Kay Hanley

This will be my last post from the tour bus. We played in Jacksonville tonight and now we’re rolling to Miami for our last show. So actually, let me rephrase. This will most likely be my last post from the tour. Umm… that feels like a very weird thing to say. I have to give my fellow tour bloggers, Mike Schmid, Gregg Garbo and Iggy Rosenberg my most heartfelt thanks for inspiring me to write Strange Life in the first place and to stick with it. Were it not for my enthusiastic drive to be smarter and funnier than you, upwards of 350 people might have been spared my ramblings. I love you guys.

Okay. 2 action packed days in Orlando. Let’s go through it, aiiight??? Creamer came through with some sweet courtside seats to the Celtic/Magic game so that was definitely an auspicious start to our stay. Stacy, Jamie, Vashon and I were super stoked.

see? super stoked.

That evening we went to Candice’s adorable parents’ house. They had decided that they should have a party for the entire tour and they did not disappoint. They set the tone by sending some humongous escaladehummerpickupstrechlaserlimo to pick everyone up at the hotels and then that um, vehicle made the pickup/drop off loop all night. The Accolas are impeccable hosts but boy, they also know how to throw down in true rock star fashion. Thanks for the bitchin’ hang, Dr. and Mrs. Accola!

myke, charlie & jason.

ashlee, candy-o and christina

these are some proud parents.

Candice’s friends Teri and Lindsey came down to the first show and hung out backstage while she and I did our Abbott & Costello hair and makeup bit, which we love to exaggerate for people whenever we get the chance. We don’t get out much. We barely speak to anyone in this world but each other at this point, so that statement is actually true. Anyhoo, they made very cute shirts for their homegirl.

why, oh, why did i not ask for one of the shirts?!

After the second show we got it together fast and vacated the Arena for another night out in Orlando. Johnny Damon’s wife, Michelle and her girlies brought all their daughters to the show and so we hopped in their escaladehummerpickupstretchlaserlime and blazed back to the Damon compound for pizza, beer and general revelry. When we got to the house, I was overjoyed to find that they had Dance Dance Revolution in their game room. I was somewhat less overjoyed when Johnny kicked my ass for 2 dance-offs in a row. Worse yet. I was trying my damndest to shoot without flash so my pix of Johnny and Jamie in DDR battle came out like crap.

trust me, this was a sight to behold.

michelle shows me how it’s done

Johnny’s game room contained more valuable baseball memorabilia than any of us will ever see in a lifetime. The fact that much of it was so intimate made it all the more thrilling to see. It was like workplace bric-a-brac bestowed upon Johnny by an employee pool of constantly shifting office mates. But not really, of course.

cal ripken’s shirt!!

Maybe I’ll find myself unwilling to go quietly into that goodnight in Miami tomorrow. I just read that Schmid is going to be “liveblogging” all day tomorrow. I can’t possibly allow him to have the last word. Damn you, Schmid!

xok

I don’t know about you, but for me, Youtube is purely a tool for finding videos of the songs that I loved as a wee one, back when my cruel parents wouldn’t let us watch TV. I usually hear the song in Target or something and then make a mental note to find it later which of course, I remember to do a month later. This was one of my all time favs, but I had never seen the vid until today. Probably a good thing because the sight of the singer thumping away on that EVIL bass made my eyes bleed. Only time will tell whether my ears will forget what I have seen.

Wow. Only 4 days left on the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best Of Both Worlds tour. Has it really been 4 months? 15 tour buses, 16 semis, 121 band, dancers and crew, most of which I now know by name. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it and to have made so many excellent new friends.

anywhere, usa

chicago

corey & ashlee

the ladies love jack

the zoemabel dream teaparty

my dream teaparty

me, elizabeth & mike on long island

the newest dire warning from pyro.

a very cyrus soundcheck

vashon is always pro

red sox fans are dedicated

We are having our tour wrap party tonight after the show here in Orlando so I suppose I should motivate and get to the mall. I have no clean clothes left. How appropriate. To be continued….

xok

We played a show in Lafayette, LA. tonight but I woke up with the flu this morning so the charm of this bustling metropolis was a bit lost on me. Previous to this bummer, we got to spend a few minutes in Austin.

I love Austin, Texas. The food, the music scene, the bazillion bats that fly out from under the Congress St. Bridge. I have had some good times in Austin, not the least of which was Cleo’s triumphant SXSW appearance in 1994 which led to our record deal and subsequent worldwide underachiever-ness. I wouldn’t trade a moment. Except for a couple of moments but mostly I wouldn’t trade a second.

I have a bunches of rad friends in Austin so I crammed as much action packed pal time as I possibly could. First up: Tex-Mex and karaoke with the kids from Cruiserweight! Stella, Ernie, Dave, Yogi and his fiancee Nicole took Stacy & me to a place called Trudy’s and it was pretty awesome, as Tex-Mex usually is. Especially when served with a Mexican martini. Yum.

muy bueno

dave showed up!

stella covers cleo.

i got chills!! they’re multiplyin’….

The next day, I was able to wrastle up a last minute lunch date with my sexy friend, Lynette. She and I met 20 years ago when our respective bands used to play together and later when we performed in Boston Rock Opera. Lynette is going through a yucky divorce, yet she is still one of the funniest, most upbeat people I know.

some things never change.

We rolled into New Orleans last night and I couldn’t go out because I seriously have the flu. I spent my night wracked with chills, not sure if I was going to be able to get up. I want my mommy.

xok

Do you shake your fists toward an uncaring god, frustrated that you can’t get through to JC Penney customer service on your rotary phone? Is that abacus not adding up the bingo chips quickly enough for your liking? Have you recently stumbled upon the realization that you are the only gal in the neighborhood who rocks curlers, a housecoat and a lip-dangling Tareyton 100 to the supermarket? Are you feeling like Mr. Roper in a Dr. McDreamy world? Also, are you a total f*#@ing moron?

Well I have just the person who can help you. Apparently Miss Crazyeyes here can get you the “high speed action you’ve been craving” (gross!!!) via some company called HughesNet that has some satellites in space. That’s not complicated at all. Why remove the magical technology box from your phone jack and plug it into your existing cable rig when you can beam your already too challenging internet thingy into outer space and back?

don’t look away or…

my eyeball lasers will smite you in this crappy hotel room

Miss Crazyeyes appears maybe kinda pissed off but mostly she seems desperate. For a date with your horny, drunk uncle Harold. I hate her.

We are less than 2 weeks away from the end of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best Of Both Worlds Tour. It seems unreal that just a few months ago I was wondering how on earth I would acclimate to such an unfamiliar working environment. I couldn’t imagine leaving my husband, my children, my friends, my work. At this point, the tour has become such a huge part of my life that I can’t imagine ever having done anything else. With that said, I can”t wait to go back to all the stuff I left in Los Angeles

Speaking of LA, I got to go back there for the 48 hours preceding our 3 night run in Vegas. Michael, Z and I went to the premier of the Hannah Montana 3D movie extravaganza, which I am in. Zoe likes to remind me that this was her second red carpet event* and only my first. I think that means we need to move back to Boston.

cute.

I got an awesome shot of Miley’s manager Jason. He seemed pretty happy about the way things were going.

well done, mate.

I ran into Miley’s big sis Brandi along with little sis Noah and Grammy, all of whom have been on the road with us at various times. Brandi performs with us whenever Billy Ray joins us onstage for “Ready, Set, Don’t Go”. That Cyrus family is quite lovely.

yay! we’re in a movie!

While I was home, I also got to hang out with my handsome boyfriend, Jackson Petty. His mother, Michelle, tried to distract me from the cuteness by talking about the music business, the future of our company, blah blah blah…. I’m sorry - I was NOT having it.

jack & dan

i am delicious

Actually, I WAS having it the day before when we took our new Art Is War artist, Countre Black, to meet and have lunch with David Gray from Island/Def Jam. Not for nothing, this occasion also marked my first decent meal in months. Thanks David!

so civilized

A few sidenotes:

My friend Jonny Mead & I scored our first #1 record (on the Latin Hot 100) with a song we wrote for a Latin group called RBD. The song is called Extrana Sensacion, although it wasn’t called that when we wrote it. Yay for us!

Mike Schmid posted a bit on his blog about my fainting spell in Vegas and it caused an uproar amongst my loved ones as well as complete strangers. I had no idea how many of my friends were reading his blog - way to go Schmid! On that subject, I can assure you that I am fine. I had not eaten dinner, my blood sugar dropped and I fainted. It will never happen again, promise. My only complaint is that nobody took any photos. Surely Candice and Mike knew how totally blogworthy those would have been. Meh.

Currently in Glendale, AZ. For the second time in both 3 months and my entire life.

xok

* scroll down to the picture of ed begley jr. with his daughter hayden and her friend zoemay (!)

Our supposed 10 hour drive from Albany to Rochester, MI. has also been extended thanks to a tanker truck falling off I75 and onto a house, causing a massive explosion/fire and closing the interstate. One of the other drivers tipped off Wildman moments after it happened and he was able to jump off just in time to avoid the chaos.

Last night was the Jonas Bros’ last night on the tour. It was a bummer to see them go. The guys, their band and crew were top notch and it was a pleasure to spend the last few months sharing the road with them. I wish them nothing but love and luck.

After the show in Albany we hunkered down for a long drive. The post show bus food sucked, but everyone was in excellent spirits nonetheless. Mike, Candice and Vashon jockeyed for position in the front seat.

everyone likes to sit next to wildman.

I can’t believe that with all of the music fans on our bus we’ve never had a DJ party before. Stacy decided to man the decks, I mean commandeer my laptop, and entertain us for a few hours.

dj jazzy stace

I realize that I have gotten lazy about my once vigorous blog habit so once again, let’s run through the hightlights of the past week!

The Obama speech was thrilling, yes, but I would be remiss if I did not mention the lovely new friends that I made in Cleveland. Stacy and Jamie invited me to crash dinner plans with their friends Norman and Aaron from Alternative Press, both of whom turned out to be the funnest, smartest guys (even though AP totally dissed Letters To Cleo any chance it got, it was not their fault, I’m sure…) and took us to the best meals I’ve had so far on the tour. Bar Cento was an Italian place where I had quite literally the best salad of my life which was composed simply of butter lettuce, mint, shaved Parmigiano Reggiano and cider vinaigrette. Momocho was a Mexican fusion-y place in their neighborhood. Ohio city, I think?

guacamole is yummy and green.

choosy hipsters choose momocho

Before I left Cleve-town, I was able to have coffee with my dear friend Ed Zeitz. Why didn’t I get a picture??! Meh.

Some other stuff, perhaps a show or 2 took place and then it was off to the exquisite Ritz Carlton in Georgetown for a day off before our DC concert. Oh wait, I didn’t get a day off in Georgetown. I slept in my magnificent bed for a grand total of 3 hours and then I had to get on a plane to Boston to perform at Hot Stove Cool Music, a Red Sox-ish related charity event that I perform at every year. For those of you who only know me as Miley’s backup singer or a person who has touched Nick Jonas, it may help now if I explain that I am also a not very well known indie rock musician!

On Sunday morning, my manager Michael Creamer picked me up at Logan airport, I did my laundry at his house, went to soundcheck at the Paradise which was really a 90 minute rehearsal because I had a brand new guy on guitar (nice job craig!), checked into my boston hotel, scarfed down some food, took a shower, got dressed, went back to the Paradise and played the show, slept for 3.5 hours and got on a plane back to DC. I was pretty much a nervous, exhausted wreck the whole time, but that fact was offset by my happiness that I got to hang out with all of my Boston friends.

o’malley, dicky and gammons do the not so silent auction

One of my sweetest conversations of the evening was with Theo Epstein, who with his wife recently had a baby. I can talk breastfeeding and sleep training until the cows come home. Or the sun comes up. Or until the fat lady sings. Or the shit hits the fan. Whatever. Theo had a baby and he is STOKED, as am I for him.

why is this lady so happy??

I also had the pleasure of meeting my new favorite person, Lori McKenna. She, too is a mom/musician whose husband is a sexy saint. We have a lot in common and I look forward to writing with her and Michelle when she comes to LA.

work that camera, girl.

Musical revelation of the night? Eli “Paperboy” Reed. Oh my god, this kid blew my mind. He seemed like a regular guy with an off kilter sense of style when I spoke to him backstage, so I couldn’t imagine why people were going bananas over him until he took the stage and turned into a demon possessed preacher man. My pictures stink (what else is new?) but trust me, Eli is off the chain.

testify, young eli.

I sat in with The Peter Gammons All-Stars for a rendition of J. Geils’ “House Party” and who should I see on stage but Seth Justman, the guy responsible for some of J. Geils’ greatest songs. Centerfold? Freezeframe? Must Of Got Lost??? Hello?! I was a little google-y eyed while talking to him, to be honest.

seth is wicked cool

Rookie Of The Year goes to Corin Ashley, for sure. I called Corin a few hours before the show to ask if he’d care to join me onstage to swing a tambourine and sing a little. Not only did he say yes but then when he was asked to jump in as a last minute replacement for Aaron Perrino on “House Party” he gamely agreed and proceeded to steal the show. Corin rules, he really does. Here’s a pic that Stacy Lynes took of us:

awww.. pals.

When the evening was over, Hot Stove raised $200,000 for Theo Epstein’s Foundation To Be Named Later. What an amazing accomplishment. See you all at Fenway this summer!

xok

The show tonight was one of the funnest we’ve had so far thanks to the unfailing rocking-ness of Cleveland. I will have to put off the details for now, however, thanks to this breaking news: I am watching history unfold.

nothing short of electrifying.

Wow. Wow….

- Kay

After the Newark show on Saturday night, the band hopped on the bus and headed to NY to check into the Mansfield. We were hoping to get there fast because it was Michael’s 40th birthday and I booked a 9:30 table at Tailor in SoHo for the occasion. As it turned out, we had exactly 15 minutes to check in to the hotel and get dressed for dinner. Gaahhhh!!!!! Stacy, his wife Jade, Jamie, Candice and I managed to pull it together and arrive pretty much on time. The restaurant was incredible and all 15 of us had a blast toasting to the anniversary of the birth of my favorite guy.

jade, candice, justine, jamie and me.

Our friend Mark Quigley took some shots:

the birthday boy gets his wish

jamie, me and candice

casey and quigley courtesy of the fung wah

Here’s a question: Why are Quigs’ pictures so much better than mine? Is it because he uses Flickr and I export directly from my iPhoto? I suck. Grrr…

the gang

yum!

Food was great, the company was even better. Now USA Mike gets to go back to LA for the west coast leg of his birthday party tour at Hungry Cat. I’m jealous, but still so grateful that we were able to assemble such a fantastic crew in NY. Make sure you take loads of pix next weekend, LA people!

The next day, Michael went back to Nana’s in Jersey to pack up the kids and head back to LA. My bandmates and I had to go play another show in Newark. The highlight was our trip back from the show because a) we got to leave Newark forever and b) we had a high speed police escort, complete with 3 squad cars and flashing sirens, that blasted our 2 Miley vans back to the Lincoln tunnel. Sweet!

Candice and I made a deal with our new favorite hair guy, Scott Dowers and his lovely wife Angel. We gave him one of our rooms for 2 nights over New Years while he & Angel cut, colored, curled and made us up for our various festivities. I don’t know what I’ll do when I have to go back home and use normal people for these kinds of things. I love them.

They had done our hair and makeup for the show, so when we got back to Mid-town, we were pretty much ready to go. I had plans with my friend Mario to meet up that night so Candice, Jason and I grabbed some dinner and headed to Mario’s hotel room. It was just supposed to be a chill night with a few cocktails and laughs but as soon as we got to his room he had a change of heart. Okay! Let’s go watch the trangendered entertainer Candace Kayne at a packed and insanely loud gay bar! Truth be told, Candace is as fabulous as they come so it was a good time.

mario & candace sittin’ in a tree…

Mario had to be up early the next morning so we highjacked his friend Mike to see if we could find some fun stuff to do in NY. We succeeded, of course. One of the strangest things I encountered was this bizzare painting at an Irish pub, which would not have required more than a glance before the Miley tour. Billy Ray Cyrus is prominently featured.

why??

I woke up on New Year’s Eve morning not feeling so hot, but after a massive infusion of coffee, advil and a gallon of water I was on the comeback trail. Angel and Scott came to my and Candice’s cozy room for glam squad duty.

scott does his thing

angel does hers…

Miley and the band went and performed on Dick Clark’s NYE thing in Times Square so the rest of us took advantage of the night off. I don’t understand how I ended up with practically no pictures from our crazy evening but sadly, it’s true. We had a great time ringing in the New Year and I hope you did too. Here’s to 2008..

xok