What’s up y’all! Well we are on the up and up out here. After a couple stressful weeks due to my vocal chord injury I seem to be fairly stabilized.  It broke my heart to have to cancel those 2 shows in Myrtle Beach and Carey but the vocal rest paid off and has let me get the upper hand on my bleed. I’ve still been on vocal rest off the stage. It’s been 5 weeks that I really haven’t spoke except for my performance onstage. Hard to imagine...sometimes it weighs me down but I’m staying positive!

On a show like last night in Reno it all pays off. We played this beautiful little amphitheater on the outskirts of Reno and it was just a beautiful evening. Starting off acoustic, we let the music come in like a slow rolling wave and end up in a huge crash. It was just one of those great nights and my vocals felt the strongest they’ve felt all tour. 

Right now I’m just waking up in my bunk in Ft Mason Park, San Francisco. I can hear music coming through the air. Today we play the Slow Cooking Festival--sounds like my kind of fest. We go on right before the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh. This is a real special day to be playing with one of the greats. I used to go play my harmonica in the parking lot at the Dead Shows back in the day. One time in Albany, I even got a miracle. Oh yeah. I will get my groove on today fo sho.

We finally made it to the west coast after one month of touring. We have just under 2 weeks left so I hope to keep taking this thing sky high on the West Side and end up in a Colorado Mountain High to finish at the legendary Red Rocks.

I hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend and we want to send a lot of love to the people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We are keeping our fingers crossed and praying for you all!

G

I want to give a big thank you to all of you for the overwhelmingly kind best wishes you sent my way. Thanks for understanding and again I really apologize to the peeps in Carey and Myrtle that didn’t get a show. We will be back!

The week of voice rest paid off and the last two shows I’ve definitely gained ground. My voice has gotten stronger and stronger. Atlanta and Pompano were sick shows! What great crowds, great vibes.

On another note, I went for a run yesterday down to the beach and was gonna go jump in the water but the sign said “swimming not advisable due to high bacteria count”. Bummer, that’s all I need to get some bacteria up in me right now. No thanks!

Then I got a text from my brother-in-law who said the beach in Jersey was closed cause some weird medical waste was washing up. What’s going on with that! Then I texted Tristan and she was all at the Barefoot Beach rescue project so I was all “you go Trissles! Save the beaches baaaaby” anyways, what’s going on with that? We gotta keep these oceans clean…

Well, I will keep you all in the loop about this injury but I seem to be on the mend. It sucks not talking all day but as long as I can sing for a couple hours at show time that’s all I care about right now! Thanks again for your positive vibrations! Irie ites! Got to have a good vibe!

G

This week we have lost one of the great musicians of our scene. LeRoi Moore, who played Sax and Clarinet with The Dave Matthews Band, passed away at too young an age.

I had the opportunity to meet LeRoi a number of times and while he was a quiet kind of man he was always a gentleman… cool and sincere in his demeanor. He was definitely an amazing soloist.

I have been out on the road a number of times with DMB over the years and I got to hear many an inspired and electric, soaring solo from LeRoi. He will be missed.

LeRoi, wherever you are, keep on blowing that horn and may your music be sweeter than ever.  We will never forget your sound.

Well I’ve had a bit of a rough couple weeks. I didn’t want to say anything public about it but now my mood has changed and I’m gonna spill the beans on myself.  Before my tour launched, I was asked by a friend nicknamed Bluefish who was paralyzed (and luckily recovered) to play a benefit for the Christopher Reeves Foundation. The benefit was at a small room in Avalon, NJ called the Rocking Chair. I was able to raise $13,000.00 for the CR Foundation and had a good time as well. However during the course of that show I hurt one of my vocal chords. It hemorrhaged. The same chord I had hurt earlier this year on my upper-Midwest-freezing-ass-frostbite-your-guitar-fingers tour at a shitty but fun club called the Pickle Barrel in freezing-ass-cold Vermont.

Anyways, to make a long story short, the re-injury forced me onto vocal rest for the first 10 days before tour. When I hit tour I remained on vocal rest and I am still on vocal rest except for my time onstage. All told, I have been completely silent while off the stage for almost a complete month. The injury has dogged me because I bled again during the show in Toronto so it was like back to square one. Ahhhhhh so frustrating.  I finally had to unwillingly cancel a couple shows in the Carolinas this past week to give the blood a chance to clear up. The doctors say I will undergo a surgery in the fall after my tour. I refused to cancel the tour right now against their wishes. So, I’m gonna finish this tour up as strong as I can and then lay it all down in November and get fixed up proper before returning to the stage in the new year.  The vocal rest has been an amazing pain in the ass for my family, friends, crew and the musicians around me. Not to mention the poor fans that try to talk with me after the show. My 7 year old son is probably the one person who has handled it better than anyone and acts as my translator. My notes that I write instead of talking have hopefully prepared him better than ever for his reading skills in second grade.  Anyways, I sincerely apologize to all of my fans I had to let down in the Carolinas this week and to anyone who thought I was weird, snobby, mean or otherwise perplexed by my silence off the stage. I’m usually a pretty nice guy (if I do say so myself) and I love to talk.  I feel pretty good on the plane flying to Atlanta. I saw my voice coach today, and while not in the clear, I have cleared up a lot since my setback in Toronto 2 weeks ago. Now that the schedule eases up, I should be getting stronger every night.  The vocal rest has also been such a spiritual journey and very very hard at times. It’s amazing how people react when you can’t speak. I’ve had all ranges of reactions from people thinking I’m deaf and mute and feeling sorry for me, to people thinking I’m a complete snob and an asshole. I’ve had people try to carry on a conversation and some people just stop talking to me as if I’m not even there. I’ve driven my poor girlfriend crazy and people having been driving me crazy as well. Its hard for people to read lips and even harder for people to read minds.

I guarantee you, see if you can go a whole day without talking at all, not one word, not even a word to yourself. No whistling or whispering, which can both adversely effect the vocal folds. Then you will see how crazy a trip it is. But once you settle into the zone, some times are very relaxing. Instead of yapping away, I’ve learned to listen more. I’ve listened to more music, to more sounds and my perceptions of the social interactions of people have completely changed. It’s very interesting to say the least.

So if you meet me, have some sympathy, have some courtesy and some taste! I will as well and I can’t wait till I can tell a couple people to fuck off and a couple people that I love them and shout “hello Cleveland”! And most of all I want to thank the fans for their patience.
Peace out- G. Love the Superhero Brother.

PS I’m like Gloria Gayner- I WILL SURVIVE

Since I first partnered with Malaria No More and learned about malaria’s devastating impact in Africa (one child every 30 seconds dies from the disease), I have gotten RELIGION! Now I want to share my knowledge with you guys!  For just a $10 donation you can help me get life-saving bed nets to children in Africa.

To learn more about malaria and donate, visit www.malarianomore.org/glove.

P.S. If you missed the MNM crew at Boston and Philly town look for them at my shows in Atlanta, Portland, and Seattle.

Due to illness G love and Special Sauce will not be performing:

8/20 - House of Blues Myrtle Beach (John Butler Trio and Tristan Prettyman will still be performing)
8/21 - Koka Both Amphitheater (completely canceled)

Thank you for your support.

Check out G. Love’s Paste Magazine Tour Diary from Lollapalooza....

“So, I’m out here on the never ending road, the road that keeps going and going.  As a matter of fact its been going for 15 years.  Damn, that’s a pretty long time. Ahh the places I’ve been…you name it just about every big city and small town in this god-fearing country. I play the hip hop blues. Please don’t say, “I love that kind of music” if you’ve never heard of me before because, not to sound like a jerk, but I’m the only one who plays the hip hop blues.”

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