Crestfallen Woman and the Plague

Back on the road again....yeah, I'm back on the road again. Sorry, that song gets stuck in my head often. I loved being out on tour with my four brothers. Well, actually more brothers than that if you want to count JB Dizz, his brother Matt, their Dad sometimes came on tour with us too. Our manager, Larry Jacobson.

Papa Gates did too sometimes, girlfriends did too occasionally. Right now Matt had Val out here on tour with us. She's no longer our merch girl or tour manager though. We didn't have a merch girl anymore. Not a permanent one anyway. That was about to change this tour however. It was the first day of the City of Evil tour. To promote our newest album.

Our most mainstream album to date, that's for sure. Our best album. We hardly had to alter the arrangements on this one. Mudrock really beat us up on Waking the Fallen... No screaming on this album too. I love Matt's singing voice. I do some back up vocals, like I always do.

But my place is drumming. How I absolutely love my drums. I would have filthy rotten sex with them if I could. That's a topic for another day however.

I think our first show is Phoenix Arizona. Which is a little weird. I don't think we've ever played Phoenix. But it was good that we were because JB Dizz said he has a first cousin who lives here. A girl I think? I forgot what he said her name was though. Started with an A.. I was fairly positive.

We had just gotten a nice, brand new, huge tour bus from Warner Bros, our new record label so of course we were dying to get on it and check it out. I called a bunk in the back, the biggest one cause after all, I am the TALLEST! YES! I love being a jolly green giant who bounces the hills and makes the others absolutely fucking jealous of my awesome height!

Johnny, he's petrified. He's a foot shorter than me. Poor Johnny Christ. That little short shit.

"Dammit Jimmy, I wanted back bunk,"

Zacky whined and I smirked,

"I am taller than you. So therefore. I win. Mr Baker."

Zacky rolled his eyes and hit me upside my head, I returned the favor by putting a boot up his ass. Well, trying to anyway.

"DAMMIT JIMMY! YOUR FOOT DOES NOT FIT UP THERE!"

Zacky hollered which made my best friend, Brian come back there to break us up. Zack and I were good friends now, thanks to the band, but we still fought sometimes. And Johnny, being the newest member of the band, we still liked to torture him incessantly in the words of my best friend Brian.

I let Zack up, stopping my pursuit in trying to shove my boot up his ass and I grinned.

"We will resume this later grasshopper,"

I said in a weird Chinese type accent and headed up to the front of the bus. To put things lightly, I'm the nerd of the band. I'm the dork. I'm the random fucked up thoughts always in the head guy. But that's okay. That's what made me, me. That's what made us the greatest fucking band in the world.

We're a band of best friends.. We play one on one death saver, guitar hero, we joke around constantly. We live life to its fullest. We live as if we're going to die tomorrow. None of us ever thought about death though. We were having the fucking time of our lives. We were doing a hundred miles an hour in the fast lane.

No time to slow down. Sometimes yes, we take shit for granted. But sometimes it socks us in the face, reality does, and it's like. Holy fucking shit. We're finally here. The big time. We have a real tour bus. Real money.

I think it really dawned on us when we paid Val back after borrowing so much money from her at the start of Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. If it wasn't for her money... hell, we'd still be looking for a record label, looking looking looking. We were lucky fucks to have her.

Val is my best friend till death do us part. My road Mother of sorts. I was glad she was on tour with us right now. Life wouldn't be right without her.

And with all of these thoughts in my head, something still clicked me back to JB Dizz's cousin and heading to Phoenix Arizona. Ah well, five hours on this bus to go... What to do...what to do...

"WHO WANTS TO PLAY GUITAR HERO?! GATES? CAN I SMOKE THAT ASS?"

I hollered to the back of the bus, since he was getting his bunk in order. He was such an organize freak. Well nothing compared to Matt or Zack. They REALLY liked to be organized. Zacky especially.

"Jimmy, you haven't ever beat me at guitar hero."

Brian said firmly and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"We'll see about that... If you beat me though, I wanna play that horrid rhythm of ours."

"I HEARD THAT YOU JERK!"

Zacky hollered from the back.

"I ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE VENGEANCE! NOW LEMME PUT THIS BOOT IN YOUR ASS AGAIN!"

I heard a bathroom door to the bus slam, knew it was him. My day is not complete unless I piss him off. I felt complete now. I could play guitar hero and smile the entire time. Life was grand.