Aren't musicians supposed to sleep late?

Johnny often says that one of the reasons he became a musician was so that he wouldn't have to get up early. So, it figures that in the past eight days, he has had to get up before dawn five times - all for music!

He can't really complain, though, because along with these early mornings has come thousands of spectators, newspaper coverage, television coverage, and even a few private plane rides. Rock star stuff!

Here's what he's been up to:


On Sunday, April 7, the full band played the Capital 10k race. For some reason, runners like to get up really early, so in order to play for them, so do we. It's painful, but the Cap 10 means the opportunity to play for more than 18,000 people, soooooo...we get up early.

On Tuesday, April 9, Johnny took the first of his private plane rides to perform the state's new Don't mess with Texas jingle for media events. The first was in Arlington:

Attribution: Fort Worth Star Telegram

The nifty plane that flies him about the
great state of Texas.

It's a pretty big honor to be chosen for this gig, and Johnny really hates litter (for those who don't know, Don't mess with Texas is a litter campaign by the Texas Department of Transportation - not just a saying we came up with so people would know we Texans are bad-asses), so he's been very pleased to be part of the campaign. But it did mean getting up in the dark twice more: on Thursday, April 11, for an event in Amarillo:

Here's the Amarillo Globe-News Story
that goes with the photo.

Then again on Friday, April 12 to strut his stuff in Midland:

Accompanying story: OA Online.

You'd think that would be enough - four times in a week. But NO! Johnny doesn't stop when the rock n' roll keeps calling! We took it back to the streets on Sunday, April 14 to play for the second annual Austin 10/20 road race. Who needs sleep??

We didn't make the paper for the 10/20, but there is one thing worth noting for that one - our stage:

What's noteworthy is that is IS a stage! None of this "play on the ground as Joe sinks into the ground and Johnny trips over divets in the grass" stuff. Thanks 10/20 for doing it right and giving your bands some R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

I'd love to tell you that after all that, Johnny gets to sleep in until, like, forever, but alas, his Don't Mess duties have him rising early again and jetting off this week to the international hotspot of Harlingen, Texas, followed by Houston next week for the final press event of the campaign. Let's all say it together, "Awwwwww!"