My first year with Vinnie was a LOT of surface hanging at his house and at his strip club bonding and building the foundation of our relationship that was to come in the next 3 years. It took a LOT to build up a close relation with Vinnie.
After about a year, Vinnie asked if I wanted to party in Vegas with him and I took that time to scope out the Vegas comedy scene. I had NEVER experienced the life of a Rockstar! I felt like I was put there as the comic relief to help us all cope with Dime's death.
As soon as we checked into the hotel, I grabbed a lamp shade that I said looked like a Vietnamese hat and trailed some horrid Turkey Jerky bites to the toilet for some HaHa's! Drunk, nonstop fun that whole week!
Seether and Staind were playing at the LV Convention center a 7pm one night and at 6:57 I looked at Vinnie, "We're gonna be late, Ninja!" "Calm down, ChinaMan, we got this. You're with VP." he said in that calm, soothing voice he had when HE knew the end was gonna be fun and guaranteed!
We pulled up to the back gate, the guard let us in, told us to park by the tour buses.... we walked to the backstage area and BOOM!!! We were out smack fucking dab ON THE STAGE! NOT BACKSTAGE, because apparently there WAS NO BACKSTAGE, but ON THE FUCKING STAGE! It's almost like FIRST PERSON, YOU ARE THE WHOLE STAGE that EVERYONE is staring at!! There were NO curtains sectioning us off from the view of ANYONE!! WHAT A SURREAL FUCKING MOMENT IN MY LIFE!!
Then, as I'm staring off into the FIRST PERSON crowd show, I YELL to Vinnie, "MAN, IT SMELLS LIKE A SKUNK'S PUSSY UP IN HERE!" "Turn around, " he said. Standing behind me with a burning joint is Aaron Lewis from Staind! He hands me the joint, I put it in my mouth and Vinnie whips his camera out and we strike a pose! ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICS OF ALL TIME. Vinnie LOVED making moments like that happen for people and he LOVED catching it all on camera. I was always so struck in the moment that it never occured to me to snap photos, but Vinnie KNEW, how important all these memories would be later. He ALWAYS took pictures... All the while we are STILL just standing on the side of the stage where EVERYONE can see while Seether jams!
I had bumped into Aaron Lewis 2 times since, and I NEVER let Aaron Lewis hear my impression of him, all I can say is it's goooood and it's dead on! But, I don't think it's EVER the right time to do an impression of someone in front of them, that's just too surreal. He'll just have to see it in the next show.
After Vinnie snapped the photo of me and Aaron Lewis, he hands the camera to Aaron Lewis and THIS is the photo of us that he took.
Then, I got to watch Aaron's set from ON STAGE!
You can almost read their set list from where I was standing!
Later that night, we got tickets to see "Beacher's Madhouse". It was basically a clusterfuck of everything and the kitchen sink put together in a HUGE BOWL of drunk people. There were girls hanging from the ceiling,
jugglers running around. They had a midget KISS band that closed out the show.
Vinnie was FASCINATED with this little monkey they had going around the room. His face just LIT THE FUCK UP when the guy came over and put the monkey on Vinnie's shoulder!
Then, of course, we had to get the cool posting pic!
Later that night, Vinnie's playing Blackjack with the lead singer of Seether, Shaun Morgan, who just so happens IS ONE OF my WIFE'S FAVORITE singers. I sent her this POV of me standing behind Vinnie, just to rub it in!
Wow... I'm only making a small dent in this tale...