Have you ever wondered how we get from stage to stage? We travel honey, we travel. So today thereās me, in 3E behind Rhodesā head in 2E. TM Duffy on my left and opposite in the window seat across the aisle SLB.
Itās like we are playing a game of ācough the splutterā. Every minute or so one of us coughs, sneezes, spits some green goo out into a tissue, and then a few minutes later the next man does the same, on and on, around in a circle of sickly admission.
The drummer is missing you may have noted, because he was not at all well, not well enough to travel today. Heāll board a night flight via Sao Paolo tomorrow evening. Weāre hoping two solid days of bedrest will sort him out and weāll all be ready to rock and rolla Mexico City Friday.
And this is how we depart South America, we Duran Durans!
Was it worth it?
Iāll say, absolutely. The most fun tour we have done in a long time. And now you wonder, have they been having a touch too much fun? I donāt think so your honor⦠I mean, maybe that teen discotheque in Sao Paolo Saturday night put me over the edge, but at the same time, it gave me the edgeā¦
And edge is what we need right now, a hunger to proceed, lay out and create the next step of our journey, whatever itās going to be. (Not jazz certainly, and not country and western).
The good news is this; as we wind down a twelve month touring cycle that began in New York off Broadway, when we should be thinking of languid baths in honey and mustard and hour upon hour of⦠quite what exactly?
Iām ready kids, to put the muse to the test once more, and see what dish we can serve up. And you know what? These suckers in front and beside me, theyāre thinking exactly the same thingā¦
Gratitude List
Does everyone out there know what one is? Itās something we should all do, now and again, to counter those creeping (and creepy) thoughts we all have sometimes, that our lives arenāt the lives we (thought we) wanted. To counter the fears that we all have that weāre not going to get what (we think) we need, or lose something we already have. A gratitude list is a useful tool, as we say in the trade. For the most part itās an extremely personal experience, usually best kept between you and your God, although it can also be worthwhile to share with a loved one, especially when things are seemingly spinning out of control (as I know they are for so many folk right now). Itās a way of getting down to the fundamentalsā¦
Exhibit A
āToday I am grateful that I have a career making music.ā
āToday I am grateful that I have a genuine love for the men that I work with.ā
āToday I am grateful that I am alive to be a parent and a step-parent to my beloved kids.ā
āI am grateful that I had wonderful parents who never abused me or fucked me up beyond being able to function on a normal level in societyā.
āI am grateful that I have an extraordinary wife who loves me and wants to be with meā
āI am grateful to be as passionate as I am about life, generally, and music in particularā.
āToday I am grateful that after many many years of trial and error I have finally made the connection between physical fitness and happiness.ā
That sort of thing. And you know I could go on, but would not want you to think Iām bragging. You might be thinking that already, but really, canāt we all write a list similar to this? Itās a question of slowing down for a minute and focusing on the positive, things we get to taking for granted, like health, or the health of our kids (is there anything more important than that?) And if you donāt have kids, maybe itās your parents that are doing well for their age, or your dogā¦
T.I. says at the beginning of what is perhaps the best pop song of the year āLive Your Lifeā, āWe got to start focusing on what we got, and not what we aināt gotā, and while weāre on the subject, explain to me how a rapper from Atlanta can sing one of the most heartfelt anthems of the year (I love his callout to the troops in Iraq) can be the same guy who got busted by the Feds for trying to buy a job lot of machine-guns?
āI am so grateful I donāt feel or have the need to have guns in my life, in any way, shape or formā.
Number one in the US and the UK. Congratulations.
Reminds me of Rod Stewart, famously in 1972 had a number 1 single and album (āMaggie Mayā and āEvery Picture tells A Storyā) in the UK and US simultaneously. It were the talk of the town kids. It made him the coolest most smartest superstar sexy motherfucker in the world that week, and this week itās T.I