The Beginning Of A New Era

Hamburg, Germany November 10, 2003. Location: depends on what time of day. Significance of the day: Official kick off of the first JKB European Tour & I officially turn 30. Yes I turned 30 on the opening day of a tour. For me there is absolutely no better way to celebrate a milestone birthday than being on the road in Europe. Hamburg is a great city too. Our show was at the Headbangers Ballroom (not related to MTV’s Headbanger’s Ballroom) and the cartege company was responsible for the gear that day so we had plenty of time on our hands. We showed up early, grabbed a bite to eat, set up and then took an un-official tour of Hamburg. Stop 1 - The Reeperbahn! Nothing crazy happened but it sure was an interesting place!

The crew at the Headbanger’s Ballroom were awesome! I can’t say enough good things about them. They also welcomed the fact that it was my birthday and bought everyone in the club a round of there home made liquor after the show. Yes I said home made liquor. It was good too! At least I think it was, my memory is a bit fuzzy…Doesn’t matter, that was one hell of a birthday party. I love Germany and I couldn’t have planned it any better. That day will definitely be one to remember!

With that we began a 3 week stint in Europe. It was an absolute blast (even though our van sucked!). We covered most of Germany and were lucky enough to be able to return to Rome to play. We even had a few days off in Rome to have some fun. Somehow I don’t get tired of Rome, it’s just too cool! I will admit that I do love playing for European crowds. They were very open to whatever we had to play (and we were playing some crazy shit!). We were always greeted with enthusiasm and respect and that made for one awesome experience. If you ever have the chance to fly over the pond and play I highly recommend it!

We also made some great new friends. Ferdy Doernberg toured with us and was the opening act. He is a great musician and an awesome person. Gabi Palm was our booking agent and tour manager. She is one tough cookie! Somehow she was able to keep us in line which is no easy task. I can remember several times when after a show all I wanted to do was hang out, have a drink and talk with people, tearing gear down could wait and so could driving to the next city. Well somehow she would talk me into tearing my gear down and loading it in the van. Knowing me it probably wasn’t an easy task but she managed all the same. Gabi is not only a great booking agent and tour manage but she has become one of my best friends. Truly a wonderful person, and, her family is wonderful too. They allowed us to take over for a few weeks and for some reason they didn’t give us the boot. Matter of fact they invited us back. Pretty cool.

Anyway we did another tour the following year after we released the first (and unfortunately the only) JKB record. The second tour was better than the first but we weren’t able to sustain the band. We all had so many projects going at the same time that made it hard to focus on JKB. Regardless I was very proud to play with Jeff, Kevin and Paul. They are 3 of the finest musicians I have ever worked with. Jeff, Kevin and I went on to do a show at Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce called “Royal Jelly”. It was a Rock ‘n Roll burlesque show and was absolutely off the hook! 5 hot dancers and a smokin’ rock band, who could ask for anything more.

Anyway as JKB was slowly fading away and the Forty Deuce gig was in full swing I was working on my studio and doing projects with my writing partner Ernesto Homeyer. I was slowly stepping away from the road to take on the title as studio owner. That will be the topic of our final post…

25 Years of Drumming Pt. 1
25 Years of Drumming Pt. 2
25 Years of Drumming Pt. 3
25 Years of Drumming Pt. 4
25 Years of Drumming Pt. 5
25 Years of Drumming Pt. 6