Stan Hitchcock-The Late Night Sleep Monsters Are Out-May 27, 2013

Yep, they steal sleep from poor old hillbillies like me. 'Course, musicians are usually just getting started good at 1AM, maybe doing a last show in a club somewhere, or packing up from a show in a theater or concert hall. For years, on the music road, I would get through with my shows at 1 or 2 in the morning, load up, stop and get some breakfast and lots of coffee, and drive the rest of the night and most of the next day to get to the next gig. Get there in time to check into a Motel, grab a shower and head to the club or venue for a sound check about 4 in the afternoon, get through with that and go back to the room to dress for the evening shows...and start the cycle all over again.

In the 60's, when I was in my 20's and 30's, and had a daily morning tv show, 5 days a week, then on Friday morning, after the tv show, head out on tour for the weekend. Drive all day, Friday, getting into some town just in time for the Friday night show, do three or four shows that night, get through about 2 in the AM, load up and head for the next town for a Saturday night show, drive all night and most of Saturday, get to the next show town, do the shows, load up and head to a Matinee 300 miles away on Sunday afternoon, get there, do the afternoon show and then start driving back to Nashville to be live on tv at 6AM Monday Morning. Get back to the Station about 5AM, go on live at 6...and one time while the guests on the show that morning, The Sego Brothers and Naomi were singing, I feel asleep, on my stool where I was sitting, playing rhythm...I fell off the stool, run the mike through the hole of my guitar, hit the cement floor of the tv studio and rolled out in front of Naomi, who thought I was having a religious fit or someting holy rollin', but really I was just so dang tired I couldn't hold my head up any longer.

Well, I don't do that anymore, boys and girls, I'm usually in bed way before this time, but sometimes, when I get to grazin' through my old music files, I'll come upon one of my old songs that just keys a memory, and it just goes on from there.  Stan