12 days: 3 concerts: 1 Rockstar

I'm officially a Chris Isaak groupie.

Saturday July 12, Hollywood Bowl

Sunday July 13, Orange County Fair

Thursday July 24, Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, WA




Hopefully I'll have photos and a few stories to share from at least one of these shows. Can't break tradition!!!

Here's last year's post after the Greek Theatre show in May.

(Just so you know, there will be run on sentences, grammatical errors, tense errors, inappropriate pronoun use, etc. This blog is just a creative outlet for my thoughts and ramblings so I don't take the time to make it a literary masterpiece. Spell check is about as far as I go and even that's pushing it. So if you can look past all that...enjoy!)

So, about the concert. We were guests of Hart Schaffner & Marx who as I said earlier have partnered with Chris on a new suit line. Our friend and representative of Hart Marx had an "All Access" pass to go backstage, upstage, under the stage, basically free to roam. He also knew that I was a big fan so he was able to take Tom and I backstage before the show, actually into Chris's dressing room to say hello. We walked in and Chris was wearing his blue suit pants and a black shirt. His drummer, manager and Rodney the dog were in there with him. The first thing I noticed is that Chris has gorgeous hair (doesn't look like he'll ever have to worry about receding), crystal blue eyes and a flawless complexion. Not a wrinkle on his face and no, I don't think he's ever had an injection of botox. He's just genetically (and vocally) blessed.

Of course I had a million questions and before we went in, I had asked Rich (friend from Hart Marx) if it was ok to do a sort of impromptu interview. He said sure depending on time, but thought that I should write out my questions in case I choke when I see him and Tom chimed in, "Not to worry, she's done this before." (Enrique Iglesias) Again, Tom still holds the title for Most Patient and Tolerant Husband. So after introductions and hand shakes I whipped out my photos from the '03 concert and showed them to Chris. He took all three, studied them and then said, "I remember this!" He looked at the picture of me slapping his behind and laughed and said that he did in fact remember that night on stage. Even if he was blowing smoke, I'll take it. I told him that I just had to do it (the slapping of the bum) because I didn't think I'd have too many opportunities in the future. I was very tempted to start more slapping right then and there but I was able to reel myself in and continue with my questions.

First thing I asked him, "When are you planning to release a new album??? It's really been waaaaaaay too long." (Don't get me wrong, I love the "Best Ofs" and the 18 different versions of Somebody's Crying on i-tunes but I really feel it's time for some new songs!) "So anything in the works?" Chris raised his eyebrows to his drummer and they both laughed, then he replied, "Well...we have been in the process of writing new music for a few years now, it's taken a little longer but soon, we'll be releasing a new album. We're really proud of it, and you should be pleased." (this is all from memory so I'm paraphrasing what I can remember here). I told him I was excited to hear that, I didn't press him for a release date but I'm assuming it's going to be sometime in the summer when he launches his solo tour.

My next question was specific to a particular music video. The song is Solitary Man and there is a scene in the video that's, um, well...definitely not G rated. Chris is in bed, alone, naked from the waist up (sheets covering the rest of him). Without going into too much detail I'll let your imagination deduce what is to come. But let me reiterate: He's ALONE in bed, appears to be NAKED, and the song is SOLITARY MAN. You do the math. Oh and did I mention there is a shot of his hand sliding down his stomach and then disappearing under the sheets?? Now that you have the background on this I can continue with the question and oh and let me just say that I totally felt like the Chris Farley character on Saturday Night Live who would run into random celebs and ask them all sorts of idiotic things like say for example Joe Pesci, "Remember when you did that scene in Goodfellas and you had to hit that guy with a baseball bat over and over and over again? Do you remember that?? I do. That was cool." Yep, that's totally how I felt. Anyway, here's my second question..."You know in your video Solitary Man, where you're lying in bed, and you're alone...do you know the part I'm talking about?" Chris is smiling but looking at me and then the others in the room like, "Where the hell is she going with this?" But he politely says, "Yeah, I think I know the scene you're talking about." So I continue, "Ok, so the part where it gets sort of um, risque...and it cuts to the body shot, was that you or did you use a body double?" Chris, looking somewhat taken aback, is laughing and so are the rest of the people in the room, including Tom who is now shaking his head between chuckles. Chris then replies, "That was me." I smile and nod and then say, "Any chance there's an un-edited version of that floating around somewhere?" At this point, I think he started to blush. It was all in good fun and we all shared a good laugh. Interestingly enough, this question sparked an entire conversation about the video and it's director. Chris told us that the director was known for doing really off the wall type shots. He asked Chris to start hitting himself in that scene, "really beating himself up" and Chris said he didn't feel that was necessary and it wasn't something that he would normally do in real life and Chris said he asked the director if that's something he does regularly because he just didn't think it made a whole lot of sense. It was a very entertaining bit of information that he shared with all of us and we all got quite a kick out of it. I let them know that personally, I'm glad he didn't end up hitting himself. I thought the video turned out just fine the way it is. Is it getting hot in here??

We had been in there for a while and it was getting close to show time (about 15 minutes away!)so I only had time for one more question which was, "Will you ever come back to TV and do another series/sitcom? I LOVED The Chris Isaak Show. It really was the Entourage of it's time." Chris pointed to his drummer Kenney and said, "Do you want to take that one?" and Kenney replied, "Actually we're meeting with (a stand up comic guy and now I can't remember his name) tomorrow to talk about a sitcom deal." I was thrilled to hear this so I just about started to jump up and down but I didn't go overboard. I thanked them soooooo much for their generous time and then asked for one quick picture. We took the first one, just looking into the camera and I thanked Chris and then he said, "Wait a minute." He grabbed the wine bottle and then handed me the wine glass and said let's take another one for fun. So that is how I got the 2nd picture. We said our goodbyes and I told them how I couldn't wait for the concert and that I'll be the one screaming the loudest, dancing on my chair. And of course, I was!





Chris and Rodney the dog...