Talked to Rusty yesterday (he finally made it back from Sweden sunday night), so the whole gang is now back in Los Angeles. I still have a bit of this cold left, but I’ll live, no doubt. I went to the LOVE message board (www.lovewitharthurlee.com) and saw JAZZMAAN posting AGAIN about jamming. And i thought i put that to rest? Also, JAZZMAAN got the city wrong where we had a jam in Chapple’s hotel room.

It was in Odense, Denmark, in 1996. See, I had these little amplifiers (literally the size of a baby’s shoe) and I also had 2 samll speakers for my CD player. But I ran out of batteries and the batteries in Odense were a King’s ransom. So Chapple got the idea to stack all the TUBORG bottle caps (they don’t sell canned beer in Denmark…didn’t know that, did you?) on top of each other until a cap touched each battery conductor. And guess what? His bass was rocking…no batteris, just caps! he was like Mc Guyver. No, the motherf*cker was better than Mc Guyver. And that’s our nickname for Chapple, by the way. He can fix anything. And whatever he’s not fixing, Daddyo’s fixing.

So, I think that may be the time JAZZMAAN is talking about. We had some really fun times on that tour in ’96 and, to be honest, I missed JAZZMAAN not coming this time around. But he wanted to spend time with his 16 year old and chose not to go. But we still have some great memories of that tour. One I remember in particular was after we played in Amsterdam (at the Paradiso) and a fan gave me a little hash. I’d only had hash once before and that was in Prodejon, Spain, and it didn’t really do that much to me. So i smoked away, you know, trying to be cool (Note: drugs are not cool, kids.). Then , i invited a bunch of fans back to our hotel bar for drinks. It was around 10 people, if I remember correctly. I told the bartender to let it flow and told him the drinks were on me. I then excused myself to go to the loo. That’s all I remember.

But according to Richard (who, along with Ringo, were our roadies), I was gone for about 90 min. Gene covered the beer tab and everyone left. But Richard and I were sharing a hotel room and I took the key with me (or at least that’s what he told me…). So he tried knocking on the door, then banging on the door for 15 min. he finally went to reception and asked them to open the door to the room. The scene, I guess, was not a pretty one; Me, sprawled out on the bed, snoring, and the sink basin filled with puke. Yuk. So, that’s why my head was hanging out the window on our way to Rotterdam. That, and those bootlegs JAZZMAAN kept playing did me in.

But that was 6 years ago and I don’t get out of my idiot like that anymore. Now I try to relax and just enjoy and take it all in. That’s one of the reason I said yes when FREEDOM man asked me to write these. It was his idea, so don’t blame me! If I remember correctly, when he first suggested the idea to me, I declined. Then i thought it over and changed my mind. And a lot of you have sent really nice e-mails (I read everything and I reply to everything, eventually), so thanks alot. It’s great when people (like this one fan in Eugene) e-mail me and give me advise on where to find a good restaurant, internet access or a pub or what-not. it helps. So, thanks.

Now, seeing how it’s about 11 or 12 days before we take off again, I need to practice guitar some more so I’m gonna end this one. And also, to the people who have e-mailed me from Charlotte, DC, New Orleans, Austin and Houston; I don’t think we can swing through on this tour but look for us possibly after the middle of September. Stay tuned, check the LOVE sites and keep an eye out for your sevenandsevenis Official LOVE newsletter.

Mike Randle