It Makes It All Worth It!

THIS POST HAS BEEN CHANGED FROM ITS ORIGINAL FORMAT:  Changes or additions to the original post will appear in red.  


Yeah, I've been gone again!  I just noticed that it is more than a month since I've posted up on the  blog and I'm sorry, I didn't keep my promise to not disappear on you guys again.  I can't really explain why, sometimes I just drop off the face of the earth.  It's not like I haven't been up to anything, as a matter of fact, in the last month I've done some super cool shit.  Now is not the time to go into all that I've been up to but I will share a highlight of this time period that happened last night.  As a matter of fact, when this happens to me and it's happened quite a few times, each its own story, I can't begin to tell you the level of joy that this brings me....  so here is how it goes and went!

Last night, we went over the to Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix to see Bret Michaels do his show and his charity auction.  I've gotten to know the band fairly well over the last 9 months or so and I can say this for certain, the Bret Michaels Band is chock full of kick ass guys!  I've grown even closer to the main man who runs the console, Rudy T. Reily and John King Stensland super guitar tech to the god's!  So on Saturday night while having dinner with these guys, they asked if Diane and I wanted to go to the show. Well hell yeah we want to go to the damn show!  I never really get to take Diane to do cool shit much these days as the cool shit that I do is all over the country and she is always so busy and it's hard to get away.  I managed to shoot some video with the phone and that actually came out looking and sounding great but the photos are less than great but I'll share a few with you guys anyway.  It was hard not to get a good shot as we watched the show from the orchestra pit and practically sat on the damn stage.

 This is our buddy Rudy T.

 Guitar God himself John

 Dirty Ray rocking his new leather covered bass

 Pistol Pete just could not wipe the smile off his face last night

 So this is how the night went.  Rudy had John call us and tell us that they got tickets for us and we could pick them up at the will call office.  We walked in the basement door to the Celebrity Club or some shit like that, all I know was as soon as you made it past the security, there was a great big bar and what the hell, we were at a concert after all, so we grabbed a couple of Jack n Cokes and headed for the arena.   In this same area was a shit ton of memorabilia and signed schwag from Bret that was being auctioned off for several charities.  The ones I can remember are Wounded Warrior, American Diabetes, Phoenix Children's Hospital and maybe one or two more, but it was a great night of giving was ahead of us all.  We got up inside the venue and the opening act was on stage.  The opening act was just a re-mix of the Bret Michaels Band without Bret.  It was sort of like shuffling the deck with an extra guitar here and there.  We walked down towards our seats which were phenomenal, thank you guys and jumped down into the orchestra pit just to say hello and ended up virtually never leaving that very spot.    Well of course with the exception to smoking, drinking and pissing, none of those were allowed in the pit.... well, okay, the drinking was, it is in the end, rock n roll right?  So here is where the night got special..... All throughout the show, Bret pulled different people from the crowd on to the stage to sing, play guitar or just dance and then would stop everything and auction some shit off.  The first thing he did was take the cowboy hat off of his head and got 4 grand from someone in the crowd.  Then he offered a deal to the highest bidder;  the deal was, whoever gave the biggest donation would be invited to his home with a few of their own guests, party up, ride quads, rock out and he was going to bbq and cook for everyone.  What ended up happening was quite amazing in-fact.  Rather than one high bid, he ended up with 3 bids of 20 grand and one for 15 grand, so being a smart guy and thinking of the organizations that the money was being raised for, he took all the bids, they all won and in one single shot, made 75 thousand dollars!  That night, the band arrived having made 100 grand while on the road for charity.  In one night here in Phoenix, they more than doubled all the money they had raised and it was incredible to be part of it!  I have no idea how much was raised downstairs and what the final total was, but it had to be HUGE!!!

We ran up top to smoke and while I went outside and did that, Diane got on line for the bar.  I walked back in and saw a few faces that I knew and then I saw this woman's face just light up.  "Your that guy" she shouted as she pointed at me!  So I shouted right back "yes, yes I am"!  I had no idea what guy I was supposed to be and then in a flash thought, what if she meant, that's the guy who robbed me, that's the guy who raped me, that's the guy who screwed that giraffe in my back yard..... but it was too late, I'd admitted it was me!  She told me that she was a friend of mine on facebook and that we had never met in person.  For the life of me, I can't remember what her name was, but if I had to take a stab in the dark, I'm going to go with Gabby!  Sure hope I got that right!  So I told her how nice it was to meet her and I meant it, I love to meet people that otherwise I'd only know from online.  She told me that she wanted to thank me.  Thank me?  Thank me for what?  As she began to explain why, I noticed that she had a fairly large scar on her throat and she must have noticed me, noticing it.  She said "that is what I want to thank you for".  "Really, I don't understand" I said.  She then proceeded to tell me the fight she had recently gone through with cancer and then told me something that will warm my heart forever.  She said that it was my writing, my stupid jokes and videos and the way that I was pissing people off during the election process to try and get them to delete me so that I could add new friends that helped get her through it all!  Can you imagine?  I've been blessed a few times to have been told that something I've done, said or written has affected people's lives in an incredible way and it brings me the most incredibly warm feelings down deep in my soul!  To think that something I've done has the ability to help someone else is hard to fathom especially with the level of people that I seem to have the magical ability to piss off!

Lately, I have not had the urge, the ability nor the attention span to actually sit down and write ANYTHING!  Not even short lil updates of what's been going on in our lives could I muster.  I've gotten so many messages asking if we were okay and where I'd gone off to now and why I stopped posting on here?  It took this wonderful women's comments last night to me to make me smile and actually sit down and write again.  Gabby, if I got that right, you've now inspired me again, so I must thank you!  I'll never forget the kind words that you shared with me last night just as I will never for as long as I live forget the day at The Broken Spoke when for the first time ever, someone quoted something that I had written, verbatim, right back to me.  I know that life can be brutal and unforgiving at times and I believe as I've said in the past, that I was put on this earth to help people and to bring smiles to people, no matter how far apart on a map we may be at the time.

I hope life has not been too hard on you guys, my friends.  The holidays are coming and I know for a great many of us, this is the most difficult time of the year.  I pray that for those who suffer most, those who are away from their families, especially our armed forces and all those who are just feeling down that we all get through this shit.  Hell, if all goes well, we will only have to make it until the 21st of this month anyway, then the whole world ends.....  so if you are really feeling awful, we have that to look forward to....

Until we see each other again on the road,

Keep the wind in your face,
Tits in your back
and The Man Off Your ASS!

Your friend,
Jack Shit

How do you find yourself always involved in this shit?

Funny you ask and you are not alone, a lot of people ask me this question and the answer is simple, I've earned it I guess!  Whether it be being involved in really good shit or really bad shit, I guess I am there because of something that I've done....  what can I say, the strangest shit happens in my life.  In this particular case the question was how I found myself involved in the Grand Opening of the new HD Dealership in Scottsdale.  Jack, you are a guy who spouts off about supporting your local bike shop and here you are on stage at a dealership, what gives with that?

I've never made my position on this clear or why I had taken that position so allow me to do it for you now.  I've watched thru the early 90's when Harley exploded and the super dealers were built right up until today and I've seen the customer service go straight to hell.  I've witnessed an attitude of "go ahead and leave our store, we don't care, we will sell to the guy standing behind you"!  It really bothered me.  It truly seemed that money was coming in hand over fist and these dealers could not give a single solitary shit about the loyal people who kept Harley alive through the "lean" times.  It really bothered me to say the least.  That is when I began the push to support "the little guy".  Add in the fact that the stellar work and craftsmanship that was coming from these shops was blowing the factory out of the water.  I give anyone a chance to prove me wrong and recently, at least one dealership has done just that.  There is a new Sheriff in town and his name is Dr. Bob Parsons.  This name may ring a bell to you as the man who invented and built Go Daddy.com.  This man is a genius and he loves bikes!  He purchased the old Hacienda Harley and came in with sweeping changes to everything from staff to attitude.  This past Sunday was the grand opening and I got the call last month to see if I wanted to be part of it.  When I heard what I just mentioned to you and so much more, the only answer could be yes.  The kicker was that he was going to throw this party and charge anyone who entered the gates nothing for it!  Talk about a first class move!  The head line act for the night, Bret Michaels!

 For the first time in what seems like years now, Diane felt well enough to come and join me at a show.  Now that I think about it, it is actually damn near a year to the day since she has been at a show of mine!  Many of you know how sick she has been the last few weeks and two days before this show, she suddenly felt amazing.  Look at her face in the pic above, you can see the light back in her eyes and the damn near total lack of pain on her face.  I can't put in to words how happy this has made me.  She ran the camera for a while, hung out back stage for hours and did it all with an ear to ear smile.  Normally, she needs to sit after a short while, but she stood for hours on end without a single complaint!

I hate to admit that I ever make pre conceived judgements on people but I guess we all do.  When you see people on TV, we come to think that we know them, who they are, what they are like and how they act, I guess this is the world we live in.  I was sure that Bret was going to be a dick and I was sure that he was going to be a total "rockstar" and treat people like shit.  I'm not sure why I was so positive about this, I just knew that he would be.  I had not seen Poison since they were mega huge and had never seen the Bret Michaels Band perform so I just didn't have high expectations.  I am proud to admit that I have never been more far off on anything.  The band was amazing, the show fantastic and as far as Bret goes, he COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ANY NICER!  I hate being proven wrong.  I am open to it, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it!

Just to give you an example of what I'm saying, is the photo above.  Diane was tired and sore and her hands were full with all kinds of shit when she tried to take this photo.  She snapped the pic, Bret said thank you to me?  Thank you to me?  Okay, wow, a gentleman too.  He had just finished playing his ass off and was walking back to the bus and was a good 10-15 feet away and Diane said "oh no, it's blurry".  I said "oh well, no big deal" and with that, Bret heard her over all the noise, turned around and said well let's do that again.  Diane said she was sorry and he said don't worry about it, take your time and get the shot!  To me, this was a stand up move on his part for damn certain.

The funny thing is that we ended up on stage together.  I've been joking about us singing a duet together, yes, I was joking.... we did not sing Celine Dion's, My Heart Will Go On.... anyone who thought I was serious should get their friggin heads examined!  I hate Celine Dion!  We really sang Baby Got Back!

So Bret goes off stage, I remain on stage and continue to rock the crowd and keep them fired up.  I look down off the stage to find Diane and she was not there.  She was in the same spot all damn day, where the hell was she?  I would imagine that over the years the question of where is my wife at a Bret Michaels show must have been asked thousands of times.  The obvious answer to the question is, if your wife is missing at one of his shows, she is probably with him!  So I walk off stage and who do I find?  You guessed it!

When I'm working, I like to go out in to the crowd when the head line band goes on, but it was nice to see this show from the wings.  What made it even nicer was that we watched the show with Bret's family.  His daughters, Rain and Georgia I believe were just beautiful.  At one point, Georgia was tired and all she wanted to do was sit down and I was right with her but she would have been crushed.  So I picked her up, carried her over to the speaker stack and placed her on top.  Then mom came over and gave her a juice box.  She thanked me and I asked for some of her juice box, she smiled, laughed and said, I don't think so!  This lil girl was gorgeous!  To me, she looks like a young Dakota Fanning.  Bret's "wife", I call her that because they have been together so long was truly a lovely lady.  She could not have been any nicer or social than she was.  We spoke of how she must be taking really great care of Bret because he looked so healthy.  I said you have to tell Diane what you are feeding him so that I can get a bit healthier myself.  She laughed and said "the reason he looks so good is because I'm NOT feeding him"!  "I DON'T COOK"!  The entire family were dynamite.

To give you an example of how sweet she really is, check this out.  Diane is tiny and I am by no means a big guy, well height wise that is and she is really tall.  She scrunched down while laughing so that the pic would look better and we would all seem like the same height!  It's the simple gestures that people make that show character.  We had a truly nice night!  The event was a massive success and afterwards, we all split down to the Dirty Dogg to party the night away!

So like I said in a previous post, GO AHEAD AND CHANGE MY MIND, I DARE YOU TO.  This is one time in my life that I am truly happy to have been proven wrong!

See you at the Dirty Dogg Saloon this week and we are going to continue to blow this Bike Week up!

Until we see each other on the road,

Keep the wind in your face,
Tits in your back
and the man off your ASS!

Your friend,
Jack Shit