Chapter XI

Here we are, watching Axl come out a metre from us waving at Me, Mendez, Baz, Adam and Justin from Tool + Izzy Stradlin. Insane!

I remember when we passed the last guard station Baz was walking in front of us, and he´s a tall motherfucker, like a gazelle...he turned round and said "Who´s the man?". And I said, "You are, dude!".

We played Wacken as well with Opeth and it was a nice show. Hung out with some cool people. We´re sharing a bus back to the hotel with David Vincent from Morbid Angel and Ihsahn from Emperor. Axe was fucked up on alcohol and was giving out portions of snus. He had some disgusting cranberry flavoured snus at the time and made the now (for us) classic line as he asked Vincent...in broken English: "Do you like Cranberry?" Vincent: "No!"

We hung out with Tool and Placebo at a festival in Norway. I got a bottle of wine from Justin of Tool and those guys are really cool. I hope we can play more with them.

We did our final gigs for "Ghost reveries" in Italy. We´d had a really warm welcome in Rome since it´s been 10 years since our last gig there. We didn´t play that well, but it was certainly a memorable show.

My wife and Melinda and the other wives and girlfriends had flown down for that gig. I remember Melinda sitting on a few guitarboxes on the side of the stage as we´re playing with her fluorescent protective headphones. Completely in awe, and with her teddybear in her lap. Way past her bedtime as well. She must have thought we´re too loud as she held her fingers in the ears of the teddybear. Cute!!

After the final gig I, which was in Treviso... we said goodbye to our touring partners, the great Amplifier, and headed off to our hotel. It´s a melancholic feeling after having done so much work, and all of a sudden there´s nothing in your calendar at all. I knew I´d be busy writing music and I had my family back home, so I couldn´t wait to turn the page so to speak.

There were many issues to take care of as well.

Ahhhh, coming back home from endless tours...it feels like I survived a nuclear attack or something. It just feels totally unreal. My calendar (well, I don´t have a physical one, my wife tells me where to go, what to do...what to say) is empty...nothing booked whatsoever. It´s a very nice feeling for a guy like me. I knew we needed the rest, all of us.

Basically I wanted to get moving writing some new stuff and on top of that me and my wife were expecting our 2 nd child. Having kids is the best but it´s also very rough on a god forsaken slacker who loves late nights, vinyl, party, TV, beer, computer games etc. Now, having two... surely the last nail in my youth-coffin??

Melinda is going to kindergarten so I was writing up til the time I had to go pick her up there, and the rest of the day was usually spent hanging out with her. Going to the playgrounds, nodding to other parents (which...is a very rough thing for me. I guess I don´t want to be one of those...parents....like...you know....people who just follow the "rules". Those who eat nice dinners on Fridays.). But I love hanging out with Melinda. She´s the apple of my eye and basically I couldn´t live without her. I´ll gladly demean myself to make her happy...

Fast forward to late October. Writing is pretty much done, I´m happy, I feel secure and I know the songs are great. We´ve been rehearsing and we´re tight as a "witches cleft". My head is just burning with information and worries. Any day now I´m going to be a dad again. Anna´s a...monster! Haha, not really, she´s doing well, but basically we just want to get the whole labour thing over with. After some nighyt pains on Oct 27 we went to the hospital (same place where Melinda in 2004 and where I was born in 1974).