It’s been a busy week, but – in a good way. When you’re working in a different country and have about 4 hours of travel back and forth every day, you just don’t get a whole lot of time left for the stuff you want to do (which in turn of course leads to insomnia or extreme tiredness because you end up staying up all night to finish stuff).

Had a great conversation with David Coverdale the other day for instance. It wasn’t for myself so I can’t reveal much about it until it’s actually been published (you know, all those “business policies” you have to think about nowadays…).

But how that man knows what to say and how to say it to make people smile. :) I can of course only speak for myself, but I think that many who have dealt with David can relate. He remembers names and faces. Sceptic as I am, I’m always thinking that artists get a short decription of who they’re going to speak to before an interview.

But sometimes THAT idea totally flies out the window. With David, I already know that he doesn’t need an introduction of me, he’s been aware of my existence for many years now. But sometimes it surprises me when it comes to other artists!

I always thought that Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, maybe would know me by name cause he’s such an internet-junkie (and during a period I was out there on the Priest/Halford message boards quite a lot). But a few years ago I realized that he knew exactly…

I had been let through the gates of Fort Knox (Sweden Rock Festival backstage area to the main stage – which is like this HOLY place that you need to be escorted to, unless you’ve got one of the very rare guest passes to that area, of course).

Had just finished an interview with K.K Downing and when I stepped out of his trailer after the interview, Rob was packing his suitcase with his back turned to me. I didn’t think there would be any point saying anything, he wouldn’t know who I was anyway (I thought). But I ended up just saying: “Hello Rob!” . He turned around and immediately went: “Well hello Daniela! How lovely to see you! How are you?”

Needless to say, my jaw dropped. He didn’t need as much as a second to ponder, he was very 100% clear on who I was.
Halford is my #1 hero as I’m sure that nobody who’s been following me through the years could possibly have missed, but THAT moment was so memorable.

Coverdale ALWAYS smiles and says something nice, whether it’s at a press conference or from the stage – he can spot me and recognize me in seconds. I can even see the very moment when he notices me, his whole face just brightens up with a big smile. You can’t buy that feeling for money.

[David Coverdale and me after an interview, Sheraton Stockholm 1999]

If you’re a fan of an artist and you’ve followed them since what feels like the beginning of time, those things not only make your day – they make your week, month… Well, you know. :)

But during this conversation with David a few days ago, he was in the middle of explaining something, when I suddenly heard him say “…maybe not suitable for your blog, but….”

Wait, wait, wait a second….! I was doing this interview on behalf of another media. I never mentioned to him or the guy who set up the interview that I have a blog. And even if I had, it would have been completely irrelevant in this case.
Then HOW on earth would David Coverdale know about my blog and speak about it like it was the most natural thing in the world? It was just a “by the way” thing that was sneaked into a sentence when he was explaining something.

Holy crap. I suppose then that David has visited the blog at some point. It’s probably “uncool” to admit it, but I feel honored.

I know that Sebastian Bach has come across my blog as well, because it resulted in a YouTube-dispute last year. Not that I’m surprised, I’ve known the guy for 25 years and his explosive mood is not exactly news to me (or anyone else I’m sure).

[Baz and me after show at Gino’s, Stockholm 1995]

I had written something negative about his performance at the Graspop festival – that he was acting like a primadonna who was afraid to get his hair wet when it rained and he was bitching about it on stage. It was just a review, and the rest of the text just said that this is one of the few times I’ve seen him like that. He always gives everything on a stage.

Anyway, he reported the 30-second video clips on YouTube as “copyright infringement” (which is ridiculous as it was so short and was basically a zoom-in on his unengaged facial expression, not a music video). [The copyright-thing has been taken back though, so things are cool :)]

In an interview recently he pretty much quoted what had been written in this blog about his performance at Graspop. My guess is that he knew that he had had a bad day and was upset that it had been caught on camera and brought to people’s attention that way. There’s nothing on YouTube from that gig now when I made a search… I don’t blame him. I suck at taking negative feedback as well. :)

But as I hadn’t named those clips on YouTube and only linked to them to the post as unlisted videos, you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that he somehow came across this blog. :P

Maybe not a big deal but it is to me, sometimes. We’re all still fans – and there will always be somebody (an artist or a band) that makes us feel like 13 all over again.

I read drummer Brian Tichy’s post the other day, about his jam with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. He was so excited about the whole thing, like a school boy. And you’d think that this guy should be jaded by now – he’s been playing with everybody. Billy Idol, Whitesnake, Foreigner, Ozzy, Glenn Hughes… the list is just way too long! And he can still be “star struck”, I think that’s so lovely and makes me feel a whole lot better, ha ha! :)

[Doug Aldrich and Brian Tichy]

From Brian’s diary:

“In 2011, before the Whitesnake tour, I got the opportunity to track drums on Steven Tyler’s single “Feels So Good.” Steven watched me track them that day. Two takes later, I was done. That’s what led up to him calling me to play this benefit with he and Joe Perry. But nothing prepares you on how to react when you get a a call from Steven Tyler! 

He started complimenting my drumming from the day I tracked his song. Then he told me what he wanted me for. He started naming off the songs he wanted to play; “Dream On, Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way, etc..” and I was tripping out that soon in my life would be a day that I get to play songs from one of my favorite bands ever, songs I had been playing since I was 10, songs that I learned how to play drum by playing to, with the guys that wrote them! Come on!”

I don’t think I’ll ever get so jaded that I don’t give a crap about certain bands/artists on a pure “fan level”. If I do, that will be my cue that it’s time to start doing something else. :)

[With Rob Halford outside Royal Albert Hall in London, 2006]