August 28 1999 5:22 AM
Rich Pike's house

Well, boy. What a glorious night last night was. How about starting with a sumptuous, riotous dinner with Beller, and John and Darryl from SWR (which organization done picked up the bill), then moving on to the Roxy for a Dregs gig wherein Dweezil sat in on "Peaches En Regalia" (marvelous version, followed shortly by DZ and I having a lovely little conversation...DZ and BB doing the same...and Gail and I trading little waves and "hello"s - first time we've laid eyes on each other in three and a half years and totally sweet. Beller and I were beaming. Life is way too short to hold grudges, my God!

And The Dregs utterly ripping - jeez, Steve Morse is a marvel. I've never heard him better, an observation which took him slightly by surprise when I mentioned it to him after the show, apparently his guitar just fell in a swimming pool or some moisture-inducing equivalent thereof and it was wreaking havoc with his tone, adding (for him) quantities of high end which I actually APPLAUDED - his tone can get really thick at times and subtleties can be lost in a cavernous, sonically-flawed nightclubby acoustic environment (A problem I have to deal with anew every time I set foot on stage, and will do so forever), but not last night - data which he took to heart (I LOVE being a good influence), then he tells me some things about myself which modesty prevent me from going into detail about but, lemme just tell you, make me feel terribly, terribly happy and secure in what I'm attempting here on this danged old planet. (As do you folks. My word, that Keneally newsgroup makes me happy. What a civil, intelligent, heads-and-hearts-in-the-right-place bunch of people you are. I'm honored by your interest in my work.)

New paragraph. And having a wonderful post-show conversation with my friend Andy West whom I LOVE. And turning him onto a copy of "Nonkertompf," which makes me happy to do. And also handing one to the brilliant and completely shockingly delightfully talented Alain and Natasha from the group Eleven - they are DIVINE musical forces and I haven't seen them in several years. It's an exciting time for them - Alain just got done producing and engineering on Chris Cornell's (Soundgarden vocalist) upcoming debut album, and both he and Natasha play on it - makes me VERY excited about hearing the album, as if I wasn't already.

Line of the night - Dweezil gesturing toward me for Gail's benefit: "You remember Mike!" His delivery of the line was PERFECT.

Seeing Dregs shows back in the late-70s early-80s thick of things always made me want to quit music; no other live act had that effect on me. Seeing them last night makes me want to practice, a nice evolution in my response mechanism. I'm in a mood to significantly increase the power of the weaponry. Oh, the next BFD album is going to go to some intense places. Yay.

I got email a while back from a guy who thought that I wasn't conveying much fondness for Steve Vai on this site, compared to Steve's site where he says a LOT of terribly lovely things about me. This must be redressed, I don't want to give an inaccurate impression: I ADORE Steve Vai. He's given me opportunities which I appreciate deeply, as a man he's wise and admirable, and I LOVE having him for a good friend - I have such great times hanging out with him. Steve is seriously all right by me. I'm guessing that the gentleman who emailed me was prompted to do so by the MTTYs from three years ago when I first joined Steve's band and was riddled with self-doubt about the decision to do so, not to mention the impact it all had on Bryan. And it would be disingenuous for me to claim that I don't have some complex feelings about gearing up to do it again, with everything that I have to (and WILL) accomplish with my own music - but trust me, all will be MORE than well...and remember, I made "Sluggo!" during breaks in the last Vai tour. I can get a LOT done when I set my mind to it. And it is SET.

All right, it's 7:00 AM, I ought to get some sleep. Got the acoustic in-store tomorrow, Evan will be joing Bryan and I! Fun!

Sleep now! Yikes!

I'll buy you a cherry phosphate,

Mikey K.