Summer 2001
 
Monday, September 17th
we have the day off in denver today. we ended up cancelling three shows on the matchbox twenty tour due to the terrorist attacks on new york and washingon last week. the shows cancelled were bossier city, oklahoma city and little rock. unfortunately, we haven't heard of any make-up dates yet. we'll keep you posted. we resumed the tour in st. louis saturday night and it really was a special night. you could feel the love and energy and togetherness in the crowd. lyrics seemed to take on a different meaning in light of things. there were absolutely no problems reported. security was a little tighter getting into the venue, but nobody was complaining. the bands and the crowd really seemed to take comfort in sharing a night of music together. it was a magical night for us. pete yorn joined the tour in st. louis and will be with us until the end. he's really great, so be sure to come early to the remainder of the shows to catch him. he was stuck in london when the shit went down on tuesday and wasn't able to fly back to the states until saturday. he and his band showed up about three hours before hitting the stage. their equipment is still in london, so they're borrowing from us and matchbox. you can't tell. they sound great. last night we were in kansas city where the vibes were pretty much the same as the night before. it's amazing how something tragic like this can bring a nation together. anyway, we're still making plans to tour europe starting in mid-october, but things could change. we hope not. we'll keep you posted as soon as the dates are confirmed (or not).
 
everybody stay safe and positive. we'll get through this.
 
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Tuesday, September 11th
we're in dallas, texas today. pat sang the national anthem at the cowboys' opening game on sunday and we performed a show in dallas that night. yesterday was a day off in dallas and today we're supposed to rejoin the matchbox twenty tour in bossier city, louisianna. unfortunately, due to the terrorist attacks that took place this morning we won't be performing tonight. we're all back in our hotel rooms watching the news as it comes in and finding it all very hard to believe. there are no words for what is going on today. pat had flown to erie, pennsylvania yesterday morning and was to rejoin us in bossier city this morning. he got as far as pittsburgh and was in the airport this morning when all flights were cancelled, so he is safe and will hopefully rejoin the band in oklahoma city tomorrow morning.
 
our thoughts are with the many, many families who lost loved ones today.
 
Friday, September 7th
we're in san antonio, texas today after enjoying a day off in austin yesterday. it was an actual day off! nothing to do. absolutely nothing. the bus left for san antonio this morning (with us on it) and until then we didn't have a thing to do. all day yesterday and the entire night until this morning...no plans.
 
the last day off we had on the matchbox twenty tour we flew to new york for the rosie o'donnell show, which doesn't really qualify as a "day off" now, does it? it was the season premier of her final year on the show, so that was kinda special. we played "something more" and "drops of jupiter" for those of you who couldn't tune in. then we high-tailed it to huntsville, alabama in our very own chartered jet to rejoin the matchbox tour that same night. pat and scott even had time to hit some golf balls at the driving range before showtime. are we pulling your leg or what?! the last day off before that we visited clemson university in south carolina to entertain those folks. again...not a "real" day off, but it was fun for us to cut loose from the 45 minute set that we do every night on the matchbox twenty tour and play 17 or 18 songs. hey, doesn't our VH1 Storytellers show with Fuel premier tonight?! sorry, we haven't written in awhile...random thoughts.
 
we've been writing music on the bus quite a bit lately. just gathering up some ideas for the future. lots of late night jams sparking up. speaking of sparking up...have we told you what a great crew we have?! those guys are the greatest! they're the real rock-stars. we just write the songs.
 
oh, it was Seven Mary Three's last night of the tour with us the other night in jacksonville, florida. those guys rock! super nice, too. we'll miss them. David Garza is out now for the next two weeks.
 
one final thing...we've been getting alot of mail from all over the world these days. places we've never even heard of. some wonderful person in central africa wrote and said that she drove four hours to the nearest record store to purchase our cd and that the four hour drive home was the best of her life! we HAVE to go visit this person! some letters are written in foreign languages and we can't even begin to understand what the hell they're trying to say, but we think it's that we're really great and super cute and...no, really, we think it's great that y'all are taking the time to write us. believe it or not, we really do read our mail and we're excited to hear from you all.
 
oh, another final thing. we got the best gift in the world the other day from a friend of ours. a remote controlled fart machine! yep. it sounds childish and stupid, but once you get that thing going it provides hours of entertainment! for example: last night at the aftershow meet and greet with the fans we were asked to do a taped radio interview. enter fart machine. charlie volunteered to wear it in his back pocket while bravely handing the remote to scott, who proceded to pull the trigger at precisely the right moments during the interview. charlie played it off to the hilt. we may not have been nominated for an MTV award last night, but we're pretty sure that charlie will be nominated for an oscar for his fine performance last night. and scott is a no-brainer for "best supporing actor". we're pretty sure it was the dj's first ever on-air interview, too. and probably her last! sorry. but, man was that funny. is this enough to get us on VH1's Behind the Music? we love that show.
 
see ya,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Sunday, August 26th
we're in virginia beach today. we played a VH1/Sam Adams private show with Fuel last night in boston. matt damon was in the audience. the night before that we were in new york at jones beach. bill murray was in the front row and stopped backstage to say hi to us after the show. are we name dropping? you bet! do you think we'd hold out on telling you that Bill Murray was in our dressing room joking around with us for a half an hour?! heck no. anyway, that's about it. everything is going great. we played a sold-out train show at the warner theater in washington D.C. the other night on a day off. who needs a stinking day off anyway?! not us. oh, and we were on CNBC power lunch for a few hours friday afternoon. the market was up over 200 points that day. coincidence? we think not.
 
talk to you soon.
 
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Sunday, August 19th
we played in scott's hometown, saratoga springs, tonight. it was a good show and really fun for scott. we played an outdoor ampitheater called SPAC where he attended concerts as a young punk. Kyle (matchbox twenty's guitarist) sat in with us on "ramble on" tonight and last night in hartford. paul (their drummer) sat in on the "free" percussion break last night in hartford as well. AND...the beautiful Leanne Womack came out to see our show last night! it's her birthday today (happy birthday Leanne!). we hung out with her backstage before and after our show and she was just as sweet as can be. ALSO....the legendary producer/engineer, Mr. Eddie Kramer was out last night and showed us some of his personal photos that are about to go on exhibit at the rock and roll hall of fame in cleveland. this guy has worked with just about everybody, including jimi hendrix, led zeppelin (he was the engineer on zeppelin's "ramble on"), the stones, kiss...a super nice guy. check out his photos in cleveland starting in october. they're amazing.
 
anyway, tomorrow is a day off for everybody in saratoga springs. we'll talk to you in a few days.
 
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Friday, August 17th
we're outside of boston for a show tonight. everything has been going great on this tour. so smooth, as a matter of fact, that there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about. great crowds every night, the shows have been good, the bands are all getting along...not alot of dirt to share with you. sorry. it's a really nice vibe on this tour. the bands eat together, play some basketball and hang out every once in awhile after the night is over. oh, there is one other thing worth mentioning...
 
we were in buffalo the other day and there was a six flags amusement park next door to the venue and a few of the guys decided to ride the Superman roller-coaster. well, our fearless lighting director (who we don't want to embarrass by mentioning his name)...anyway, TOM GORMAN, our lighting guy gets on the roller-coaster, buckles in and then throws his hands up in the air and says that he wants off! holds up the whole line while they get him off of the ride and oh, man did we give him a hard time about that! anyway, we thought that his mother might want to know this about her son.
 
we performed on the conan o'brien show last night. it was the television debut of our next single, "something more". good times. hmmmm.....not much to talk about....
 
ok. how about this...we're sitting in the dressing room right now, so how about we share our food and beverage items with you?! in the rock and roll business this is called a "rider" and is typically the same stuff every day. we show up and these things are in our dressing room. some of it gets eaten throughout the day and the rest gets loaded onto the bus. it's a little different when we're the headliner. let's see...we have guacamole, hummus, pita bread, lots of water, a variety of sodas, gatorades, yoohoo's, a case of beer, a bottle of wine, a bottle of kettle one vodka (the alcohol is pretty much for our guests and crew), a deli tray, a vegetable tray, a fruit tray, soy milk, coffee, tea, assorted crackers, organic peanut butter and jelly, whole grain bread, healthy cereals, tortilla chips, mayo, mustard, some nine volt batteries and a blow-up doll named Virginia. just kidding...there's no mayo back here! we have really great catering for breakfast, lunch and dinner and we have late-night food delivered to the bus before our midnight departure every night (typically pizza, chicken sandwiches, salads, burgers...stuff like that). now you know why we're traveling with all of that excercise equipment on this tour!
 
on another note - we're trying to think of a title for our DVD concert movie, which should be released in early november. we were thinking that maybe a lyric from one of our songs might work (i.e. "let it roll", "lonely midnight drivers", "back home", etc.). discuss...
 
talk to you soon.
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Monday, August 6th
we're in toronto today filming the video for "something more". we arrived here yesterday morning and started filming bright and early up until showtime last night. we started back up at 7AM this morning and will be shooting until very late tonight when our bus heads back down to indianapolis for a show tomorrow night. we're really excited about how things are going with this video. it's a "jack and the beanstalk" kind of story with pat climbing a ladder that is mysteriously placed on a toronto sidewalk alongside a skyscraper. as he climbs up and up (singing his little heart out the entire time) we see different vignettes inside the windows of the building, which include performances and stories involving the other four band members and some extras. he continues to climb into infinity with the band playing on below as the song comes to a close. so basically, as pat climbs the stairway to heaven in search of something more, the rest of us are stuck in a crumby building with a bunch of crack dealers, serial killers and wife beaters! it's ok, though...we're ok. it really is going to be a cool video, though, with lots of special effects and five really good looking guys. the soundtrack's not bad, either. look for it, along with the release of the song, in early september. oh, also while we were in toronto, last night after the show we were presented with a canadian platinum record by our local sony folks. thank you canada! and while we're patting ourselves on the back...did you hear that "drops of jupiter" entered the U.K. charts at #10 this week! God save the Queen!
 
anyway, the matchbox tour continues to roll on and is going very well. the shows in chicago, cleveland and toronto were all very good. we've been mixing up the set-list every night, playing mostly songs from the new album and a few from the first - whatever we're in the mood for really, because hey...we've got a platinum record in two countries now and can pretty much play whatever the hell we feel like! on another note - the vegetable fast is over now. everybody is feeling fine and we're all putting the exercise equipment and the bicycle to very good use. and yet another note - we watched the movie "traffic" on the bus the other night on the way to cleveland and were all very impressed with it, but not as impressed as we were with "ace ventura: when nature calls". we can't figure out why jim carrey didn't bring home any oscars for that one!?
 
ok. that's all for now. we'll talk to you soon.
 
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Thursday, August 2nd
we're back on the road again! we started our U.S. tour with matchbox twenty two nights ago in fargo, north dakota. it was a really great opening night. it felt good to be back onstage again and performing in front of such a large, enthusiastic crowd. we're all doing good and excited about this tour. we've got a treadmill, a weight bench and a bike on the road with us, so we're all staying in shape. pat, charlie and scott are on a six day vegetable fast. jimmy went for a bike ride in fargo with two eleven year old kids who had stopped by the bus for an autograph.
 
yesterday we were in st. paul, minnesota at their beautiful new hockey arena for day two of the tour. we were presented with personalized jerseys by the hockey team. it was another really fun show and a very loud crowd that stayed on their feet for the entire show.
 
the matchbox twenty guys and their crew are really cool, by the way. it's a really nice vibe backstage. the Old 97's are opening the first couple weeks of the tour and they're all really good guys, too. between the three bands there are eight tour buses and five semi trucks on this tour!
 
anyway, today was a day off in chicago. tomorrow we play here, then we go to cleveland for a show on saturday and toronto on sunday. we'll be filming a video for "something more" while in toronto on sunday and monday. we're excited about the concept and the director. we'll tell you more about it at a later date.
 
gotta go. we'll talk to you soon.
 
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Saturday, July 14th
we're finished with this leg of the tour and we're pretty darn proud, excited, fulfilled and completely exhausted! it really was a great, productive tour, but man, do we need a day off! it's been over five weeks since we've had a day to do absolutely nothing. we get to do that later this week, though, when we all fly home for a small break before heading out on the matchbox twenty tour.
 
anyway, the shows in australia were very good. great crowds and interesting sets. there is a nice gal here named claire (who you all might know from website postings) who is like the australian version of bonnie. she was at every show, interview, airport...just about everywhere we were. she and here friends were very nice and we'll look forward to seeing them again when we come back. the melbourne show went like this: getaway, meet virginia, respect, something more, ramble on, i wish you would, she's on fire, let it roll, drops of jupiter, heavy, free. encores: hopeless, i want you to want me. sydney's show was: something more, meet virginia, getaway, respect, ramble on, i am, she's on fire, drops of jupiter, heavy, eggplant, free. encores: hopeless, it's love. the australian "drops of jupiter" single includes "this is not your life", "it's love" and "sharks". we did alot of television and radio interviews and performances and are hoping to return down under for a full-scale tour, which will hopefully include new zealand, in november.
 
uh...what else...tired...oh, charlie mustered up enough energy to go for a surf the other morning. mmmmm....pat sported a new hat onstage in sydney. rob is still playing his computer chess game like a fiend and had a bit of a panic when he thought he lost a piece on the airplane the other day, but he found it. pat is getting ready to tape a celebrity version of "who wants to be a millionaire" in new york on monday and still doesn't know what a lifeline is. that oughta be good.
 
ok, we've gotta go board this flight from sydney to new york. that's our day off...22 hours on a plane! we'll talk to you soon.
 
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Sunday, July 8th
we're in the lounge at heathrow airport in london waiting to board our 21 hour flight to australia. the flight is so long that we have to stop over in singapore for fuel. we're all kind of looking forward to it, though, as we haven't had a day without some sort of press, interviews, television or a show since we left the states. yesterday, to give you an example, we woke up in london, performed on a live television program at noon, took the train to the airport and flew to venice, italy where we performed on another television program in front of a live audience of about 7,000 at 11PM, went out for a late dinner, checked into our hotel at 3AM, met in the lobby at 5:30AM to travel to the airport, fly back to london where we had to switch airports (yes, airports) and will now continue on to australia via singapore. we'll arrive down under at 6:30PM monday evening. at least we're flying in business class. a few nice meals, some movies and sleep are probably in store for us all.
 
anyway, we left you last in norway where we played a festival show in a small, crowded club with a cool band from belgium called K's Choice. the show was good, the crowd was the typical "who the hell are these guys? oh...'drops of jupiter'. we love that song! these guys are pretty cool. ok, let's have a good time now and run out and buy their cd tomorrow." at least we think it was that kind of crowd. very nice people, those norwegians. we had a great time there.
 
then we flew off to london for press, interviews, radio performances, some more press, cookies (don't ask), a television appearance on the legendary 'top of the pops' show, which also featured performances by weezer, wyclef and james and then some more interviews. oh, the sun newspaper in london the other day had a blurb in their entertainment section predicting 'drops of jupiter' to climb to the top of the charts in the U.K...what do you make of that?! on one television show that we did where we were lipsyncing on a beach in brighton (kind of like the Monkeys), scott decided to show everybody in tv land that we weren't really playing our instruments. halfway through the song jimmy saw a drum roll past him and turned around to see scott hoisting his kick drum over his head with drums and cymbals scattered all around the beach. that was the end of that show.
 
what else...our crew somehow ended up with two evenings off in london while the band did interviews and press stuff. they took advantage of the situation by going to see a weezer concert one night and madonna the next.
 
that's all for now. we'll write from australia in a few days.
 
g'day mates,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Tuesday, July 3rd
sorry for the back to back notes, but we were unable to connect online from amsterdam and didn't want to get too far behind.
 
we're in kristiansand, norway today and man is this a beautiful place! we arrived at midnight last night and it was still daylight. flying over the coastline and into kristiansand was some of the most beautiful country we've ever seen. we just had a wonderful lunch downstairs in our hotel while doing some press and a few radio interviews (our song is already in the top 10 in norway and expected to climb as high as #3 next week!). we saw the fellas from Coldplay, Alanis Morrisette, and Wyclef in the lobby as we were heading back to our rooms. we're all playing a big festival tonight.
 
we spent the last two days in amsterdam where we played a festival yesterday afternoon. it was a good show, but short. we had our evenings free so we all got to do a bit of sightseeing. everybody really enjoyed it. we got to see some of the countryside while driving to rotterdam for the festival yesterday. beautiful. back in amsterdam we all took long walks along the canals and checked out the beautiful buildings and coffee shops. we even discussed the possibility of recording an album there sometime in the future. it's a very clean, inspiring and laid back place to be. we'll definately look forward to returning in october.
 
the day before that was the werchter festival in belgium after which we traveled by bus to amsterdam. that was a really great, well organized festival. we were the first band of the day (being the new band in town and all), but much to our surprise there was a very enthusiastic audience of about 1,000 people in front of our stage when we played. they chanted "more, more, more" when we left the stage, but due to time restrictions we weren't allowed to play another song. we'll make it up to you when we come back in october! it was kind of an interesting backstage scene at that one. our dressing room was between david gray and the black crowes about two trailors down from sting. yes, kate hudson was there.
 
we'll talk to you soon (we didn't learn much dutch).
 
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Friday, June 29th
we're on a train from paris to brussels today. we have the night off when we get there. we'll be performing at the werchter festival tomorrow (check out this bill: david gray, dandy warhols, ben harper, black crowes, george thorogood, aimee mann, suzanne vega, beck, sting, tool, train and many others) and then we'll drive to amsterdam.
 
we performed in paris last night at a really great club. the crowd was awesome. here's a set list for you: respect, it's about you, meet virginia, something more, ne me quitte pas (a famous french song by jacques brel, which pat sang a capella in french), ramble on, i wish you would, she's on fire, i am, drops of jupiter, heavy, free. encores: getaway, light my fire (they like that one over here). paris is great! we were very busy with interviews and radio stuff, but managed to find an hour to go sightseeing. we saw alot in that hour and will look forward to seeing more when we return in october.
 
the day before that we were in madrid and did an all day photo shoot with a very well know british photographer. we were at different locations throughout the day, so we got to see a bit of the city. we performed there the night before and it too, was a really great show for us. we met eddie grant ("we're gonna rock down to electric avenue") as we were leaving a radio station earlier in the day. everything is continuing to go very well for us over here. the media has been very receptive and we've been getting great revues.
 
the train is about to arrive in brussels, so we'll sign off for now.
 
au revoir,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Tuesday, June 26th
we're delayed in the milan airport on our way to madrid today for a bunch of press and a show tonight. the delay means that the one hour we were going to get to spend in our hotel rooms relaxing this afternoon just went away! such is life on the road...
 
anyway, italy is amazing! sicily is truly one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. our hotel was very nice and we had a few hours each day for beaching and scootering around the area. we were there to perform one song as part of a big annual televised concert series called FestivalBar featuring many bands. the event was held in the ruins of an ancient greek coliseum packed with about 5,000 people and was absolutely breathtaking. the erupting mt. etna was the backdrop. words just can't describe how beautiful this place was. there should be some photos in the photo section of our europe travels. after the show we walked the narrow streets to a restaurant where we dined with jessica simpson, her dancers and management (mom and dad) and our local italian sony reps (who treated us very well and are some of the nicest people we've met). it was a really nice dinner and a wonderful atmosphere with a beautiful view. we'll return to italy on july 7th for part two of the FestivalBar series where we'll perform about an hour outside of venice with the likes of destiny's child and ricky martin.
 
on sunday we flew to milan and had the night off. we went for dinner and walked around the duomo area and checked out the cathedral. beautiful. yesterday was a full day of press and photographs followed by soundcheck, a quick dinner (where we ran into a bunch of lovely young americans who were coming to see the show) and a show. every interview we did yesterday asked us about the song we recorded for the Doors tribute album, so we performed "light my fire" as an encore last night and followed it with "whipping boy". it was a good night.
 
we had to wake up very early this morning to get to the airport and now our flight is delayed a bit. we'll go to madrid today and will be taken directly to a radio show and then to the hotel for a bunch of press followed by soundcheck and a show tonight. we're having a great time!
 
it's time to board.
 
ciao,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie
 
Friday, June 22nd
it's 2AM and we've just arrived in our hotel in sicily. it was an interesting travel day. we left hamburg, germany this morning (friday) at 11AM and had to fly through frankfurt and milan due to an italian airline strike. it was a long day, but now we're in italy!
 
hamburg was great. we spent two days there. the first day we performed for mostly record company people, press and media who were flown in from all parts of the country. there were some fans there as well. we've only just begun to receive radio airplay in germany, so this was mostly a promotional show. there were two fellows who flew in from munich named olli and mario who had heard of us during a recent visit to new york. they brought our record home to germany and persuaded their local radio station to play us and now "drops of jupiter" is one of the priority songs at that station! so...thank you olli and mario for your help and for coming all that way to see us perform. the following day (yesterday) was spent doing interviews, photo sessions and other press. it was a long, productive day that was capped off with a wonderful dinner at a great restaurant with our good friend sharon (our sony music compadre from england who is traveling around europe with us and trying to keep us out of trouble).
 
speaking of trouble...on the flight to sicily from milan this evening, pat was asked to turn off his computer before take-off, which he did. after we're in the air he turns it back on (which is usually ok on every other flight we've ever been on, but apparantly is not ok in italy...a little travel tip for you.) and is payed a visit by the flight captain and asked to turn it off again, which he did. a bit later jimmy puts on his walkman headphones and catches a little shut-eye, but is soon woken up by a flight attendant who tells him to turn it off, which he did. well....we arrive in sicily and depart the plane and are greeted by about 20 italian police officers who take pat and jimmy into custody and hall them off to a secret room on the tarmac, where they were interrogated and let go after about 30 minutes. the police weren't super friendly at first ("no italiano?...hmmm, this is not good for you"), but then they found out that we were a rock band who was here to perform on television and they lightened up a bit. so, that was fun. then we loaded up the gear, stopped off for some italian ice and drove about 45 minutes to our beautiful hotel on the beach. the drive took us around the base of an erupting mt. etna volcano, which is something that you just don't see every day. we could see the red hot lava flowing from the top of the volcano and down the side of the mountain. it was really beautiful. tomorrow we perform one song (drops of jupiter) in front of a live audience for a big television festival show. also performing will be hooverphonic, jessica simpson, dido and a bunch of popular european bands. then we fly to milan on sunday for a day off and a show on monday.
 
that's all for now. we'll write in a few days when we have some more fun stories for you that hopefully won't involve any police officers. until then...
 
chow,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie