Bad trips can make great stories
((This is going to be a long post))
The road trip to Miss. to see the Goo Goo Dolls went like this:
Left around 3 pm and picked up my moms friend, dropped my moms car off at her house and we took Carol's. Drove 4 hours to LA. and stopped at her sisters house Grace. Spent the night there then took Grace's car the rest of the way to Miss. We all thought, oh it is not going to be a long drive from LA. to Miss. little did we know that where we were going in Miss. is all the way at the top, and about 45 min. from Memphis, Tenn.
So it took us 6 hours to get there. When we pulled up in front of our hotel I noticed tour buses and got really excited because the Goo Goo Dolls were staying at our hotel!
We unpacked and I walked around the hotel talking to Kat, and then Jamie on the phone. Then we got ready to go to the casino. Of course I got bored really fast because I am not of age to gamble, so I went back to the hotel and watched TV.
Then went back and went to the concert. They were playing in the casino. there was another room, like a concert hall with seats and it was sort of small.
The concert was okay, it seemed like they rushed everything. He smiled in my direction a couple of times, but it makes me upset when people just sit in their seat during a show. Me and some other girls were the only ones that stood up the entire time. They sang all the songs I love. I moved up like 4 rows which was cool, because then I was even closer.
After the show my mom saw Johnny's set list still taped to the floor and told me to go ask a roadie to give it to me. So as I was on my way over there, he already gave it to someone else. But I saw that where Greg(cute guitar player) was playing, his was still taped down. So I asked like 3 roadies and they all asked someone else if they could give it to me, and the guy was rude, and told them no get back to work. Finally a young looking roadie was near me, so I asked him and he gave it to me. and a pick so I was a happy girl. All I wanted to do was get my set list signed, because I met them a year and a half ago and they were all so super nice, and cool and talked to me, and seemed to actually listen when I was speaking. Which was cool because usually bigger bands sign stuff and move on to the next fan.
Now the drama starts
Carol went up to the lights guy and told him that lights and sound were really good. Now she was just trying to be nice because no one every really compliments them unless they are trying to get backstage, and she was not. And he asked her, "What was better, lights or sound?" and she said, "I don’t know they were equally the same." and he kept pressing her to tell him lights were better. and she told him that the lights were kind of in her eyes. and he said, yeah well they like to see their fans, and she said that he hardly looked over in her direction. And he said, "That’s because they saw you being a bitch in the audience!" That is the rudest thing ever.
At about one am Johnny was in the lobby with a bunch of girls sitting in tables all around. He was torn up drunk. and one of the girls he was gonna take upstairs w/ him was so falling over drunk, she threw up in the bathroom. and he went over to his manager and told HIM to take care of his mess for him! meaning the girl. he told him to get rid of her, and she got escorted out of the hotel.
and he ended up going upstairs w/ 2 other girls. but that’s not before he was signing an auto for a little boy...like I wanna say about 15 maybe 16. then THREW THE PEN across the lobby
and I don’t how this started but he started hitting a security guard, like slapping him around.
and his manager was there trying clean his mess up, like trying to get him to go to bed, and paid the tab for all the drinks Johnny had.
When Johnny left carol went up to their manager and told him what the lighting guy said to her. She said, "I just want to bring to your attention what one of your lighting guys said to me. I do not deserve to be talked to that way, I am not some teenager trying to get backstage, and I am not some twenty something year old trying to sleep with the band. I am in my thirty's and a professional." The manager apologized and told her he is on his way out anyway.
How Johnny was acting makes me sick, I think because they are my second favorite band and it is just a disappointment.
I completely lost all respect for him. he is 38 years old, he is doing the same shit that he was doing 10 years ago, you would think he would grow out of it. None of the other band members were there in the lobby, just him.
So this made me think I do not want to be in the music business anymore. Because I am going to work with bands I respect, and if I see this happen I will lose respect and not be able to work with them. Then I got worried because I do not want to waste a semester of my life interning at Victory Records to realize I am not cut out for it. So I decided I am not going to be in the industry.
But then I talked to John about it, and he said if I become a publicist for indie bands they do not act like bigger stars do. And that they do make money. So I guess I am going to give it a try. I have seen other bands repulse me with some actions but they were also bigger bands. I really wanted to work with bigger bands, but I do not think I have the heart to do it, so I am going to try and just be a publicist for indie bands.
On the way home we got a speeding ticket, and 11 hours straight in a car. I slept most of the time. But all in all it was an okay trip, besides the fact that I cannot bring myself to listen to GGD anymore.
But I am sure it will pass and eventually I will be able to listen to them. This always happens to Tanya and I, we go through periods when we cannot listen to a certain band because of something that happened with them and us.