Billy's Diary

[chk]

Let's keep track of what Billy has to say --cause it's always good.
Diary entries, posts, and interviews can be posted here... and Billy, feel free to drop by anytime!

[angelshadow]

YES Please Billy it would be awesome of you to drop by and say a few words Or even just one!!

[chk]

January 29

checking in!!!
hello everybody!!! my brothers brought my laptop to the Vegas show!!!! So, I shold be checking in alot more.

So.....the tour has been great so far. The venues have been very nice; especially LA and Vegas. There were 9,800 poeple in Vegas. We tried to sign afterwards but it was unmanageable so security pulled the plug. Sorry to everyone who waited in line. The problem seems to be with photos taking too long. Subsequently, we are going to stop taking photos. The INXS crew as well as the band themselves have been easy to work with. Believe me, that's a rarity. I will try to post some photos of those directly involved with our show. What else? the days are all kind of the same routine but are very busy.

Wake up
couple of hrs of personal time to eat, do wash, call people, etc
go to venue and set up, sound check
eat some dinner after which we have @ 1hr. - 45 minutes before show.
slam a few beers and go on stage
after show, clean up for a few minutes and hang with special guests.
maybe have a 1/2hr to watch show and/or mingle
go do signing
go to bus and drive to next town. usually b/t 12-2am
next day...same drill
the time is flying and I am trying to soak up as much as possible.

Thank you to everyone coming out to the shows and saying hello, bringing gifts and telling us how you are all helping out.......I cannot thank all those hammerheads enough who are doing so much. I won't name names for fear of excluding someone. I know, you know, that I know who you are. So thank you and keep pushing. It's working big time.

That's it for now and will try to catch up on all the websites but time is at a premium as well as internet access. Take care everyone.


Posted by billsawilchik at 10:37 PM

[chk]

February 02, 2006

hangin' in Chicago
Hey everybody.....it's so surreal to be here for an extended period. I managed to keep my arrival a secret from my kids. I came home and they were taking a bath. I stood outside the bathroom just spying for a moment. My 5 yr. Luc asked my wife to find his Titanic ship to play with in the bathtub and she came back back telling Luc she found something different than the ship and I walked in! It was great. They were shocked. Just kind of looking at me smiling for a moment. Then it sunk in. Daddy's home! By the way, bigf props to our bus driver, Sean. He drove 18hrs. stright to Chicago from Denver. The man is a cyborg or something!

What else? Looking forward to Joe's tomorrow. It is great to be able to pull off a decent sized show on short notice. We have so much support from radio and TV. pRETTY DAMN COOL.

Finally got a chance to catch up on all the message boards as well. I hope everyone understands it is hard to keep up with the internet on the road. Between finding the time to post, getting an internet connection and taking turns sharing a couple of laptops. It is all very challenging. So thank you for your patience. We are watching and talk about who said what or who did this and that. The streetteam is amazing. Thank you to all of you.

It is late and we have a show tomorrow. It's bedtime. Thanks for tuning in!


Posted by billsawilchik at 02:14 AM

[chk]

Feb 15
redding, PA
hello everyone!!!! its been awhile as usual. we have endured many obstacles. A blizzard, for one. I am going to post a video from Atlantic City at 5am when the storm was at its most fierce. It was literally knocked over by the wind walking to the bus. I honestly have never seen anything so intense. We soldiered on and made it to NY for te show, but it was cancelled! I sat in my roon! Today, we had a 9am bus call but the bus was not working and was not fixed until 12noon. We still made the soundcheck. Hopefuly, the show goes great.

CBGB's

these one off club dates have been a blast! It was packed and the dressing roon was in the hallway to the bathroom. there was no door as well. Consequently, we had the opputunity to talk with alot of the fans and get some gifts(always appreciated and welcome, BTW). We get on stage, and bamm! Dino's bass speaker was blown right off the bat. We soldiered through it and ran his bass right into the mixing board. It wroked fine. We got to play a much longer set as well. About 1:20 minutes. It was great to strech our legs and let our hair down. Thank you to everyone for coming and giving off so much energy.

I think that is it for right now, sorry for my bad grammar, but computer time is at a premium. No time for grammar and spell checking. Take care and hopefully i will get some video and photos up.

thanks for tuning in!

Billy

Posted by billsawilchik at 05:22 PM

[chk]

February 20, 2006
Norfolk, VA
Hello again, checking in from Norfolk!!! The tour is winding down quickly but the memories will last a lifetime, b/c this is the most miserable job anyone could ever wish for. I am trapped in my own hell. Scott Stapp once sang " I've created my own prison" now i know....I know man.

Just kidding!!! this is a great time and would not take a moment back....except the malfunctioning equiptment. Lets see; Washington was the best crowd yet. No disrespect to my hometown. The crowd was on its feet from the get go and singing along the whole time. They even rushed the stage during "trees". It made for a great mood after the show as we had alot of freinds visiting to celebrate with. The had to be twenty some people on the bus after the show and we threw down. The next day was off in Norfolk, VA where I visited the battleship Wisconson and went to a giant mall. I shopped and had dinner.

Here we are on show day and all signs point to a good night. Knock on wood for us. Charlotte, NC is next!!!! Warmer weather here we come!!!

Posted by billsawilchik at 04:38 PM

[chk]

BTW, be sure to check out the textamerica photos taken by the band and crew while on tour. (The link is on the mc.org home page). They include Billy's video footage and comments on the blizzard in NYC.

[radioclash]

There's a new one!

February 27, 2006
billy in Nashville, TN

Hello all!!!! once again, it has been to long. about 2,500 miles I should guess.
So Charlotte: great show, great crowd, my aunt mary Ellen and cousin Susan Beiber came to visit.

Atlanta: Rainy day, we only had a day room in which to take showers. Dinol and Bob were to happy to have a Greek Diner acroos the street where we sampled some not so local cuisine. Next, we drove to the venue through pouring rain. It was a good size venue with decent accomodations(nice dreessing room, good catering, etc.) The crowd was once again very responsive as our song is getting a little play in "mid atlantic" area.

Jacksonville: we had a day off and went to a nice dinner at Morton's steakhouse were a fan treated us. Thank you! you! not much else to do as we were staying in a business park and it was raining on and off. Next day was show day in Jacksonville.......the venue was rather small but beautiful. catering was decent. the real treat was banana's foster for desert. the one kicker was stiars to the dressing rooms....like 5 flights!!!!

Clearwater......great weather, classy theatre. my family came to visit(my brother Danny, his wife Mandy, Bryan and my parents). the show went off without a hitch and we had a high school style outsiide party by the buses. We just hung out with freinds and some of the INXS crew and drank beer. It was nice to hang with the band crew as they are great guys and we have not had the oppurtunity to hang with them. Maybe some day we will even have a beer with INXS?

Welp............gots to go for now....I will catch up soon!!!! Thanks everyone and keep pushing for us!

Posted by billsawilchik at 08:51 PM

[chk]

Just wanted to share this funny post taken from the Where's Billy? thread that started a couple of months ago. Here is Billy's response:

Thanks for letting me out of your closet Sheria. She really is a compassionate captor.....

Hey I just registered so's I could chime in. I have not done alot of the interviews b/c I do not live with Bob and Dino. They are kind of the first point of contact for that type of stuff. They also live downtown(closer to radio stations) and have more flexible jobs. Although, mine is pretty damn flexible. And lastly, the others crave the attention like some drug more addictive than marijuana!!! I let my guitar do the talking. For instance, I explain my stance on urban sprawl and it's effect on geopoliticism and eastern religion in the guitar solo on "Over and Out". It's there plain as day! Hello!!!

I mostly check the Lovehammers guestbook only and I do reply somewhat often....so stay tuned. thanks for your concern. By the way, when are we moving out to LA?

[radioclash]

I let my guitar do the talking. For instance, I explain my stance on urban sprawl and it's effect on geopoliticism and eastern religion in the guitar solo on "Over and Out". It's there plain as day! Hello!!!

I read that before, but I guess I didn't really read it.

That's hilarious

Thanks, chk!

[wendyc122]

radioclash said:

Maybe some day we will even have a beer with INXS?

This kinda surprised me ... they don't hang with INXS?

[chk]

that surprised me too --although I think different members of INXS, especially Tim F have been hanging with the Hammers.

Now back to Billy. Not sure how many of you have subscribed to the MCLH podcast, but Billy provided the latest entry, from Norfolk. I'll try to transcribe it as soon as I have a tic, but you can link to it on lh.com or go to itunes and find it in the podcast section. It's only 30 seconds, but beggars can't be choosers!

[chk]

Okay here's a transcript of the podcast.
Billy, apologies if I got anything wrong, mate!

"Hey everybody, it's Billy from Lovehammers checking in to say hello. We're in Norfolk, Virginia today. It's getting warmer as we're moving south. The tour is coming to an end [..?] and everything's going good. We've got more stuff coming down the line. Hope you guys are all doing well and thank you for everything you've been helping us out with so far. Please keep it up! It's important! March means good news is coming soon. Talk to everyone later. See you at the shows. Bye-bye."

[chk]

I just wanted to add that if any of you would like to share PMs you have traded with Billy, here's a good spot to do so. He was sweet enough to answer a message I sent the other day and assures me that they will announce details on tour. etc as soon as they are able and he visits the org whenever he can. That means he reads this stuff, people!

So, Billy, if you're lurking... Hey Man! How are ya?

[cjspas]

New Billy Podcast on lovehammers.com. He called in from the Vegas airport while waiting for their flight! Thanking fans for showing up and hard rock and saying good things are coming. Someone else can transcribe it but wanted you all to know so you can listen.

[Trees]

Billy's DIARY


March 15, 2006
back home

hello once again....So, I am officially off tour now and at home. I think the word to describe my feeling is unsettling. Throughout our bands career I have always managed to keep my job and that was sort of an anchor for me. Well, I left that job on 1/6/06. It was an easy transition b/c I had vacation pay to cover me for awhile and I/we were very busy preparing for the upcoming tour. Welp. I am home now and want to get back doing something. Alot of things are out there on the horizon but its wierd tight now not having a daily routine.
I know...boo-hoo. It's not my intention to whine. Just sharing with ya'll where my head is at.

Let's see the tour in review/highlights:
Arriving in Vancouver with a gaggle(new word I learned from Ted the tour mngr.) of fans to greet us. Meanwhile, customs "hassled" some of the guys. More so than I have seen as I have had my share of incidents. Vancouver was exciting as we had alot of interviews and alot of VIP's at the show. It was great to finally meet INXS formally as they came to our dressing room to wish us well on the tour! We also had the honor of meeting Mark Burnett and his family. It really was an honor to meet such an iconic person and have him be so genuine & down to earth(family included).

LA...Gibson Ampitheatre:
Another great show. The venue was awesome and ther were alot of cool people there as well. Hell, its LA!...I just felt very rockstarish that day b/c of the people & surroundings. The Viper Room really was the icing on the cake as we caravanned over there after the Gibson show to a crazy show...,..It was chaotic b/c of the crowd/excitement/& history of the venue. Scott Weiland was there!!! Some fan stole my glasses off the stage...u know who u are! Return them. They were not cheap!

Vegas, Mandalay Bay:
Awesome show. Biggest crowd of the tour and vegas accomodations! Alot of Marty's cohorts from the show were there and it really out things into perspective of just how lucky we were to be on this ride. The show went off great and we partied at The House Of Blues and the Madaly center bar after the show only to be whisked off at 2:00am by our tour mngr. in his ultimate wisdom. It was a long drive to Denver thru the mountains and the weather can be unpredictable. So we left early.

Denver:
Show was cool....we got the word that the next 3 shows were cancelled. So we raced home. OUr driver gets big props for going all the way non stop! What a cyborg!

Chicago, Joes on Weed Street:
So, we planned a last minute show b/c we had some time to kill. We sold it out in minutes with one days laed time!!! What a feeling! The show was crazy and very gratifying to come to your home town in the bus to alot of your freinds. I was very proud of the 4 of us just thinking back on all we had been through but kept going. Acouple days later, we did an acoustic show at the Virgin Mega store downtown and signed Cd's and met fans. That was cool for me b/c my kids were there and they got an idea of what daddy is out there doing while he is away! Lastly, the Chicago Theatre was the capstone on the "homecoming" experience. The four of us all had our famlies there which was cool for them to see our routine, the bus, and what it's all about. Again, my kids were there to boot! I could not beleive they sat still hiding behind the side monitor the whole show just 10 feet from me. I was waiting/expecting Luc to start wandering around at some point out of restlessness(hopefully not on stage). All went smooth!!!

Toronto, Massey Hall

This show was cool b/c; shit! it's in another country dammit! No, but seriously, we got to visit the Sony office while there and do a bunch of interviews. Being a Johnny Cash fan, it was pretty cool to play the venue where he proposed to June Carter. It was also nice b/x we had a couple of days there so we got to see some of the city.

Atlantic City, Borgata

This was memorable b/c the accomodations were great and we had access to free food 24hrs a day. There was also alot to do after the show b/c we were at a Vegas style casino so we partied all night only to be greeted by the most intense blizzard I have ever seen. I think I sent the video to the tour diary section? Somehow, we drove thru the blizzard to NY and found out the show was cancelled b/c of the weather. Bummer! But, NY is a great place to be if u have some time to kill.

Norfolk, Charlotte, Atlanta

I have lumped these together b/c they were great for the same reason...the crowds were "off the hook! YO!" Additionally, we were in warm weather and that was a nice change. Lastly, this was a cool point in the tour b/c everyone on the tour was coming out of their shells and I got to know a lot of interesting people as a result. 3 people in particulair were Tony(INXS security dude), WendiSue & Melodi...the background singers for INXS. I really had a great time hanging with em' from the point of the tour on!!! I am still keeping in touch with them.

Boca Raton, FL

This show was cool b/c first...me & Jeremy(our merch guy) found some authentic Mexican food which I had been craving b/c Mr. Muchy, Jeremy, was always talking about Taaaco Bell(Taaaaco was how he annunciated the word & I always got a kick out of it). Second, it was an outdoor venue. How cool is it to be able to play outside in February? We had a soecial guest show up....Mr. Tony Larussa! A legendary baseball coach. He was more excited to meet us than we were him, I think? He brought some kick ass Cardinals swag and invited to be his guests at Spring Training the next day! Un fortunately, we had to leave that night for Nashville, TN. That was our layover stop on the long drive to St. Charles, MO.

Minneapolis, MN

The last show!!! A bittersweet day. We spent the day taking pics and exchanging emails, phone #'s etc. You know the drill. Me and Bob went to lunch with WediSue & Melodie on their dime....thaqnk you ladies. So, last show and all...it is customary for the bands to mess with each other during their shows. We had a code word if anyone saw the prank coming....."Muskrat". Welp....Kirk came out in a janitors uniform and proceeded to walk across the stage sweeping as we played. Andrew was sidestage taping the whole thing.....so, I shot hime the moon. It made for a really fun vibe on stage instead somber. that night Andrew invited us to their hotel lobby for drinks after the show. We had a blast just getting to hang out with one another as we did not have much time during the tour b/c we were on opposite schedules. It was a nice way to close out a great chapter in all of our lives.

I wish them the best and feel that they will be around for the long run. The next tour will be a hard act to follow b/c of the beautiful venues we played and the plush accomodations. They were way more generous than most headlining acts.....A special thanks to them. I think that's it for now. This took me an hour to write!!! I hope it reads alot faster......thank you everyone for making this ride a blast. Hopefully, it's just the beginning of a happy/successful career for me and my best friends!!! See you sOon.

Billy...............OUT!
Posted by billsawilchik at 12:46 AM

[chk]

Jeeze, but Billy ROCKS!
let's see.... so many thoughts swimming around after reading that. Must agree that Joe's/Virgin/CT were da bomb! What a blast. Am so glad Billy got to hang with his kids, meet gaggles of fans, feel like a rock star, and find some good Mexican food.
Honestly, when I think of what your family is giving up for you to pursue your dream, well, it makes me totally admire your wife, dude. Give her an extra hug from us. I'm buying as many cds as I can to help you pay the bills!!!

[chk]

LMAO cause I just realized that he meant to type "weird right now' not "weird tight now" -- so maybe the bills are okay???

[greeneyes]

chk said:

LMAO cause I just realized that he meant to type "weird right now' not "weird tight now" -- so maybe the bills are okay???

and I thought we had some new slang. I think I like "weird tight" anyway.

[radioclash]

I loved that he wrote such a long post and mentioned every stop on the tour!