The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

Woke up to a beautiful Miami morning. Sunny, 78 degrees. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to, so I ate breakfast with the truck drivers. I volunteered my services with the kitchen and the chef looked at me like I was insane. I guess in retrospect it was kind of crazy. Big coliseum. Worked on “Wings over the Basement” for a little bit, then took a walk around and checked my email. A Spanish company wants to use “Imaginary Girl” in a commercial, and I hope it happens. Had a long conversation with both Liz and Jason. Lunch was excellent as usual. Then, after John Mayer’s soundcheck I got to talk to Robbie McIntosh for a minute. He was really nice and we talked about P.G. Wodehouse. Our gig was better than last night, I thought. Everyone is adapting to playing in these bigger venues: making more exaggerated gestures, etc. After dinner, went with Marc out to the front of house and watched the last half hour of John Mayer’s set. Pretty impressive, I must say. The band was amazing, the hits kept coming, and the lights were beautiful. I mean, what a great band! J.J. Johnson plays every beat as if it were his last! I mean, you really get an idea of what it takes to perform on that level, and keep thousands entertained. It’s very athletic. Jessica Simpson was there at the sound board, and she’s very pretty. Then, the best part of the night was after the concert was over, Josh and I met Billy Joel! He just walked up to us and started talking. He apparently has a house in Miami, and we talked about songs and chords and music and he was so nice. I told him I thought “Just the Way You Are” is a standard. He said thanks, and that they didn’t even want to put it on the album, but Linda Rondstadt and Phoebe Snow told him he had to. He said he thought it was like a “cocktail lounge” kind of song, and it wasn’t cool. I mean, isn’t that incredible? We talked to him for about 15 minutes. When we got back to the bus, Josh and I were stunned. We looked at each other, and said: “We just met Billy Joel!” and sort of high-fived. Then I played some of “The Stranger” on my ipod really loud. Then Ryan put on “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and I’d never seen that before. Watched most of it, and the band is really great, especially the background vocals. Joe Cocker is amazing, but he sounds like he’s just shredding his vocal chords and I guess he probably was. Wow. Still can’t believe I talked to Billy Joel.