Oh boy. Where to begin. Why not from the beginning? Well, most everyone knows that I was looking forward to going to the â
€˜bama show and that I was even okay with the fact that I was sitting all the way back in the 23rd row on the floor. Then, my
fellow roaddies, Jen and Nikki, decided it wasn’t necessarily a good idea to go see the show five times in the span of two weeks.
We had a decision to make, which weekend would we be giving up. I wanted to do both, ‘bama and Florida. They just wanted
Florida. So they talked me into selling my tickets for the ‘bama and Mississippi shows. With Kenny being as hot as he is right
now, I was able to sell them quickly on e-bay.
About a week ago, we found out that Tim Hensley, the acoustic guitar player for Kenny, is going to need some surgery the week
before the Florida shows. Since he is my favorite band member, it just didn’t seem right that we didn’t get to see him before
his surgery. So, we decided just a week before the Montgomery show, that we should make an effort to go see him before his
surgery. Since it was too late to get airline tickets, we knew that the only form of travel would be by car. So, I made a trip to
Triple A to get my triptik (map specifically designed) for the Montgomery, Alabama show and the Biloxi, Mississippi show. They
told me it was only 1200 miles from my house to Biloxi, approximately 20 hours of driving. We weren’t scared.
Jen couldn’t get the time off from work to go with us. So, it was just Nikki and myself. We decided to meet someplace in
between where we both live. We do both live in New York, but she’s in northwestern NY and I’m in southeastern NY, not
exactly around the corner from each other. Since neither one of us could really sleep Thursday night, we got to our meeting spot a
bit earlier than planned. That was a good thing, since we really needed the extra time to get to the Montgomery show in time. We
threw this trip together at the last second, we didn’t even have tickets for the shows anymore, and when we left NY, I didnâ
€™t even know that the Biloxi show had sold out three weeks ago. So we named this roadtrip “The Last Chance Tourâ€�.
It is true; getting there IS HALF THE FUN. As usual, we laughed a lot, mostly at my expense. I play a good straight man for
Nikki. She’s gotten very good at making fun of me, but anything for the joke. It’s all meant in love. After we met at our
secret location, an airport in Pennsylvania, Nikki drove us through the rest of that state and through a wee little bit of Maryland
(about six miles worth) and then into West Virginia. Although we only needed to go 23 miles in West Virginia, somewhere in those
23 miles, Nikki decided her time was up. So, I finally got to drive. While I was driving, Nikki tried to get some sleep in. When we
got into Virginia, and I could see the Blue Ridge Mountains, I remembered that I had that John Denver song, TAKE ME HOME
(COUNTRY ROADS) on a CD that I brought with me for the trip. It starts like this, “West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains,
Shenodoah River�. As I’m listening and singing, I’m pointing to all those things and chuckling to myself.
We just kept moving along through all those states we had to drive through. After Virginia, which takes only five hours to get
through, we came upon Tennessee. That’s where I always get excited. I’ve made most of this trip before when Steve and I
drive to Nashville for Fan Fair. It took three hours to get through Tennessee. After that, we had a little piece of Georgia to deal
with, and then we finally came across the Eastern and Central Time zone line and entered into Alabama. Boy was I excited then. I
just knew we would make it to Montgomery in time to see Kenny on stage. When we were probably still about an hour away from
the venue, we stopped to get some gas and were hoping to be able to wash the outside of Nikki’s car. You see when we left NY
this morning it was snowing. The car was filthy from the salt and sand that they put on the road to help with traction and to melt
any ice that might gather on the roadway. There was snow all the way through the roadtrip until we reached the middle of
Alabama. Everyone was staring at the car. Especially at this gas station. They kept asking where we came from and what was all
over the car. You couldn’t even see through the windows. Unfortunately, the car wash was broken because it was so cold.
Everything kept freezing so they had to shut it down. Nikki had already cleaned the windshield with the cleaner that they have right
by the gas pumps at most gas stations. I then used it to clean the rest of the windows. When I was done with the windows, I
decided that I had enough of the salt on the doors too. So, I cleaned the doors with the windshield cleaner. Since I was doing such a
good job, I decided to do the rest of the car. Yes, with the windshield cleaner.
Needless to say, everyone thought that I was strange. A group of boys came over to us and asked “Are ya’ll really from
New York� as if we were aliens or something. Plus the fact that we weren’t wearing jackets kind of scared them. Here it was
the coldest in Alabama in a really long time and we walking around like it were a spring day.
It was also here that we decided, “now would be a good time to start drinking�. The venue was a dry venue and we had just
driven for over 14 hours at this point. Luckily we were stopped at a place that sold such beverages. So now we were ready to do
some tailgating. I used my best New York driving skills to get us inside the coliseum’s parking lot quickly. We went straight to
the box office to get whatever seats they had left. We sat behind the stage, the first level up from the floor. It really wasn’t a
bad view. We weren’t far from the stage, but we couldn’t see the video screens. I’ll have to wait for the Florida shows
for that.
The show itself was excellent. Kenny opened with “LIVE THOSE SONGS�, one of my favorites from the new album. I
love it when they perform this song. You can tell Kenny and the band all really like that song. At the end of the song, most of the
guys in the band, Kenny, and some crew guys gathered around Sean, in a big circle, and did this thing that sort of looked like the
beginning of a basketball game. It was interesting to watch. After that, they went right into “YOUNG�. The rest of the
setlist was as follows: BIG STAR, NEVER GONNA FEEL LIKE THAT AGAIN, NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO PROBLEMS,
WHAT I NEED TO DO, band introduction, MEDLEY (SHE’S GOT IT ALL, FALL IN LOVE) , BACK WHERE I COME
FROM, I REMEMBER, LAY YOU DOWN, GOOD STUFF, HOW FOREVER FEELS, DON’T HAPPEN TWICE. Then
the encore was A LOT OF THINGS DIFFERENT, SHE THINKS MY TRACTOR’S SEXY, JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH,
AND JACK AND DIANE.
Did I mention that he did Lay You Down, Yes I believe I did. I was so excited that he did that one. I had actually found out after
stopping at that gas station an hour out of Montgomery that he would be doing that song. I talked to my friend Kelly and had asked
if anyone had anything to say about the Tupelo show the night before and the first thing she mentioned was the fact that he did do
Lay You Down. I for one was so excited he put this back into the set list. Before he sang it, he said something. From where we
were sitting, we couldn’t hear the vocals too well. We could hear the instruments, but not the vocals. We found out on
Saturday night that what he says for the intro for this song is “We did this song for years. Then we quit doing it, and then all
Hell Broke Loose� Nikki thought right away, “no, all ALLY broke loose�. She was referring to my campaigning on several
websites, especially his, about which song everyone would most like to see him perform live. The song that was the winner by far
was of course Lay You Down. I don’t know if he actually saw the subject that I had started about this. I would like to think
that he did. So when he mentions that all hell broke loose, he really means me. (cause it’s all about me)
The show in Montgomery was excellent. The crowd was really into it. Everyone inside that venue was on his or her feet through
his whole set, and it wasn’t a quiet crowd either. At one point, I was just overwhelmed by the crowd participation. From my
seat, I had a good view of just about the entire audience. Especially during Lay You Down, the girls were just going wild. He would
stop after each verse and just stand there baiting the crowd. Everyone would react by screaming just a bit louder. The best was
when he got on his knees to sing to one lady. I got a good picture of that. She was just about out of her mind. It was cool to watch
him with her. As if she was the only one there at that moment. I am so glad that he listened to his fans and put that song back in
the show. His show really wasn’t complete without that one song.
When Kenny did the medley of some of his slower songs, Nikki and I took that moment to sit down. We were both really tired
from the drive and for being awake for so many hours. The little bit of alcohol we had just before the show wasn’t helping any.
Oh wait, did someone say that the Garrett Coliseum was a dry Coliseum? Yeah, I believe that’s what I had heard. Someone
forgot to tell Nikki. She was drinking wine inside. She had it in her pocket when we walked in, and she enjoyed it through much of
the show. I believe she had the nipple I gave her attached to that dang thing.
After the show, I finally got to meet Tracy in person. I’ve known Tracy through the web for over a year now. It was great to
finally get to meet her. I also got to meet some of her traveling companions, who I haven’t known as long, but have been
chatting with recently. It was great getting to meet them too.
When we were done hanging out with everyone, it was time to finish our journey to Mississippi. It was only another three hours
away. So what, we had already spent most of the day driving, had no sleep, had a few drinks, and enjoyed a concert already. I was
just looking forward to sleeping in a bed with a pillow and a blanket. We hit the road after a quick stop at a gas station. Not that we
got gas there. We filled up with some food and soda to keep us going for the next three hours.
Once we got on the road, after our quick stop, I passed out right away. Yes, Nikki was driving at this point. After all, I was the
last one to drive. It was her turn. All of a sudden I felt the car stopping and turning. She was pulling into a gas station that wasnâ
€™t open. I was very confused. She said that she needed to sleep some and needed some time for the stackers to kick in. There
was no way I was stopping. We needed to move on. I had gotten some sleep while she drove for the last half-hour. So, I took over
and she slept and snored. I was driving about an hour when Nikki woke up. Good thing too, I was getting very sleepy. I pulled
over on the side of the highway so that we could switch. During the time that she was sleeping not one car, truck, or bus passed us
on the highway. Actually, there was one truck, an M.S. Carriers truck. That was it nothing else. I had no one to play with while I
was driving to keep me awake. Nikki drove for a while, I couldn’t tell you how long, when she realized that we needed gas. I
believe the last time we got gas was at that station an hour out of Montgomery. So, she got off at the next exit and stopped at the
first gas station we saw. This is a good time to mention this, when we left the parking lot at the Garrett Coliseum, all of Kennyâ
€™s’ buses and trucks were still there.