WAIMEA DAYS,HONOLULU NIGHTS AND THE CRAZIEST FRIDAY EVER !
Let's see now......where did we leave off .....Oh yeah ...After we got back to California from Europe we had about a week of R& R....Then we went to Hawaii..Man I absolutely love Hawaii. I know I am going out on a limb here ! Anywho....we played a private party in Honolulu on Saturday and then were off in O'ahu until our next show on thursday. So I took that oppurtunity to explore the island of O'ahu. I rented a car and drove all over the place . Some of the highlights were Waimea bay . Hell the whole north shore is awesome. But Waimea is very special and oh boy are the waves powerfull there . I like to be tossed about a little bit and Waimea didnt disappoint . And it is a very beautiful beach .Plus it is mentioned in the Beach Boys song ."Surfin' USA" ...But if you get a chance check out the Audobon society refuge just across the street from the beach at Waimea. It is like jurassic park . It has giant Banyon trees and it has a cannon ball tree . You heard me . To top it off at the end of the park is a waterfall that feeds into a pond and you get to swim in it !!!!!! Me Tarzan you Jane......Fantastic.....then off to the little town of Hale'iwa . This town is kinda by the bonzai pipeline of surfing fame and it is a real gem . And it has the famous Matsumoto shave ice store . What is shave ice you ask? Well think of real fine snowcone ice covered in your favorite flavor like Cocanut or pineapple, then it is covered in condensed milk .You can have the optional beans put in it which I do like . Sounds funny but they are great .
O'ahu is a very underrated island . It is very beautiful . People naturally think of Waikiki when they think of O'ahu and dismiss it . Yes, Waikiki is touristy , and yes it is crowded . But in fact it is still a fabulous beach . You can walk out from the beach like 200 yards and still be up to your waist . It is like a giant swimming pool . And the fabulous Diamond Head crater is there to stare at . Just like Mark Twain did in the 1800s . Twain thought the "sandwich islands " the prettiest place he had ever seen .
Small world . So I am just hanging out on Waikiki swimming around and I here this great music coming from Duke's bar down the beach .And the drummer is reall good . So I walk in the beach bar looking quite the sight. I have sandy feet , a Matsumoto shave ice tank top, blown out flip flops and a salt stained giants cap . It was particularly gross looking. And I bump into an old friend there who is running this party . It is Fil Slash .He used to be a DJ at KUSF the college radio station in San Francisco . In fact back in the day Fil had me bring some of my records and spin them on his show . Back then I had an enormous record collection. And it was especially heavy on the counry side and the blues side. Back in the early eighties, late seventies you could buy amazing country albums by the buttloads and I did . I had almost all of the Merle Haggard albums and the same for Buck Owens , lots of old George Jones and Ray Price . Also I lived a year in Dallas and I found a record store with humdreds of old Blues 45's....Lightnin' Hopkins, Bobby Blue Bland, Freddie King etc........Sold all of them lock stock and barrell about 10 years ago . I moved about ten years ago and after I packed up all of my drums, no mean feat that,I was too exhausted to deal with the records so I called in three of the top record stores in San Francisco and I said You cant pick and chose you have to take the whole collection . Yes there is some Scritti Politti in there but there are some real jewels like the Tammy Wynette 9 record box set !!!!!! They bought them . When the movers saw the amount of drums they yelled at me " nobody should own this many drums" and you know they were right . When I got settled I sold my friend robert at Drummer's Tradition , 32 cymbal stands . Later on I gave 2 complete drum sets cymbals , heads , sticks to San Rafael high school . I did a carrer day there a few years ago . I know what your thinking trying to wrap your mind around that . They had called Carlos Santana's office which is in San Rafael and he couldnt do it so someone in his office said "Kenney Johnson probably isnt busy " So I went and spoke and was appalled at what those kids had to play on . But no more they are way hooked up now .
Man yesterday was one for the books .....you ready ....All right so we played on thursday night in Hnoolulu and then the next morning we got up at 4 am went to the airport flew 5 hours to L.A. ( they made me watch "catch and release "on the plane ).
Next we flew to las Vegas and then we drove to Lake las Vegas and did a show there . It was a lot of fun great new venue . Then after the show we hi- tailed it back to Vegas airport and flew to Calgary Canada and got to the hotel around 4:30 am . And here I am in Calgary in South Alberta . Maybe I will get to spot Katie lang in the wild !!!!!
Your Pal
KENNEY DALE
O'ahu is a very underrated island . It is very beautiful . People naturally think of Waikiki when they think of O'ahu and dismiss it . Yes, Waikiki is touristy , and yes it is crowded . But in fact it is still a fabulous beach . You can walk out from the beach like 200 yards and still be up to your waist . It is like a giant swimming pool . And the fabulous Diamond Head crater is there to stare at . Just like Mark Twain did in the 1800s . Twain thought the "sandwich islands " the prettiest place he had ever seen .
Small world . So I am just hanging out on Waikiki swimming around and I here this great music coming from Duke's bar down the beach .And the drummer is reall good . So I walk in the beach bar looking quite the sight. I have sandy feet , a Matsumoto shave ice tank top, blown out flip flops and a salt stained giants cap . It was particularly gross looking. And I bump into an old friend there who is running this party . It is Fil Slash .He used to be a DJ at KUSF the college radio station in San Francisco . In fact back in the day Fil had me bring some of my records and spin them on his show . Back then I had an enormous record collection. And it was especially heavy on the counry side and the blues side. Back in the early eighties, late seventies you could buy amazing country albums by the buttloads and I did . I had almost all of the Merle Haggard albums and the same for Buck Owens , lots of old George Jones and Ray Price . Also I lived a year in Dallas and I found a record store with humdreds of old Blues 45's....Lightnin' Hopkins, Bobby Blue Bland, Freddie King etc........Sold all of them lock stock and barrell about 10 years ago . I moved about ten years ago and after I packed up all of my drums, no mean feat that,I was too exhausted to deal with the records so I called in three of the top record stores in San Francisco and I said You cant pick and chose you have to take the whole collection . Yes there is some Scritti Politti in there but there are some real jewels like the Tammy Wynette 9 record box set !!!!!! They bought them . When the movers saw the amount of drums they yelled at me " nobody should own this many drums" and you know they were right . When I got settled I sold my friend robert at Drummer's Tradition , 32 cymbal stands . Later on I gave 2 complete drum sets cymbals , heads , sticks to San Rafael high school . I did a carrer day there a few years ago . I know what your thinking trying to wrap your mind around that . They had called Carlos Santana's office which is in San Rafael and he couldnt do it so someone in his office said "Kenney Johnson probably isnt busy " So I went and spoke and was appalled at what those kids had to play on . But no more they are way hooked up now .
Man yesterday was one for the books .....you ready ....All right so we played on thursday night in Hnoolulu and then the next morning we got up at 4 am went to the airport flew 5 hours to L.A. ( they made me watch "catch and release "on the plane ).
Next we flew to las Vegas and then we drove to Lake las Vegas and did a show there . It was a lot of fun great new venue . Then after the show we hi- tailed it back to Vegas airport and flew to Calgary Canada and got to the hotel around 4:30 am . And here I am in Calgary in South Alberta . Maybe I will get to spot Katie lang in the wild !!!!!
Your Pal
KENNEY DALE
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