Opening For Vince Neil

    It was a real challenging year for me Personally. I injured my leg and hit my head while ice skating and wasn't able to get in as good of shape for my band's upcoming show at The Steel Valley Super Nationals as I would have liked. It would be our second time performing at this event. The previous year we opened for Skid Row and got to perform in front of Thousands of People. This year my hard rock'n band Haymaker would be going on before the Legendary Vince Neil. I was super psyched for this show. I was a huge Motley Crue fan and had seen them many times in concert. Even though on Crue Fest I felt Vince wasn't singing the songs well I believed with the Super Nats show Vince was going to come out with all guns a blazing. The year was 2014 and it was June 21 just a couple of weeks before Motley Crue was to launch out on to a farewell world tour. 

    So it's show day. The skies are grey and rainy. The Ground is soaked and the stage is in a big field at Quaker City Motorsports Park. I'm there with my band getting our gear setup on the Stage. The Stage manager calls us all together to have a little meeting and informs us that we are not allowed to go in the white tent. That white tent is for Vince Neil and his band only. We say okay No problem.
    A little while later a local radio station DJ celebrity friend of ours shows up and is going to introduce us to the crowd. We give him a Haymaker T-shirt and continue getting ready for the show. He wasn't there for the meeting and didn't get the message about the white tent being off limits.
    The rain had stopped for a while and there was a decent sized crowd already in attendance. It was decent for us anyhow because we're use to playing for much smaller crowds in pubs and bars. The music starts and I'm still back stage waiting for my cue when suddenly I get a massive phlegm attack and start coughing a lung. I spit out some nasty stuff take a drink of water and come running out on the stage with a big smile on my face. At that point I was worried that this could happen again during the show though fortunately it did not. Performance wise I would have liked to be a little more mobile for this show but overall I sang well and the band Kicked Ass.  Even during moments of pouring rain the soaked crowd still got into the show and cheered loudly. 
I was feeling real good about things as I was leaving the stage when we started getting screamed at to get our S@$t out of there and move our vehicles on the other side of the fence now and Hurry it the F@ck Up!! I was totally confused and was like what the hell is going on. None of us understood this until much later when it was revealed our DJ buddy who was wearing a Haymaker T-shirt went in the White Tent during our performance and took a beer out of the cooler and ended up in a verbal confrontation with Dana Strum. Oops. Which also reminds me that we were instructed to not even think about performing a Slaughter Song,lol.
    Anyways after our 90 Minute set it's time for Vince!! Yes I can't wait!! The music starts for Live Wire and here he comes!! I have to say I was quite stunned. He was in the worst shape I've ever seen him in and his voice was just as beat down.  I just went back to our merch tent and hung out for the duration of his nine song set. The one thing I can say is it was real. He didn't fake it and I have a lot of respect for that. People still loved the songs and had a good time. My expectations were just too high. I think that's the problem with me in general.  A show like this means so much to me that I will get up before work and run a couple of miles 5 times a week for seven months just so I can be prepared. I'm sure I can be quite annoying too cause that's all I will mostly talk about for months before the show. Though Hey if you're not excited about it, why do it? I feel like from the start someone had put bad eyes on me or something from the leg injury, to the crappy weather,  to the phlegm attack and to finally colliding with a deer on the way home and smashing up our van. I'd say yeah it definitely was some ill will wished my way, Though I will always have the moment on that stage with my band and I'd gladly pay those dues again \m/ . . \m/ 

 

 

 

 

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