It hit me last night how much I miss my brother and Jared. We were hanging back stage with the guys from Sinful and Crusader, taking shit from them because they've been with Skid longer than we have (Sinful was Skid's very first band) but we're headlining. At that point, Mike cracked up and I swear to god, channeled Marc as he said, "Yeah, well it just proves that pretty always wins." Sinful went on stage still laughing.

This tour shouldn't be any different than any other one. We're touring. We're all crammed into bunks and missing our wives and our kids and arguing with each other over stupid stuff and worried about our favorite instruments and in talks for new endorsement deals (ESP wants to give me a signature bass. That's fucking awesome.) It's life on the road. We don't sleep and we have a diet of corn chips and Mountain Dew. We've toured a lot since Marc died. We've released albums and actually had more success in the last couple of years than we've seen since Slingshot was released in 1988. Our back catalog sales have tripled since Into Infinity came out last year. We've moved on.

But this time it's different. This time it's a Skid tour and the core group of guys are the guys who all came up together through the ranks. Hell, these are the guys that Phil used to help out as an engineer when he was working for Skid as he worked through college, long before he had his own music career. We all go back at least thirty years. And we all agree there are two people who are missing.

Where's Jared's fine tuning of the boards before the show? Where's Marc's perfectionist mindset? Frank, Sinful's lead singer, talked to the fans last night how on the first tour Sinful and Time Machine ever did together - it would have been the tour supporting And Back Again - we partied it up like there was no tomorrow. He has fond memories of literally rolling off the bus and onto the stage for sound check. We never actually bothered with hotel rooms half the time because we were just passed out on the bus. This is the new and old guard of Skid Records. Where we've been and where we are going, and Marc and Jared need to be here.

I was in this huge funk last night, thinking about how much I hate touring and that without Marc it isn't any fun anymore and then I realized that most of it was me sulking because when I stepped onto that stage and we charged through Staredown and Crack Street (what a way to OPEN a show) and Phil hollered out "Hey, New Orleans!" I was reminded WHY touring is so important. You can't reach the kids we reach by staying in one place. I don't know the ticket sales from last night yet but we sold out the venue and they stayed until our very last song and the after party went until at least three in the morning. Young kids clamoring to talk to us and Sinful and Crusader and the younger acts getting exposure and knowing that all of our music really, honestly means something. Knowing that the profit from the ticket sales last night goes back into the New Orleans community so these kids can get some music education again. That's why we tour. And that's the fun of it. It's about piling onto the bus, dead tired, and falling asleep and wanting your own bed and your kids to wake you up and yet knowing that you're doing GOOD. You're bringing music to people. I still hate that I feel like I'm too old for this shit, but the rush of the show last night was enough to make me feel better about it. Today: Pensacola. I love a good beach show.