I think it was the summer of ‘99. It was a benchmark gig. Todd Snider’s first gig as an acoustic act after the Nervous Wrecks imploded the night before in Atlanta. I was the opening act for him at the Exit/In here in Nashville. It was the night I met Russ & Eddie Riddle and Wendy Sams for the first time and what a change to my life that has been. It was also the night I met Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

It was common knowledge that Mitch was in town and word had it that he was participating in a Jimi Hendrix tribute record being done in Berry Hill. (That’s a section of Nashville that looks totally residential but is in fact mostly offices, studios, thrift shoppes, etc. Alex the Great Studios (where so much of my work has been done) is over there. The original Grimey’s was over there. My Dentist. It’s not far from where I live. It’s also about 3X3 square miles of solid speed-trap FYI.)

A week or two beforehand, World Famous Wayne told me that he’d met Mitch and turned him on to me, showed him a recent picture in the paper of me, yadda yadda. Told him all these great things about me. Thanks Wayne, I said, that’s exciting! (You lying sack of shit, Wayne. Give me a break.)

So it’s moments before I’m going to go on. And though Will wasn’t playing as a Wreck with Todd that night, he WAS playing with ME. I’d already booked him and didn’t feel as secure in my solo acoustichood in those days as I do now (most of the time), so I told Will he was still hired for ME even if he did indeed have the rest of the night off after that.

We were behind the backstage curtain tuning up our acoustics and noodling, when up the steps and onto the back of the stage came the most impish looking little gent with the same haircut Mitch Mitchell had before he went frizzy, a bit shorter than Woodstock length, and other than the glasses on his face and maybe a bit more weight in the jowls, it was… and it took a second to register… a slightly older - and much smaller! - version of… yes! Mitch Mitchell. (Robert Plant and Mick Fleetwood are the only tall English rockers ever. The rest of them you could fit in an overhead compartment.)

Mitch Mitchell, of “Are You Experienced?” and “Fire” and Monterey and Woodstock and, well, fucking rock and roll history, dude. He played with Hendrix, Clapton, Lennon. And here he was, smiling, approaching us, and he came towards me. ME!

“Your friend Wayne said I could catch you here. So excited to see you.” he intoned in the most proper King’s Rocker Anglese, “I’ve heard tremendous things!”

We bantered about things I can’t remember, he, me and will, for a couple of minutes and he exited so we could float out onto the stage having just met Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi By God Hendrix One And Only Experience!

He saw me coming down the steps into the crowd after my set and came back up to congratulate me on a “job well done” as he said. I gave him a record and he said that was very sweet of me and thank me.

He turned to go. “If you ever need a drummer, call me!” he barked and then guffawed, as if his laugh was over how could I call? I don’t have his number.

A wonderful guy. I’m thrilled to say I met him. May he Rest in Peace.

So Wayne, I’ll GIVE you this one!

Oh, and Todd was great that night too.

Cheers,

Tommy

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by the name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever.

And now, Lord, if I might interject some of my own prose, I hope it will be pleasing to your ear.

This is an historic day. I was telling my son last night that he was witnessing history in the making. Either way, it’s going to be one of the most monumental days in the history of the world. Never has the entire globe followed a U.S. election like they’re following this one. It’s not even close. Lord, one candidate is leading by 5-7% in American polls; in other countries, he leads by anywhere from 30 to 70%.

The world knows that when my country sneezes, they catch a cold. People all over the planet see this choice, this year, this moment, as a chance to take back sanity in the top office on the planet. Today, Lord, sanity will either rise like the sun in the east, or insanity will prevail and my beloved United States will begin its setting like the sun in the west.

Lord, I say this prayer for my son. I want him to grow up in a country full of promise like I did.

I say it with true Christian faith, even as I profess to Thee, that the Christian Evangelical Right has as much to do with Your teachings, as Pat Boone’s “Tutti-Frutti” has to do with rock and roll.

I say this prayer, Dear Lord, because until eight years ago my great nation had never once dealt with a president who is genuinely… stupid. Lord, the U.S. has had plenty of flawed mortal men in the Oval Office. Nixon was devious. Buchanan and Harding were weak. Both Johnsons were drunks. Grant was incompetent. Jefferson, Kennedy & Clinton were horn-dogs. But none of those men, or any other past presidents, were ever what you would consider stupid. Honestly stupid. My country’s perfect record in that regard lies in ruins now.

Lord, I come to you in prayer for the survival – the renewal - of my great land. I ask you to bless America, and by doing so, the world.

I humbly beseech Thee, for change we can believe in.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost…

Amen