Survivor - County Fair Edition

If you have ever been in a band, the idea of going on the road has always been sort of the ultimate fantasy. Tour buses with cool airbrushing on the side, groupies, adoring crowds, bowls of specially prepared m&m's, tossing your guitar to a waiting roadie when a string breaks, trashing hotel rooms, and of course, groupies.

Well that was then, but unfortunately this is now. My band was offered (well, perhaps it was merely floated as an idea, but whatever, that would be splitting hairs) to do a month and a half tour this summer in support of another band, one with an actual history of one sort of hit in the 80's. Not sure if it was for Rocky 2, 3 or 4, but the band is Survivor, and the "hit" was "Eye of the Tiger."

I caught some shit from my bandmates when I sort of pooh poohed the idea because of the obvious notion of how bad a band do you have to be to open for those guys. I think we know the answer. But then I started rethinking what a few of them said: it would be a blast to live out our teenage fantasy of rock stardom, minus the adoring fans, groupies (all of us are happily married & besides, we'd be inheriting the groupies that Survivor rejected, a truly horrifying visual image), & trashing hotels. So what if we would be playing lousy venues in obscure regional theme parks & county fairs. We would be able to check off one of the most important boxes on the rock band checklist.

In the end, our real lives, jobs, & families have won out and the Loaded Tour 07 was killed before it was even a gleam in this guitarist's eye.

Ladies & gentlemen, please welcome Epic Recording Artists, Survivor!