Chapter IX

Both gigs went great, and I remember feeling slightly depressed after the SR gig. Everybody knew that it might take a year before we’d be on stage with Opeth again. Sweden Rock is a festival I can warmly recommend to people who're into classic heavy metal. I think it's the best festival in the world. I'd go there regardless if we'd play or not.

This year Judas Priest were headlining but I was quite dissapointed with them. Tipton played really bad and the drummer was bad too. Only Rob and KK did great, Ian Hill? Well, who looks at him anyways? They all seemed tp believe they could live off of their "metal god" status forever. I love them with a passion, but this gig was not great!

The Scorpions was one of my absolute favourite bands when I was a kid. Me, Anna and Blakkheim watched them and we had a absolute blast! I do admit however, that at times we were laughing at them and not with them. Rudolf Schenker has some moves that are...

well, not cool! Europe played to, a reformed gig, and it was cool to see them, good set! The best was...Heart! I'm honest. I only knew some of their hits from the 80´s, so virtually every song they did I was hearing for the first time.

Absolutely fantastic gig! I'm now a big fan of theirs!! Ann Wilsons voice is the best I've heard in a long time, her sister, Nancy is fucking awesome too!

Coming home for me meant I’d be able to spend some time writing new music ( which I’m still currently doing) + spend time with my pregnant wife. We had one weeks vacation down south, but apart from that we’ve just been taking it easy over the Summer. I went down during a day to visit Steven Wilson. He’d asked me to play some guitar + sing some backing vocals on the new Porcupine tree album. A offer I could not turn down. Since then…there’s no actual band news worth mentioning apart from that the DVD has sold Gold in Canada.

Peter got married to his Jessica on the 21st of August + me and my wife became parents to our daughter, Melinda on the 13th of September. She’s crying out for me now so…gotta go!

Oh, also gotta say that I got to meet one of my absolute idols the other week, David Coverdale! I kinda know the Whitesnake guitarist, Doug Aldrich as him and his girl came to our gig in LA...great guy! He introduced myself and Blakkheim (who was shaking!) to DC. Coverdale's opening phrase as I stepped into his dressing room was "Hello Mikael, how's the band doing?"

I gave him a copy of "Damnation" which I think he's heard before from Doug and actually liked + I got a poster signed to myself, Anna and Melinda! What a great man! We talked for 10 minutes or so, then me and Blakkie headed over to a night club, drinking...Blakkheim kept his signed Whitesnake backstage pass round his neck throughout the entire evening! * * *