Kay Hanley

Fan_3 just sent me this video that she made. Homegirl has BALLS. I love this.

I’m just about finished packing for my flight to NY tomorrow where I will be joining the Miley Cyrus Experience for the Z100 show followed by a private event for Net Jets. To answer your obvious follow up question, no, I am not flying on a Net Jet. I have a cozy little compartment in the baggage hold of an early morning FedEx flight. This works out fine because I have a couple of Xanax, a flask of Southern Comfort and Hello Kitty sleeping bag. I’ve been told that these planes only fly at 32,000 ft so I will most likely have enough oxygen to survive the trip but even if I don’t, I will be none the wiser.

The past week was pretty eventful. Saturday, Miley played at Wango Tango, the radio fest for KIIS out here in LA. I got to see the Jonas Brothers and their band, whom I adore, as you may know. We played some new songs and we also got new wardrobe. It doesn’t take much to make me happy. Candy-o and I went to the celebrity gifting suite, which is a thing that I’ve heard about, but have never gotten to partake in. In a nutshell, a bunch of retailers set up booths in a location where celebrities may or may not be and they GIVE their stuff to them in the hopes that their stuff will show up in US Weekly. Please kill me for knowing this.

free stuff? for us? no we couldn’t!

i like the jobros. they’re nice.

After the show we booked it to our van as fast as we could and blazed back to LA for Justine’s birthday party. We arrived with plenty of time to spare.

the best sister-in-law EVER

i suffered a booty shaking injury because of conroy’s dj skillz

Sunday was

Mothers Day. I had a leisurely morning with the people whom I gave birth to and the father of those people. It was lovely. USA Mike knows how much I miss the the WRKO broadcast of the Red Sox games so for that reason (among others) he got me XM radio for my car and the house. Yay.

Then Z and I went over the hill to check out the video shoot where Miley & Mandy were doing their thing. Apparently they’ve got some kind of dance feud going with the ACDC Crew so they decided to lay the smack down with a huge production. Ah, the world would be a much better place if we could all just lay down our weapons and settle our conflicts through dance battles.

 

b-girlz!!!!

 

 

 

Time for sleepy. Be back soon with reports from the weekend..

 

xok

 

 

Miley was the featured performer at the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show last night so the whole lot of us - band, dancers and crew- got together again to put on a show for 74,000 people. Billy Ray joined the band for 2 songs while Hannah changed into Miley and absolutely brought the house down. If you had told me 6 months ago (or ever, for that matter) that I would be two steppin’ and singing backup vocals on Achy Breaky Heart I would have, um… I have no idea what I would have done but it would have seemed unlikely. Now that the absurd scenario has become reality, I will state for the record that it was totally awesome.

Rodeos are kind of weird if you don’t mind my saying so. After our 3 hour sound check (grr…) I took care of what I needed to in a hurry so I could get back and watch the cowboys riding the bulls.We had plum position from our backstage area, which literally put us within spitting distance of the riders and animals. The cowboys were looking sharp with crisp shirts tucked perfectly into brand spankin’ new dungarees. Top that look with a sweet cowboy hat, some well-worn boots and a lasso and I turned into a drooling fan girl. Who knew? Needless to say, I was giddy to see the guys do their thing, which I was guessing would involve riding and then getting thrown off of a very strong and scary beast. Yum! The first guy came out of gate on a turbo charged horse. But hold on a second, he’s chasing a calf who is running for his life to get away. What the…?? Within 20 seconds, the cowboy had lassoed the calf by his neck, an action that jerked the calf’s body violently and slowed him down enough so that the cowboy was able to leap from the speeding horse and wrestle the calf to the ground where he tied the hind legs together and threw his arms into the air to stop the clock. The little calf just laid there helplessly until he was untied and led back to the cattle area. I started bawling. What a buzzkill. I watched this same scene unfold about a half dozen more times before I shuffled back to the dressing room all woebegone. I ended up missing the bucking broncos and stuff. Meh.

The good news? Anyone can be a sexy cowboy with the proper acoutrements! You can buy everything you need right there at a rodeo. One need not wrastle one single calf, either.

vashon, i do declare! 

Our stage was a huge disc that spun like a carousel. Not slow either. The stage would do 3 revolutions in one direction and then stop with a lurch to begin turning the other way. One of the stage hands told me that the clunkiness of the turning experience was due to the fact that the stage was built a long time ago and was operated by a guy using little more than bathtub knobs to control the thing.

Yee haw!  It was great seeing everyone. Can’t wait to do it again real soon.

margaritas are tastier in texas 

xok

I just got home from the Knitting Factory where Michelle and I went to see a band called Haim that we are absolutely in love with. They are 3 sisters in their teens from the Val (holla!), write weird, amazing pop songs and can play their asses off. Mish and I left with a new sense of hope that the next generation of bands might not be lost to the cult of posing and selling out after all. 

After the show, Mish and I stood out on Hollywood Blvd. in front of the club talking shop for about 20 minutes before we finally realized that our kids were asleep for the night and that we could actually stay out if we wanted to. With great vigor and vim, we skipped across the street to the Roosevelt for a drink and somehow managed to avoid the papparazzi who sneakily pretended to not notice us. Hint: if you ever find yourself in that part of Hollywood, don’t be afraid of the Roosevelt. Even though you have every reason in the world to loathe the vapid, disgusting, cultural and moral bottom feeding that the owners have chosen as their “re-branding” mission, you will be pleasantly surprised as long as you avoid the mucky muck. Go directly through the front doors and find Dakota, which is the steakhouse there. It’s really comfortable and chill and the staff happily sidesteps the douchebaggery usually associated with the Roosevelt.    

We started rehearsals today for the Hannah/Miley gig at the Houston Rodeo, which takes place this weekend. Highlight from today’s rehearsal? Singing backup vox on Achy Breaky Heart and I Want My Mullet Back with Billy Ray Cyrus.

My favorite verbal exchange??

candice: “i cant wait! i haven’t been to a rodeo in sooo long!!”

me: “…….” 

I’ll post new pictures and stories as soon as possible, but right now I must sleep.  I will leave you with a picture of me and Angie C (now shaw) whom you Boston people may know from the ‘FNX days. Angie and her sweet little family just moved to LA (redondo beach, actually) but we haven’t been able to coordinate and hang out. That is, until the MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSsTONES SHOW LAST WEEKEND!!!!! We had a blast. I really wanted to see The Streetdogs, but sadly, I missed them. The Bosstones made me and Angie feel like we were at the Rat in 1991 again. Thanks Joe the Kid for the list action and also for being a sweetie.    

last hurrah uh-huh, do it again!!

 xok

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

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

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

Lexington, KY kicks off our re-cap.

Apparently, we played in front of more people at this venue than any other on the tour thus far. Almost 40 million people in attendance! Can you believe that? I finally remembered to bring my camera on stage with me for the occasion. 

 my perspective on things

  joe jonas in flight

j joe jonas in flight

me and candy-o punching the clock 

 CINCINNATI 

Then we went to Cincinnati and played a show, I guess. I don’t remember a single thing about what happened there but here’s a picture that Stacy took of a crazy old bag lady that was hanging around outside of our bus one day.

 poor dear.

TORONTO

There was much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth regarding our border crossing into Canada for the Toronto show. People were extremely concerned about concealed contraband, weapons and criminal records. Me? Clean as a goddamned whistle. Except for that little thing about the stuff and the thing a few years back. It was not even my fault, but whatever. Can we stop talking about this now? Jeez.

  

Toronto, Canada.  I love Canada.  I spent my childhood summers in Nova Scotia.  Some of my favorite bands of the last decade hail from that part of North America. Beautiful, wonderful socialized medicine is a hallmark of their sense of social justice and political enlightenment. The people look foxy but are still polite and friendly. These days, Canada could even be described as a tophat on a turd, but only for another year or so. I hope.  I love you Canada, and I hope you and I get to spend more time together. Let’s not just say it, but really MEAN it this time.

Anyhoo..we got to Toronto and it was snowing. We had a day off before the show but I spent most of the day sleeping. Michael has been telling me forever about his favorite Toronto restaurant, Kit Kat and with the aid of our lovely concierge we were able to score a table at the last minute. I award Kit Kat 4 “hollas” on a scale of 1-5, which is nearly a perfect score, given my level of food-ish knowledge and snobbery. Oh, and I promise to stop using the word holla as soon as I get back

 

home and I have to act my age again.    

We went back to the hotel for a nightcap and ran into a bunch of our other tour people who had the same idea. Management was returning from a very high powered meeting over steaks and red wine and Miley had just come back from a play with her mom Tish, whom I do not socialize with much outside of work. I really like her so it was nice to have a regular conversation that did not revolve around the task at hand.

Then my 15 year old friend made us crash some company’s christmas party at the hotel. Did it occur to me to put the kibosh on the tomfoolery?  No. I seriously have no self discipline, but I do have a very fun life, so here we are. 

gatecrashers 

I danced for awhile and then snuck out so that I could catch Michael and the kiddos for a video iChat before they went to bed.   I am so close to seeing them, I can hardly believe it.  We will be living the life of Riley when we get to Boston. 

 zeros and ones make a happy family

Toronto, to be continued….xok

I had no idea that the Bluejackets were even a team, but apparently during the last NHL expansion they became one. Oy. The good news is that they invited the entire tour to come down to the party box to see a game against who else? The Anaheim Ducks. Where have you gone, Mr. Bobby Orr? A nation turns its lonely Zambonis to you….

We had lots of fun, though. The tone was set for me, personally when Benoit (greatest drum tech of all time) showed up wearing the most bitching coat EVER.

be careful with those leather strips, b!

Anytime I get to squeeze in between Simon (front of house engineer) and Pyro (pyro) and all of their lustrous day-off hair, ’tis a good day indeed.

pyro, me and the bloke.

We finished up the evening at O’Shaunessey’s Pub with the requisite rounds of Irish Car Bombs. They are like yummy Guinness mochas that you have to drink really fast and oh, how I love them. Wait, is that good or bad?

the official drink of days off

There was a ton of drama that took place that night, involving Candice being a klepto and throwing me under the blame bus, but all was forgiven because she and I had a killer night of karaoke. I am sure she will recount the tale on her new BLOG!!!!!

xok

I was telling Michael how Ryan & Marshall (Miley’s dancers) brought their skateboards on the road and how it’s super fun to cruise around all of the smooth underground parking lots where the buses and semis park at the venues. Even though I ride like an old lady I really love skateboarding.

As luck would have it, I have a husband who actually likes me, listens to what I say to him, knows how to use USPS, is super sexy and above all: totally RULES. Here’s what arrived for me in Chicago! Michael picked out the deck, trucks and wheels at Val Surf and they built it for me. It’s perfect, seriously.

you take your car to work, i’ll take my board.

Here on The Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best Of Both Worlds Tour, we have matinees on weekends and it really throws me off. I’m such a creature of habit that when I have to be at work 3 hours earlier than usual I become incapable of keeping up with the things I normally do during the day, like eating, phoning home and e-journaling. But that doesn’t mean it was not an exciting weekend so let’s go through it, shall we?

We checked into a beautiful hotel in Indianapolis. Let’s call it the Marble Palais. Stacy, Jamie and I adjourned to the festively decorated bar for a nightcap and sang carols around the tree. No we didn’t. We just took this picture.

why is this so funny to me?

We said goodnight and retired for the evening. After I got mostly settled in my room, I remebered that I needed to go back to the lobby for something so I threw my Uggs on over my jammies and headed back downstairs. When I got to the lobby, there was a guy sitting on a pretty sofa being treated by paramedics. He looked pale as if had OD’d or something. I walked out the revolving doors into the cold. There was a Rolls Royce Phantom parked on the sidewalk with the doors wide open, blaring hip hop music. Weird. Cops started pulling up and marking off the area with crime scene tape and one of them asked me to step aside a few feet so as not to disturb the evidence:

can’t get anything past me!

Jamaal Tinsley from the Pacers and his bros had pissed some people off at a club, probably for being blinged out and driving around in a 3 car caravan, including the Phantom. Yeah, that would make me want to fire some shots into the car and risk killing someone. The driver got hit, but he’s fine I guess. Some people in this world are really reckless and stupid.

I grew up in Dorchester so that incident was like another day at the office. Off to sleepyland I went. I had to get up early because hair stylist extraordinnaire, Scott Dowers was coming to the hotel to cut and color me and Candice. Thank you Scott and Alex - we LOVE our hair! And thank you to Chelsea Schwartz for making the introduction.

room service

Michael sent me a picture of Z giving her presentation on Marie Curie this morning. She did an outstanding job. Be careful when viewing this photo. You may die from the cuteness.

love, love, love.

Today is a day off in Columbus and it looks pretty bleak out there. Room service coffee is good, though.

xok

Yesterday was our day off in The Windy City and what a day it was. It is always a happy treat when we check into a hotel and I find awesome products in the bathroom. In the case of the lovely James Hotel, it was the best of the best:

keihl’s in all my favorite flavors.

I dragged all of my luggage up to my room and immediately threw clothes and shoes all over the place and made #604 my own for the next 36 hours. Candice and I made plans to go shopping so the first order of business for me was winter clothes. The first order of business for Candice was to convince me to buy some clothes that don’t make me look like a 23 year old indie-rock boy. I ended up in the dressing room at Nordstrom’s for literally 90 minutes. I hate shopping. I did get some cute stuff though, including a long sleeve black satin mini-dress which couldn’t have come into my life at a better time seeing as we were going to a hockey game.

The Chicago Blackhawks invited Miley to sit in their luxury box for their game against the Anaheim Ducks (is there a more execrable moniker in all professional sports? i think not.) so she invited the band to join her. It was pretty awesome, I gotta say. Candice got me all tarted up in my dress and red lipstick and we all cheered like hell for Chicago.

this is not the boston garden

wicked sensitive crew.

candice, brian, stacy and jaco

how thoughtful of the blackhawks!

We had to get out of Dodge in an unexpectedly brisk fashion because people figured out that Miley was in the box and started closing in. I’m not sure if I was fully aware of just how kooky things have gotten in terms of Miley’s fame, but I think I got it last night. Whoa.

The band got dropped off back at the James and we decided to meet the dancers at the club next door for some cocktails & booty shaking. Stacy, Jamie and Jaco stuck with the former but Candice and I did some damage in both departments. Really fun night.

me and the girlies! holla, holla, holla!

On the bus, rolling to Indianapolis, watching a Dexter marathon. Nice.

xok