Hey Hey In Rockers and welcome to The Lobby, today from a day off in Nashville from The Goo Goo Dolls “Big Night Out” Tour that has been out doing shows for nearly a month now here in the US. The band OAR has been warming up the crowd and it's really been a great, albeit unbelievably hot summer for us here as we wind our way around the USA in our bus visiting over 20 some cities at this point from the deep south in the state of Florida to the state of NY! As I mentioned the temperature has been pretty high as we play our string of outdoor shows throughout the summer, it makes it a bit challenging, especially for our crew who is out in the heat all day getting the show ready for us. But, as they say in show business, the show must go on, and it most certainly does night after night. The tour started off in Clearwater, Florida, (which is when we last spoke) and it's been an amazing run of enthusiastic audiences and full houses throughout the southern states and Midwest of the US, playing shows in places like Chicago, New Jersey, DC, Cleveland and so many others including a sold-out show at the legendary Jones Beach Amphitheater in New York! It's been pretty hectic schedule wise out here, so we haven't had allot of chances to get out and sight see along the way, although we have had been lucky enough to have had some locals bring us some puppies, goats, and alligators backstage (not at the same time, that could get ugly!) for us to pal around with along the way! There's always something cool going on, a random ice cream truck backstage on the lot, barbecues, yard games, you know, all that good old American summer stuff, but honestly as I mentioned we move at such a breakneck pace it really is tough to get out and enjoy too many things as we make our way around on these US runs. My wife and daughter came out to travel on the bus with us for about 10 days as did John's daughter and our keyboard player Jimmy's daughter as well, they get together and help out with the meet and greets and passing out black balloons to the folks in line as they wait to get a photo at the meet and greet which can hold up to 200 people some nights! I also made my way to Buffalo to do a solo acoustic set at a fundraiser for The Music is Art Festival, which is happening on Sept 9th this year, 27 stages of art, music, skaters, dancers, DJs and lots of other inspiring stuff going on and this will be our 21st year presenting this free event in Buffalo. I've included a shot from the fundraiser for you all to see! I played a bunch of songs, my friend Sara Elizabeth also did a set, and we auctioned off about 20 autographed guitars to help keep the Music is Art Festival free to all of those people who come out every year to celebrate Buffalo's creativity with the entire community! Ok, that's it for this month, way more going on in my life as we proceed and I'll keep you all in the loop, just like you're out here with me without the additional hotel charges! Hope you have a great month, and we will talk again soon here in the pages of THE MIGHTY IN ROCK! Peace Robby