This is the first (and last) tour that documented my wanderings more or less as they happened. It was a rare mix of present and past, as I posted what was in the Tour Book, then followed it up with where I had been in real time. That’s a lot of work, and I don’t get paid for this, but it was a labor of love for one’s last tour. The final delusions must be honored. Respect must be paid. Now, as I wind down one more time, a look back at the places I’ve been.
Everything kicked off at The Illuminati Party in August of 2015. That same month I made the first tour stop to Cape Cod, to visit JoAnn and the Cape Crew, along with the visiting Brits for a weekend of fun introductions. My 40th birthday was part of this tour, and I spent it at the Judy Garland suite of the Lenox Hotel in Boston. It was a definite highlight, and I still have the stuffed lion who greeted us with a bottle of champagne. (The champagne is long since gone.)
The next month brought the first major air jaunt of the tour, as I made my way west to Seattle, and my first return there since the late 90’s. It was better than I remembered it – more verdant, more delicious, more beautiful, more everything. And I got to see the whales.
At the end of September, Suzie and I made our way to Boston for Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour. Some things are meant to be, as when Andy and I closed out the 2015 season in Ogunquit, Maine. By November, Chris and I were living it up at the Standard High Line in New York.
Knowing that this tour would be a long and extended one, I deliberately took it easy travel-wise for the winter, and aside from a few trips to Boston, there was no real movement until I flew to Washington, DC for a long weekend in April 2016. The following month my Mom and I made our annual trek to Broadway to see a few shows (one, two, three), and the next week Andy and I returned to Ogunquit to start the spring/summer season all over again. Skip and I made it to see another Red Sox game in Boston, and I got back to Albany in time to dazzle at the GLSEN Pride Gala.
My birthday last year was spent traveling to Rehoboth Beach, which turned out to be a spectacular trip for us, and another tour highlight. I’d forgotten the simple wonders and pull of the beach. In September 2016 I was back in Washington, DC before Chris was slated to move to Detroit (where I enjoyed a favorite watering hole and some sweet solitude), and then in Boston and Ogunquit for weekends in the fall. When winter arrived again, the tour stayed relatively stationary between Albany and Boston, but I was merely gearing up for its grand finale.
A lifelong dream of visiting the desert came true at the tail end of winter, as I visited Tucson, Arizona and the wonder of the Sonoran Desert and its Saguaro National Park. Words can’t convey the might and majesty of it. There was enchantment, there was magic, there was wonder, and there was peace. As we turned the page to spring, I returned to ‘Sunset Boulevard’ in New York, and closed a circle in brilliant fashion (with a little help from Glenn Close). In other full-circle moments, a return to Chicago was rife with drama and denouements, and a fitting near-finale to the entire essence of my touring years.
That brings us to this moment. Stops in Boston, New York City, and Ogunquit will complete this journey, and while part of me is sad to see the delusions end (we find our safest comfort in the wilderness of our imagination) I am more than ready to let it go. It’s time. In some ways it feels like I’ve been running since my very first tour in 1995. I’m tired. But more than that, I want to start something new. Something real. Something provocative. Something true.
Until then, may all our delusions be grand…
{THE DELUSIONAL GRANDEUR TOUR: LAST STAND OF A ROCK STAR wraps up its run at the end of May.}
