The ACM Awards 2008

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the recent ACM Award show in Las Vegas and I’ll just start by saying: it was very cool. Maybe I should lie and say it was miserable but it was an excellent trip filled with adventures.

I arrived Friday afternoon and immediately went down to a place called Dream Cars on Tropicana, the Vegas Strip. As the name implies, they rent exotic vehicles and they are the real deal. If you want to roll big, try a Lamborghini for about $1500 a day. My ride was a bit less expensive but I think even cooler: a tricked out Iron Horse chopper. Pulling into the lot, I thought, “No way. It’s too much bike”. The front end was extended waaaay out, further than anything else I’ve ever ridden. Starting it up made it clear to anyone within a block that this thing was beast.

I took a few wobbly turns around the lot in back and then headed out on Tropicana for a short hop over to the MGM Grand. I pulled into the parking lot and was aware I was having trouble breathing. I mean trouble. I was born with asthma but out grew most of it but every so often it will kick in. It’s what kept me from pursuing baseball as a career and keeps me from jogging – I just don’t have lung capacity. Yeah, I know – you’re thinking that guy can sure yak for someone with weak lungs. But it’s true. Something was affecting me – the heat, dust exhaust – so much I had to call a buddy to bring me an inhaler. I didn’t think I could walk from the lot to the hotel!

The inhaler did its thing and over the next hour or so I got back to myself and was ready for dinner. It would take more than breathing trouble to keep me away from the dinner table. Later that night, around11, I went down and took the chopper out for about an hour, ending with a few runs up and down Tropicana. How many times does a guy get a chance to whip a full-blown chopper down the middle of Vegas at midnight? I had to do it.

I was up and out by 6 AM the next morning (Saturday) and in line at the Las Vegas Harley Davidson parking lot. It’s a huge dealership and extremely cool; if you’re a rider and find yourself in Vegas, you might want to pay a visit. At least get a T-shirt.

I was in the VIP section behind the twenty-five or so artists and the lot started filling up. My first year on this ride I learned to get there early because it’s kind of a drag to be at the tail end of about two thousand motorcycles pulling out. Montgomery Gentry and all the other artists took the stage, joined by ACM officials. There was a brief and touching prayer and flag display and we were off.

The ride goes from the Harley Dealership to Mt. Charleston and it’s fabulous. The heat and the desert itself is a pretty wild place to ride. As we headed up the mountain, the temperature dropped rapidly and at the peak, it was very pleasant. Lots of sun, deep blue skies and craggy mountaintops and drop-offs; it’s a great place to hang for an hour or so. Only the artists were allowed in an area that served beer with the hot dogs and burgers (what’s up with that?) but I had two smuggled out to me.

When it was time to go, I was going to meet up with a buddy who had a rental car and we’d go back to the Dream Cars place and return the bike. Somehow, we missed connections so I thought no big deal, I’ll just go to the rental place and call my buddy and we’ll be good. All of that changed when the chopper’s engine sputtered and finally died on the highway back to Vegas.

Out of gas. There were guys up on the mountain gassing bikes up but I ignored them. I’d topped off before and in the years of doing the ride I’d yet to run out of gas. But, like I said, this motorcycle was a complete beast. Every time I started it up on the street or in the parking garage, car alarms went off. That made me smile. But I wasn’t smiling alongside the highway that Saturday afternoon. It was 110 degrees and I was feeling every one of them. I contacted my buddy who said he would come help; the only trouble was that I wasn’t sure where I was. “I’ll find you,” he assured me. So I waved off bikers offering to help.

After about an hour, the bikes were pretty much gone and my friend still had not arrived. Luckily, a wonderful couple stopped and gave me a gallon of gas. As you could predict, that was exactly when my buddy pulled up. It always works out that way, I guess. So, at least for an hour or so, I was out in the desert on an Iron Horse With No Name!!

After returning the chopper, I rushed over to a studio to record an album release special for Jewel and her new project “Perfectly Clear”. That went well but we were still running. This time off to an incredible dinner at Sea Blue, a wonderful restaurant in the MGM Grand. After dinner we made the mistake of going to the Fremont Street Experience to catch Sugarland. It was a complete zoo. Over 33,000 fans all shoved into a few blocks was not fun. Sugarland sounded great but we left pretty quickly.

Sunday morning I stumbled down to a brunch and performance by a new act, The Eli Young Band. Their single “When It Rains” is beginning to take off. I’ve liked it since the beginning and was happy to meet them.

The ACM show that night was, in my truthful opinion, one of the better awards shows I’ve yet to see. Enough has been written about that show and I have no great insights but I’ll tell you something here I haven’t mentioned on the air: because I was nominated for an ACM radio award (I didn’t get it) I had a great seat. After the show we wandered around a bit. I ran into Jack Ingram and he was still pumped after winning an ACM for Best New Male Vocalist. Couldn’t happen to a better guy. We ended up at a party celebrating Lady Antebellum’s ACM award and it was also nuts – in a good way. You know it’s a party when you walk in and the first thing you see is Lady A’s Hillary, dancing on a table. I sat with Lady A’s Charles for a bit and he was feeling no pain. Who wouldn’t be celebrating? We came very close to going out and getting a tattoo together. He was ready – I even offered to pay. He laughingly said he was the brokest ***#@* in the club but right after that said he had a thousand bucks in his pocket!!! I’ll bet he won’t recall a whole lot of the night. His girlfriend and my buddy talked some sense to us and we called it a night at about 2 AM.

So that’s a brief round-up of my trip. Yup, it was a party and I enjoyed every single minute.