Just Another Day in Hollywood

All of my entries on this blog have been written while I was on the road somewhere, so I thought I'd let you know a little about being on the road at home- the greater Southern California area being my territory as a freelance musician here. One does find oneself in the car quite a bit, going from gig to gig. Lately my routine has been a 6 day a week commute to the Pantages Theater in Hollywood to play keyboard in the pit for the show "Wicked", which has settled into what will be an extended run there. With gas prices where they are, and public transportation a time consuming and possibly unreliable means (the curtain waits for no one, and I'd hate to try and find a cab on short notice ANYWHERE in L.A.), I find my patience tested in the traffic, AND it feels like there's a siphon hose in my wallet. Ah, the costs of doing business.....

A few weeks ago I had an interesting experience playing in the backup band on a reality television show called "The Next Best Thing". A fine group of musicians were assembled, folks who have played with some of the greatest names in music, all to back up 10 celebrity impersonators in an "American Idol" style competition. Having not been involved with one of these new fangled reality shows yet, I was curious to see how it would all go down. The whole thing was a construct from top to bottom, from the red carpet ceremony, to the paid audience (including a lot of previous contestants - looking out into the audience was a Fellini-esque experience), to the talent themselves! The most surreal moment was when Little Richard (the REAL one), came out to sing with the fake Little Richard and Tina Turner. Gotta say, at 75 years old, the man still has it. The second he touched the piano it was magic!

Every day in Hollywood isn't like that for me, but I do love it when those show-biz moments happen.