Our first night in Vegas was fun. Kelly and I had a nice dinner on the strip, and afterward, we went into the Paris Hotel to do a little gambling (which I have no business doing because I suck at it). As is often the case when we travel in Sugaree, we say we are riding on the Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion, because it often seems that the yellow brick road is laid out before us and things seem to go so perfectly. Along these lines, I killed it in blackjack and won about $400. I gave about a hundred back to the roulette wheel, but we still walked out with a few extra hundreds in my pocket that we didn't have when we came there.
Yesterday, we met John and his family and band in Primm, NV, about 40 minutes outside of Las Vegas, where they were doing their rehearsals. As we walked up to the door, we could hear him playing Born on the Bayou. Soon, his brother Bob, brought us into the rehearsal studio to hear him play Susie Q. Once rehearsals were done, John and his wife, Julie came out to the bus to check it out. Soon, their two sons, Tyler and Shane were there as well...they are in John's band, which is very cool. The Fogerty's are very much a family operation, and we love that about them.
This morning, we met John and his band at the Wynn Hotel and affixed a long banner to the side of the bus saying "John Fogerty 50 Year Trip", as he is celebrating 50 years since his show at Woodstock. His wife, Julie saw all of the Grateful Dead stuff in our bus and told the story of how the Grateful Dead ruined Credence Clearwater Revival's debut at Woodstock because the Dead were all so stoned on acid that it took them HOURS to set up their equipment. By the time the Dead had finished their rambling set, it was 3:00 in the morning, and most of the audience was sound asleep and missed CCR. By the Dead's own admission, Woodstock was one of their worst live shows ever.
Speaking of Woodstock, Julie told us an interesting story. The guitar that John played at Woodstock was named Acme by John, because he had installed an electric pickup in it and painted Acme above it as a joke. When Credence Clearwater Revival was breaking up, John gave the guitar to a young kid and that was the last he ever saw of it for over forty years! Then, Julie somehow found it and bought it back and surprised John with it. He will be playing Acme at the 50th Woodstock shows in Upstate New York this summer.
Once we loaded the band onto the bus, we headed to Fox 5 News, where they interviewed John in the bus and he played an acoustic version of Proud Mary. As that was occurring, our friend David Redding texted me to tell me that he saw us from Dallas.
After the news gig, we headed to Veteran's Village, which is a transitional housing development for veterans run by a wonderful man named Arnold Stalk. Arnold provides transitional and permanent housing for over 200 veterans and their families and has a food pantry, crisis and mental health services, a salon and a community garden where they grow vegetables. Arnold is also developing container housing, where they take old shipping containers and convert them to housing for our veterans. At 20' or 40' long, they are a great home when Arnold's team is done making them into tiny homes. He is currently working on his first cluster of 20 container homes. John Fogerty served our country in the army, so he and Julie definitely have a great respect for those who served for US.
When Arnold toured us through Veterans Village, he took us to their salon, where they have a stylist there to give residents a make-over. When we dropped in, there was a woman getting her hair done that probably hadn't been to a salon in many years. Arnold said that when she arrived at Veteran's Village a week ago, she couldn't even look people in the eyes. When we dropped in, she was having her hair done and she looked beautiful and you could see that her confidence was back.
It's a beautiful thing they are doing at Veteran's Village. It was very clear that there were many needy residents here getting their needs met. There was a real sense of community and pride about the people who lived at Veteran's Village and hats off to a wonderful person like Arnold Stalk, who is changing lives, one at a time. If you're so inclined to donate to this awesome organization, their website is http://vvlv.org. Anything you can give would be much appreciated!
After we left Veteran's Village, we drove Sugaree down the Las Vegas strip honking our new loud-as-shit train horn that we had installed right before we left, and generally causing a rock-n-roll ruckus. It was a great day and we were so happy to have been a part of it! Now, we wait to see what tomorrow will bring...
great blog D&K.
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