SEPTEMBER 01, 2001

You cannot BELIEVE how excited we were to fly to Ireland and play with U2 in their own home town of Dublin. Looking out the window it's obvious why they call it the "Emerald Isle".
Fittingly, all airport photos tend to turn out blurry, like our state of mind. The clock on the wall says "6:54 AM".
The hotel was surprisingly opulent; in fact the words "French whorehouse" do come to mind. This is Ali's suite. As tour manager he gets the best room, and believe me, he earns it!
After a couple hours' nap (or "kip" as our English friends call it), my dear friend Clint arrived from the States, and we went off to have a look at lovely Dublin.
Of course you can't visit Ireland without drinking a nice pint of Guinness. Hurry up before it gets cold, Clint!
Soon enough it was time to go back to the hotel and catch our ride to the main event: Slane Castle! On our way out of town we noticed millions of football fans on their way to the Ireland VS. Holland match, right near the hotel.
Slane Castle is about 25 miles outside Dublin, a nice ride through the country. On the way there I had to laugh at this pub that was also a FUNERAL PARLOR!
Finally, we arrived at the Castle! You may think THIS looks impressive, and it is, but it's only the entrance!
Slane Castle has a really nice backstage that's kind of like a summer camp or something. It encourages all the bands to hang out and get to know each other, one of my favorite parts of being a big rockstar!! This shot is the backstage proper, where equipment comes and goes.
We went up to the stage to see what was going on, and to my amazement, they had stopped the whole show after Nelly Furtado and before Ash, so that everybody could watch the BIG GAME on the screens provided. Click on the picture to see the whole panorama, may take a while because there were 85 THOUSAND people there!!!
panorama

Also there on the stage was my other favorite person, Adi Vines, who was working for Ash that day. I met him when he was working for Bush on that "Campus Invasion " tour we did, and we've been fast friends ever since. We bought those CBGB's T-shirts together on one of Adi's trips to NYC.
Well! Soon enough it was our turn to play. Ireland won the "footy" match, which put all the locals in an even better mood, if possible! It was such a great show. The audience was SO terrific, and it was such an honor to open for U2! I didn't get any photos, of course, but here's what it looked like from Clint's point of view. That's me walking on Bono's "ego ramp", as we call them in the biz (that's this biz we call "show"!).
After our show, I was too tired to move! But, we could not miss U2, so we went back to the stage, where the crew had thoughtfully provided a little viewing platform for folks like us so we wouldn't get in the way.
Everybody cried when Edge played "New Year's Day"...
And the Castle looked SOOOO beautiful!

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the whole show because we needed to beat the traffic on the little country road. I think the U2 guys must have taken a helicopter, because they also got back quickly. How do I know? Because we went to the party at the hotel that they own.

The party was great. It wasn't too crowded. It wasn't too smoky, AND there was no banging techno being played at top volume!!! There was some cute little food, and champagne. I hardy EVER drink, but I do like champagne! Bob Geldof was there, and Roger Taylor, the drummer from Queen! And I met Paul McGuinness, U2's fearsome manager! Clint, who played guitar on U2's "Elevation" remix for the Tomb Raider soundtrack, was happy to be able to meet Edge and talk about guitars with him!

Now for the best, most ROCK moment of my life. Ready? So I sez to Bono, I sez:

ME:" Thanks so much for having us, it was really an honor to play with you guys."

BONO:"Well, you , yourself, put on a wonderful show."

ME:"Thank you very much. What a great audience you guys have! And Ireland won, that certainly didn't hurt!"

BONO (ever gracious): "Well, you really had them. Towards the end I was backstage warming up so I couldn't SEE the audience, but I could FEEL their energy, and I got chills, you know, gooseflesh!"

ME (astounded): "Wow! You mean that still happens to you? That happens to me, too!"

BONO (in all seriousness): "Well, isn't that what it's all about?"

OH MY GOD, COULD YOU JUST DIE!!!! How ROCK is that!

NOW I CAN DIE HAPPY.