30 days from today I’ll be boarding a flight to Washington DC, an overnight “red eye” and when it lands the next day I’ll grab some breakfast and meet up with Glenn Povey and Patrick Hand. With me will be bassist Dave Nolte, along with drummer Daddyo and Mr. Squeezebox.

After checking out all the gear we’re renting for the tour, we’ll head to Philadelphia to meet up with the Electric Prunes guys. We were also supposed to meet up with Sky and Sabrina Saxon but the good lord had other plans for Sky so we are going forward the only way you can, and in the way and spirit we know Sky would have wanted it, which is to play dynamite shows every night and we’re even injecting a couple of Seeds classics to summon up the wonderful spirit of the psychedelic grandaddy. I want to give Sky the “Fantastic Party” he envisioned.

I’ve had an incredibly fortunate life and many experiences most people would give a couple of fingers to have. In 1993 Love toured the west coast with Spirit and I got to see Randy California play every night. Now, believe me when I tell you this; Arthur Lee, Sky Saxon and Randy California were all cut from the same cloth. Those guys gave us something and they were true American artists if there ever was one.

The Electric Prunes (and now Gerry Miller from Moby Grape) are among those bands that bring the magic and are now to be missed. I was barely born when they were making history on the radio and now I will be sharing the stage with them. How lucky am I? And you know what? You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger Alex Chilton fan than me and I got to spend a week in Italy rehearsing and then performing with him. Robbie Kreiger use to jam with us when we used to play with Arthur in the early 90’s.

So believe me when I tell you that the California 66 Revue is not to be missed! And with Sky’s absence (physical but not spiritual absence), we now may include a few local opening acts who were influenced by that incredible era of music. And some guy/gal will get to rock the stage with a rock and roll trailblazer like Johnny Echols or James Lowe or Mark Tulin and know how I felt and to come to understand why this music is so incredibly precious.

Mike Randle