all the London TV press. His head is huge now. I started calling him Colt Forty Feinberg. On our last day we did this one long interview that wanted us to cook breakfast while answering questions. If you can't picture Aaron with a huge afro in a kitchen cooking very bad French toast with me as his helper...you're not alone. We put cocoa and cookies and multivitamins and chicken seasonings in our "eggy bread" and stunk up the whole building...wonderful fun it was! So now we're in Italy for just an added few more days shooting a show for MTV in the states. We're appreciating life a lot more after the scariest plane flight I've ever had. We were coming in from London through some bad weather on a beat to shit plane I called the "dirty bird". Mid flight all hell broke loose and we were free falling so bad that I was completely raised out of my seat a few times. It's good to be alive and looking back on this tour I can say that with a smile across my face. It's once again going to be nice to go home and rest a while knowing all the hard work we just did is really paying off. It's weird to think I've completely circled the world, traveled 25 thousand miles, visited 11 countries, and completely filled up my once virginized passport to maximum capacity in a month and a half. Thank you everyone around the world for all your support, dedication to the band, coming to the shows and giving us love we could have only dreamt of. We'll be returning to you all shortly after we spent some quality time in our home and with our OG fans in America. All of you who helped make the "Adrienne" video have such a great first week, rock on! I almost died when I heard it was #2 after only one day or something. Keep up the good work. This one's going to number one. All the love! See you soon! ,Love Alex --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4/8/02 All I can say is I F%@#ing love my job. Alex here writing to you from believe it or not, Bangkok, Thailand! I got to say I was a little nervous about leaving our home country and family of fans to embark on this over seas mission, but all I can do now is keep pinching myself and realizing it's all real. To be on the other side of the earth almost a day ahead of my world in places I though I would never see in my lifetime and have thousands of people know who I am already is hard to comprehend. I've almost felt like we've been in an entirely different universe; between strange languages, excelled technology, totally different cultures, and not to mention crazy jetlag and the more than occasional sake/beer. I have fallen in love with Japan, and Thailand is not far behind. It's really a spectacular place. It's 100 degrees here now with 90% humidity. Almost unbearable to even stand near a window. They're all fogged up with condensation. It really feels like being in a rainforest. Totally different from a place like Florida, maybe more like Mexico. I'm going to briefly describe my last two days here in Bangkok while they're fresh in my head and then I'll get back to Japan. We were greeted at one in the morning Tuesday night in the airport by at least a hundred screaming girls. These fans are more than a few steps ahead of what we're used to on the excitement level. I mean full out N Sync/The Beatles moment, with girls grabbing and pushing and pulling while 10 Thai bodyguards with in-ears and dark sunglasses formed a rectangular human wall around us. All the fans have pretty much followed us everywhere we go. Aaron just got here. He unfortunately had to miss Japan and the first day of Bangkok because his grandmother/best friend passed away. It's good to have him back. We luckily still managed last week in Japan. The fans there were pretty intense too, but not on the level of Bangkok. The band and I really loved Japan. It was so clean and organized, full of strange gadgets and mouth-watering food. There are vending machines like every 20 feet on the street and it's legal to walk around outside and drink alcohol. We didn't of course ;) Sean knew a little Japanese because he lived with a Japanese roommate...kind of an odd bird. His roommate refused to wash any dishes. He would line his dirty cereal bowls with plastic wrap and eat with plastic silverware. I thought that was pretty amusing. So Sean knew how to say, "The cheese is old and moldy" which really came in handy at the shows and the interviews. I learned a few key phrases to say to the fans when they were mobbing us like "I'm finished, leave me alone!" All in good fun though. The Japanese are very serious about their umbrella's so don't joke around. Not a single one would dare go outside in the rain without one. Every restaurant/Hotel/business had special lockers to keep your umbrella locked up safe not to mention the machine that would wrap them in plastic so no water dripped inside...it's genius! No wait, yes genius. It was sucky to play without Aaron for our first time to Japan but the shows still went fantastic thanks to the fans. There's nothing like seeing that Billy's sex appeal spans the globe and to hear Sean's name shrieked in a plethora of accents is lovely. We managed to make it to Karaoke one night, which was so much fun. They had our song so we all went up in front of the locals and sang it...bad. I think they were catching on that we might just be the band who really sings it. But we just kept singing it worse and worse. We followed that number up with Mariah Carry's "Hero" which was hilarious. I never knew Nate could hit such high notes. Then we sang Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer". Nate was singing it Linkin Park style (too much Asahi) which was not going over well with the Japanese Karaoke audience. A girl actually got up on stage and tried to take over in hopes of stopping our debauchery...no dice. I will never forget my days in Japan and I can't wait to go back. Tomorrow's our show here in Bangkok. I'm sure this crowd will be a wild one. Wow. Things were going so well, I should have realized that being in a rock band one of us would have to face a near death experience sooner or later. A pyro explosion? no. Choking on vomit (hopefuly your own)? no. How about getting really badly electrocuted? Now which one of us is the last person that should have to deal with something like that now? You guessed it, Aaron. I'm sitting here, Thursday night, in the hotel, keeping Aaron company while he gets off his electricity high. The day was going great until we got to sound check. The venue was huge and looked promising, but the rental gear like the transformer and stuff was a little old and beat up. I watched our tech as he was checking the microphones get shocked with a blue lightening bolt passing a few inched between him and Sean's mic. All ready for us? Whoopee! They covered our mics with foam right after Sean managed to get zapped. This actually is a somewhat normal occurrence at shows. It's usually solved by grounding all the gear but because of the different weird electricity it wasn't possible. Little did everyone know the whole stage was charged just waiting for a connecting bridge to the main gear. Aaron set down his electric guitar and picked up his acoustic and for that brief second he became that bridge. Physically unable to let go, he was electrocuted with 220 V instead of our meager American 120 V. Our guitar tech saved the day by unplugging Aaron's acoustic and pretty much throwing him to the ground. I've never seen anything like it. Me and the band were about to cry cause we thought Aaron was dead, but he wasn't, just badly hurt. We carried him out into another room cause the venue was already filled with press who had just seen what happened. Aaron was pale as ghost and had gotten the strings of the guitar melted in the palm of his hand and fingers. He was bleeding pretty bad. I obviously made the call to cancel the show because there was no way Aaron was going to be able to play and there was sure as hell no way I was going to go dancing around on a giant taser. We felt horrible for letting down the fans, but even worse for poor Aaron's luck. It was nobody’s fault, just a freak accident. I wish it would have happened to me which it almost did minutes before. Anyway, Aaron is O.K. His hands will heal in the next few days and henceforth he shall now be known as "Milk Toast"! I know it's wrong, but I'm just trying to make light of the subject. So I guess now word has spread all over the globe with reports of like ten different stories: "Aaron was electrocuted and is paralyzed or dead". Silly. We made the cover of the newspaper here in Thailand. Not an article about how great our show was, but how great it could have been. I promise, we will come back to Bangkok very soon and make it up to all the fans that missed out. Aaron and I send our love to all of you. Thank you again for your amazing hospitality and understanding. So now we just arrived in Melbourne, Australia! I don't know what day it is, what time it is, whether I should sleep or eat. Breakfast? Lunch? Major time zone crossing and 30 hours of flying so far and we're still alive, barely. Leaving Bangkok was anything but easy. When we left the hotel, we were immediately followed by at least ten taxi cars full of fans. We weren't that worried though, by then they were practically becoming part of our group. Aaron tried to show the young Thai fans that he was O.K. by mooning them as they drove by on the freeway. I'm sure the sight of his naked white ass showed them just that, or blinded them. One of the cars drove by with a sign in broken English that said "Oh nice buns, Alex, Billy, Nate, Sean, you turn". Hmmmm, do I want the last thing sticking in these wonderful people's minds being our very "mature" bottoms? I obviously chose to sit that one out. Well, take every time we've been in crazy mass fan situations and multiply them by 100. That's the level of what happened next. First of all it was like being on an African safari with the wild animals surrounding our car. I swear there were at least 200 people there just waiting to say good-bye. I like always was filming every second. I wish it wasn't so crazy so we could have stopped to sign for them all, but it was too out of hand and our fleet of Thai security weren't screwing around. We got so many loads of great gifts so far, even another brilliant book of fan letters from all over arranged and narrated by a sweet Thai girl. Thanks everyone for that. We also got a bunch of really nice boxing gloves which could come in handy the next time we all want to beat the @#$% out of each other. Bottom line? Thailand rocks and will be visited regularly. So the tour thus far has been a wild ride to say the least. Full of once in a lifetime experiences all caught on camera. I'm hoping to release the first year of The Calling DVD one day soon with all the behind the scene stuff and some live shows too. I'm sure you guys would love to see what really goes on all the time. I have so much priceless footage just waiting to be seen. So it's off to be a "media whore" for me. It feels nice to be back in a country that speaks English. I can't wait to come home, but first we still have Europe to conquer. Thanks so much for reading my silly tour diary entries. I'm glad there's a way I can keep you all up to date while we're gone. The band says hi and that there is bound to be much more crazy thing to write about in the next two weeks. !Thanks again! See you all soon Yo mama, Alex --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3/21/02 Hello hello! I'm sitting on the plane back to LA right now, wondering where all the time went. This tour was so exciting every second I feel like it flew by me. Man are we wrecked! I haven't slept in two days and I know the rest of the band was falling apart on these last days. Since I last left off we were on our way to Detroit Rock City. It was great to finally make it there after a few failed attempts in the past. The show went really good and then it was off to Canada "ay". It was our first time there too. Toronto was beautiful but I never got a second to breathe because of all the presswork Aaron and I had to do. We've had the number one single in Canada for the last month, so you can imagine the insane two days we had there. Instead of traveling to all the radio stations in Canada Aaron and I went to a studio and did 10 radio station interviews over the phone. It was early in the morning and Aaron and I were silly with sleep depravation. Each station at the end of their interview want us to say liners like "hey this is Alex & your listening to....blah blah blah". There was this one in particular that no sh#t took Aaron and I twenty-five minutes to say and it was only one sentence. It was something like "This is Alex and Aaron and your listening to The hairy wolf on Ragina's #1 station!" I know we're childish but a city named "Ragina"..."the hairy wolf"...too much to take at 8 AM. Aaron and I were laughing so hard we both started crying. It didn't help either when some of the DJ's were like "what's yer stury all aboot ay hoser?", but I know my native Los Angles "like oh my god" must have sounded far funnier to them. Canada in general including the awesome show was one of the biggest highlights for me on this tour. Everyone was so polite and the city was so clean and the venue called the Opera House was huge. The crowd was exceptional that night and the overall vibe took it all to a higher level. We were sad to go but it was then off to Brockport, NY. We were all complaining like pussies about the cold in Canada, but little did we know a little college in Brockport would be ZERO degrees and snowing. Hard. The show was fun but I was getting hypothermia running from the bus to the venue all day. Boston was a blast. The venue was smaller than most but packed way beyond capacity. That was an intense show. I always go to grab peoples hands while we're performing but this one girl had like a gorilla grip and wouldn't let go for like two minutes...I must admit I was a little scared. My wee little frail hand was all red and crushed. Anyway, then it was back to NY but this time the big apple, our second home. I think I've spent more time in NY City in the last 6 months then home. I'm not complaining though, I love NY. Some moron in our team of morons that run the show booked us in the smallest club ever in NY. Why you ask? It's cool right? An underground club that holds two hundred people. Two nights. Both sold out. The band and I were really nervous about those shows because of the size of the stage mainly. I couldn't even jump without hitting my head on the ceiling or turn around without the fear of slapping some band member in the balls (which did happen numerous times...yick). Besides the high energy level and the great crowd, the first night was a catastrophe. Aaron's amp blew up right before we walked on stage. Sean's pedal board kept falling apart making his guitar turn off. Every time I'd look back at Nate his seat and his drums were falling off the back of the stage which was pretty funny because it looked like he was a lazy low rider drummer slouching back. Just when I thought nothing else could go wrong, something happened that I hadn't even fathomed before in all my worries...we blew out the breaker in the club right in the middle of Could It Be Any Harder. The power in the whole place went out. It was a scary few minutes and very embarrassing. Luckily they fixed it quickly and we continued the show with only moderate problems. The following night in NY was amazing though. We felt more comfortable and secure that nothing more could possibly go wrong. The crowd was even better the second night and so was the show. Washington DC was great as usual. Definitely one of my favorite places to play. During the day Aaron and I did some radio things that included a drunken party of thousands at an event called "kegs and eggs". There had to be like two thousand beyond drunk people in this club complete with Mardi Gras beads and flashing. I never thought in a million years all these people would actually quiet down enough to hear Aaron and I play Wherever You Will Go and Adrienne acoustically. But I was surprised to find everyone singing along so loudly that I couldn't even hear my own guitar playing to keep in key or tempo. I got to keep some beads people threw at me without even having to show my manly breasts. The 9:30 club was a great venue to play and it was packed with excited fans and all the regulars that had been following us the whole tour. It's so cool to see familiar faces in the crowd every night. It always puts a smile on my face to see that some of you love our music so much that you would travel so far to see it. I'm always amazed at the dedication you guys show us. The final night of the tour was in Philly...the perfect place to end the ride. It was a kick ass night that never ended. I still haven't slept since Washington, DC. Well, I'm sad to be going home so soon but relieved I can get some rest. Next week we're going over seas to a bunch of countries for about a month and a half. We will be starting another bigger and better US tour in May. I'm for sure going to keep writing to you all when were on the other side of the world. I can only imagine what's in store for us over there. There will definitely be lots to write about. Thank you all so much for coming out to see us and showing your support on this tour. We had a blast. It will be weird not being around for the launch of "Adrienne", video and song, so make sure everything goes good O.K.? I'll talk to you guys soon! All our love! Alex and THE CALLING --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3/11/02 HELLO! Fans, friends, web surfers, lend me your eyes! Firstly, I want to begin by apologizing greatly for the cancellation of our Norfolk and Cleveland shows. Nothing gets to me more than the thought of not being able to meet and play for some of you. However, the reason for doing so was an important one. The band and I (along with some of you kick ass fans that came from all over) shot our second video for "Adrienne" in Los Angeles. It went amazing, but I will get back to that in a second. Wow, the past two weeks have flown by due to all the fun we're having. Since I talked to you last we've played all over the US. Starting in Minneapolis, definitely one of our favorite cities, it was so awesome to play The Quest and sell it out. We had just been there with Lifehouse as openers and now we get it all to ourselves. The show went good even though I was extremely sick that day and losing my voice! It was the most difficult show for me, but you guys really lifted me up and made me feel better. I guess it was good I got getting sick over with in the beginning of the tour. It was cool (literally) to be in a big city while it was snowing...growing up in LA I've never got to experience it. The following day was Chicago. I was so worried I wouldn't be able to sing that night. I was really hurting bad. A doctor came and supped me up with shots and steroids and antibiotics and some voodoo ginger shitty tasting tea. Well, amazingly enough it all worked and right before show time I was ready to go (yet I felt like I was floating on the moon). Chicago was frikkin great! The place we played had to be the coolest club we've ever performed in. It even had a disco ball that got rolling on Stigmatized! Good times. Anyway the next few days all went smoothly. In Indianapolis we celebrated Billy's 27th Birthday on stage. We brought him out a cake and I had the crowd sing. It was really funny. I wanted to get old Larr a stripper but they're hard to come by these days and I know his woman wouldn't approve :) When we closed the set that night with Adrienne, someone threw a "blow up sex doll" with Adrienne written all over it. So we all took turns beating it up and then sent it out to crowd surf over the audience. It was all in good fun though...I in no way support violence, but I think its O.K. on a rubber woman. Bottleneck Kansas was a treat for us because we got to, you guessed it, shop. It was a very chill town with a really sweet vibe. Then it was off to the big Texas. Both Dallas and Houston went fantastic...really beautiful people in those parts. Everyone was so nice it was almost scary. But what was up with the weather? Since when is Texas ridiculously cold? The weather has been unusual all over the country. New Orleans was next and boy is it a wild place. It was all of our first time experiencing Bourbon St. and the wild locals. I had some time to buy important souvenirs like Mardi Gras beads with a lady whose boobs light up as the pendant, and hot sauce called "red rectum"...lovely huh? It was Sean's 21st that night so we did the cake thing on stage again, but this time I asked this gorgeous girl to come on stage and sing happy birthday to him. She was pretty shy so I had to provoke the situation by taking her hand and stroking Sean's chest..."good Sean good". I can't believe I am now the only band member that isn't legal! My fake ID just isn't working anymore 'cause now club bouncers are like "hey, your that guy in that band right?... I didn't know your name was Skeezer Lickworth...and your 30, take a hike buddy!" Anyway, back to the tour. Next up was good old Birmingham Alabama, our #1 city. Next to our hometown, Alabama was our main starting ground. We played our first show ever outside of LA there last summer and their rock station was the first in the country to play Wherever You Will Go. Also you Birmingham fans are the original ones next to places like Spokane Washington and others (quick shout out to Shannon in Spokane...I got your "Calling Project" and love it! Thank you so much for putting in all that hard work and time. That is something I will keep for the rest of my life as a memento of these amazing times. Thank you also everyone else who sent in your letters to Shannon for the project). The more into it the fans are the more fun we have performing, so when coming to Birmingham we can always expect a good show...and it was. Atlanta was freezazazing! But beautiful as always. After the show we had to wake up at like 3 AM to catch a flight back home, but we really wanted to sign for all the fans that were patiently waiting outside the tour bus. We broke down when we heard them all start singing Wherever You Will Go and Could it be Any "Colder". We did our best to go out and sign before our Tour manager had to cut us off (if we didn't get to you I'm sorry. We will next time). Then it was off to a quick detour in Los Angeles. It was nice to see home for two days even though I barely had one-second to cuddle with my cat or girlfriend. The video shoot was ridiculous. We definitely knew we've stepped up when the catering serves shrimp and filet mignons to 200 cast and crewmembers! A genius director name Nigel Dick did this video and it was looking amazing. The concept is simple really. We're on a real abandoned military base performing, as thousands of all different types of people are waiting in a single file line to sing a few words of Adrienne right in front of me and the band. There's going to be some special effects and a surprise ending sure to dazzle TRL viewers. By the way we got retired finally on TRL! We get plaques and everything! It's definitely time for a new video. I can't wait until we see the final product. Well, we're back on the road now in Detroit finishing up this tour and very excited to come see you all. The band says hello and wishes everyone great health, happiness, and love. See you soon! Your friends, Alex Band and The Calling --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2/26/02 Happy New Year! Belated Happy Valentine's Day! What's up everyone? This is Alex writing to you all from Dallas, TX. It feels so good to be on the road and playing shows again. Our year 2001 ended great back home in LA with our families. January was full of all kinds of exciting TV appearances as some of you might have seen. We did Conan O Brien, Jay Leno, an Olympics show, Rosie O Donnell, and I even got to host TRL! The Jay Leno show was one of the coolest for me. Here's this show I've been watching my whole life that is filmed in my home town and we actually got to be a part of it. Aaron and I, being sports car fans, always would follow the most amazing cars to see what LA rich guy/girl was driving...and they'd always end up being Jay Leno! He was so nice and would let us sit in the cars (never drive them though..jerk). Anyway, when I was about 12 years old Jay Leno went to my local Blockbuster store and looked up the most delinquent account. Of course my family and I never returned videos on time and I was notorious for renting the most bizarre horror movies with my friends. Jay asked why I was the only person at Blockbuster to ever rent the movie "Cannibal Women and the Avocado Jungle of Death". I told him my Dad had made that movie (along with other cult classics like "Puppet Master" and "Reanimator"). To make a long story short, Jay pulled up the old clip after we played. It was really a great moment. The trip to Salt Lake for the Olympic Tribute Salute was very cool. We learned a lot about the Mormon culture and got to meet some of the world's best skaters. Scott Hamilton was a really nice guy. It was pretty crazy to be a part of the Olympics...I mean how much better could this all get? Wow, hosting TRL was a trip! You can't hear @$%^ over all those girls screaming...I definitely feel for Carson. I had like all these people talking in my in ears while the show was happening as I was trying to read cue cards that were constantly changing while everything kept going wrong! But to my surprise, when I watched it later that night it all seemed pretty smooth. Thanks to all of you who came from all over to support Aaron and I that day. It was great to see familiar faces from places like North Carolina and New Jersey. You guys rock...I swear we have the coolest fans. I read the Forum all the time and love to see you guys not just loving this band but also making friends with each other. For those of you who do use the Forum, I would like to say a few things about a guy named "Isaac Cox". I'm sorry to read that some low life would spend hours of his life creating poems all about how we're gay and blah blah blah. Just so you know we've located his whereabouts and he will burn in hell (just kidding...kind of). Anyway another guy in a local band that I'm familiar with called "Void" and another band called "Nice" were posting on how upset they were that The Calling wouldn't let them play our Santa Ana show. I assure you all, that the band and I had absolutely no knowledge of any of this. I do however apologize deeply to the bands that are upset because I too was in they're place for years and know how it feels to struggle. I also want to say that these are great bands and it would be our pleasure to play with them in the future. So enough of that. We just started our first headlining tour in Santa Ana, CA. What a difference headlining is from being the opening act forever. I still don't believe that the huge lines outside these shows are for us...it's crazy. It also feels so good to play a full hour plus set every night. We get to play practically the whole record and then some. Phoenix was a blast. The club was small but packed with the greatest fans a band could ask for. It unfortunately is getting harder and harder to sign after shows, but we will continue to do our best. It's so cool, we have real T shirts this time that we designed ourselves with Kokopelli on it. They seemed to go over well with you all. It's weird getting recognized a lot now. Whether we're walking through a mall or eating lunch, people are coming up to us all the time. The other day in Arizona this one guy was like..."I love that song you play, (singing badly-> I'm falling even more in Love with you)". I couldn't bring myself to tell him he was thinking of another band. The other night in Denver there were these cute girls in the front row that had made they're own calling T shirts. Each was wearing one word (We-Love-The-Calling-?) and the back of each had one of our names. If you guys are reading this, thanks, that was really sweet of you all. We luckily stepped up to a really nice tour bus this time around, so those long hours of traveling are like living in (very crowded) luxury. There's even little fold down flat screen TV's in all the bunks! And our bus driver hasn't crashed yet which is a plus. Those of you who were sending their love to my cat, thank you. His name is actually Parige (Pareegy), but now with three legs my girlfriend and I call him Tripodige. I know, I'm sick. Anyway, it's good to have Aaron back. He's doing great. We're looking forward to the upcoming month of shows and seeing you all. Thanks so much for your continued support with TRL. I can't believe we've been on there almost everyday this year! Let's keep it up. Hope all of you are doing well and all the best in love, health, and happiness. Thanks for reading and we'll see you all soon! BYE! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12/19/01 HELLO EVERYONE! It's Alex here again. I'm writing to fill you, the fan and friend, in on all the gossip and craziness that is my touring life. All has been going great and it has been wonderful being able to meet you all (If I haven't met you yet, I promise I will be coming to your city very soon). Sunday, December 16th was our last show in Miami which went very well. The rest of the boys: Billy(bass) Nate(drums) Sean(guitar), went home for the holidays. I however, am staying in Miami for a few days to relax and maybe get a tan on my poor pale little body. I usually get more of a "pink" or a "f*ck! don't touch me" kind of tan. Anyway, since the last tour diary I have had the most exciting, deathly tiring, and surreal two weeks. They began with our video debuting on TRL(soon went to #3), our single "Wherever You Will Go" hitting #1 on some charts, and we entered the top ten biggest songs in America! There were many memorable shows but I will tell you guys about some. In Washington DC we played a show with Train and Barenaked Ladies for like 10,000 people. It was a great crowd and an honor to be playing with those bands. Our show went fantastic and shortly after the Barenaked Ladies came to me wondering if I would sing the closing song of the night with them. I was so flattered and immediately said yes. It was a Christmas song from the 80's that I had never really heard before. Luckily my tour manager happened to have the CD so I learned part of the verse and played the song like a million times in the bus. Later at the end of the show they introduced me and called me on stage. The crowed freaked and I actually got nervous. I usually never do. So I nailed the part and rocked out with the band. Sean was filming all of it because I film like absolutely everything. I got the rest of my band on stage and we all sang the last chorus over and over together arm in arm. It was really an emotional thing for me. I am so freakin proud of my band, RCA, and all your help launching us to the top. Just being there with the fans and having so much fun...it was all so beautiful. Anyway, the second week progressed into what was soon to be complete insanity. We played six different shows in two days. I slept a total of 4 hours in four days, yet somehow I kept ticking(it's good to be young....and take your vitamins). We flew a lot to get from place to place and I finally arrived in New York. What a city. With all they've been through, it's still the home of the most upbeat, full of life, beautiful collection of people you could ever imagine. We played a very late 1:00 A.M. show in Time Square. Earlier there was a huge radio show at Madison Square Garden which we will hopefully be a part of next year. But playing at the after party was phenomenal. We signed afterward like we always do for hours even though we had to wake up at 5:00 A.M. for the fifth day in a row. So sleep was not an option. We did Regis and Kelly, our first national TV show! Everyone was extremely nice including good old Regis. Then we went straight to MTV to do TRL! I was so excited I felt like I did on the first day of school or something. MTV almost like welcomes you to the family not just to the show...so it was a long ordeal with much to do. When we finally got out there it was breathtaking. All the smoke and lights and screaming girls! Wow can they scream. I don't know how Carson can still hear these days. All was going well until I hit the first chord of Wherever You Will Go and my freakin string breaks! What are the odds of that happening. So I just threw the guitar on the ground and let Sean do his thing. I guess it all went O.K. It was crazy to see all you fans who I've met all over the USA. A lot of you drove really far to support us and I can't even explain how much that means to me. We would have gone outside in Time Square to sign even in the rain, but we had to drive immediately to Connecticut for a radio show that night with Jewel and Smashmouth. So I apologize for that. The next day we went to Boston for two acoustic shows. It was really intimate to play a whole show acoustic and be able to talk with the audience. They were all singing along to all the songs, it was awesome or "vibe" as we Calling boys like to say. That night we did a live syndicated on air radio interview and performance. To our surprise Lenny Kravitz was there and he hung out with us for a while. He and I answered crazy screaming girl's calls and talked about life on the road in places like Japan and Australia. He was one of the nicest musicians I've met so far in the business. I got to bed that night at 3:00 AM and had to wake up at 5:00 AM yet again to catch my final flight on the tour to here, Miami. This radio show for Y100 went great and was a good farewell to this year of touring. I strongly believe next year will be a great one for the world and The Calling. I can't wait to go home to be with my family and my cat and my vehicles and all my other toys...and my best friend Aaron who you all know. We will return to you all the beginning of next year with new shows and surprises. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and good New Year's Eve. Don't party to much 'cause we've got a lot to do. Thanks again for reading and listening to our music. Much love and peace! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12/3/01 Hi all! This is Alex from The Calling writing to you for the very first time in my Tour Diary. I'll be writing every week to keep you guys up to date with all the craziness. Right now I'm in Reading Pennsylvania hanging in a creepy hotel with Sean (the guitarist with big blonde curly hair). We just had a little break after three months of touring to go home to LA and spend time with our families for Thanksgiving. So now we're back out doing our thing. We just did a two-month tour with our friends Lifehouse and now we're doing our own shows. It's awesome to be playing a long set every night to people who came just to see us. There's nothing like watching you guys sing along and rock out with us every night...I can't even explain how much that means to us. Thank You. So I'm going to explain a typical day on the road for me so you all can get an idea of the insanity. I wake up in our tour bus in the parking lot of some hotel in the middle of nowhere. Sean and I go to multiple radio stations and play acoustically and yap, then sometimes in store appearances and more playing. At some point in the day I find a second to eat Wendy's for the 90 millionth time. We end up driving all night for up to 12 hours and the next day it all happens over again...AND I *%#$%#@ Love it! On our off days the band and I go to exciting places like Walmart and the mall (he he he). It's great when we're in cities that are beautiful and we can walk around and shop... we're all clothes whores. Anyway, December is going to be so much fun because we're only doing radio shows. I get to watch all the other bands play every night, which is my favorite, and of course meet all you guys! Please don't hesitate to come up and talk to me if you want... I would really appreciate it. I'll keep you all posted on the upcoming weeks. There's sure to be crazy stories to tell. I already have a bunch, but I'll save them for next time. Thank you guys for reading this and I'll talk to you soon! -Alex |