by Billy Morrison.

Nashville. A place of huge belt buckles, the Grand Ol' Oprey and meat. LOTS of meat. Pork, lamb, beef, venison….. I mean these people are serious about their meat!! And it was also the scene (this past weekend) of the Summer NAMM Show, and subsequently the Gibson NAMM party – which I was invited to play at as part of the 'Rock Star Jam'.

Now I can put my hand on my heart and say that I feel a little weird about that particular way of billing it......but I had a really fun time, Gibson (as always) went above and beyond in their hospitality, and we played a sweaty, loud and loose rock set for a crowd of about 3000 NAMM goers, Gibson peeps and general all around Nashvillers. Check out the (not one, not two, but....) THREE Sunburst Les Pauls in the pic below!!

We threw a line up together that consisted of Jerry Cantrell, Billy Duffy and myself on guitars, the Camp Freddy rhythm section of Matt Sorum and Chris Chaney, and then grabbed Brett Scallions to sing a few tunes. I also grabbed the mic on a couple, as did Jerry, and (as luck would have it) the wonderful girls from UK rockers McQueen were in town, so Leah and Hayley joined us for a couple as well. We grabbed Damon from Whiskey Falls to do an Aerosmith track (Draw The Line) as well, and that was that – the jam line up was complete!

Hot and sweaty pretty much describes exactly how the gig felt for me. Soaked in sweat from about the third song onwards, the humidity out there drained us all, but we played for an hour and did the usual favories – Led Zepp, Pistols, Alice, Iggy etc. Luckily, Gibson had provided us with one of their crazy tour busses as a dressing room, so the AC was blasting when we came off stage. Their busses are SO over the top, its crazy! Full on tour busses with the usual flat screens, video games, front and rear lounges etc, but also kitted out with guitars, amps, even a piano in one of em!! Full on rehearsal situation in a fucking tour bus!! I love it. As usual I got a little rowdy during the show and ended up in the photographers pit - up close and personal with a few party goers. See below (and keep a sharp eye out for MG's very own Mr. Landers!)

We cooled down, chilled out, hung with all the people from Gibson and a few other NAMM types and eventually the bus rolled out of the parking lot and dropped Chris and I back at the hotel. It rolled off into the darkness of downtown Nashville with the rest of them still on the bus, and I wondered what debauched and despicable deeds would be perpetrated that night!! Ah, the myth and legend of Rock N Roll. HAHAHA!!

Billy