Okay so where did we leave off? So the Farewell My Love tour ended in Hollywood, so I stayed with the FML guys and they were kind enough to let me ride with them back to Phoenix, where this tour just so happened to be playing. The guys drove me to Joe’s Grotto, said our goodbyes, and I went to find the Famous Last Word’s RV.

Little background on me and the Famous dudes. In August of 2013, I have a really close friends who always talked about this band. They were good friends with the guys, and she just raved about them. I thought it would be funny to e-mail management and see about touring with them. After a few e-mails I was set to tour with them for two weeks on their run with Our Last Night. Jt (Vocals), Craig (Drums), Tyler (Guitar), and Matt (Bass) are seriously some of my favorite people ever. I cant tell you how many times I’ve broken down on the side of a highway with these people, and somehow we’ve never had to cancel or drop off a tour.  I’ve been through the shittiest tours of my life with these guys. Promoters getting drunk and trying to fight kids, nobody showing up to some shows, its been a wild ride. And of all things to happen, they end up landing a huge tour for them after not touring for a few months. 

 I was kind of nervous about this tour. First off, HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS. Like, my first show EVER was Hawthorne, and they were my favorite band in middle school. So I was so stoked. Red Jumpsuit on the other hand, I was very nervous about. They only thing they had recently been on the radar for was the photographer scandal with their management, so I kind of just thought they were a bunch of assholes, which I was TOTALY WRONG ABOUT! Haha.

I was so excited to go on this run, but to be completely honest, this tour wasn’t the best tour I’ve ever done. Actually, it was one of the most stressful and just overall low-morale tours. There were a few people on tour that just ruined it for everyone else. Some bands have never done a tour of this size, with a head TM, strict rules, ect. Most of these bands are just on tours that worry about whether or not the promoter or kids will show up. So it was a rude awakening for some bands, including Famous. Some people almost got their bands kicked off the tour on multiple occasions, there were vehicle accidents, stupid fights, and just some shitty people to be completely honest. Some camps were worse than others. Ours by no means was perfect either.  REGARDLESS, the good out-weighed the good (most of the time), and everyone survived.

When we were in Hollywood, my buddy Johnny came out and we went out and explored a bit. Found a really cool prop store. Snapped some photos. it was a good time. and ended with In-n-out so, yeah. always sick

I originally was only suppose to come out and do photo / videos for them, but their original TM was supposed to handle TM / MERCH duties, and he bailed last minute, so our new TM wasn’t going to handle merch, so I got stuck with it. Oh well, not a big deal. But from the first show, I knew this wasn’t going to be a small tour. Granted, there were some smaller shows, but for the most part there were a few hundred kids at every show, which is NOT a familiar site with the Famous camp. What was not unfamiliar with the Famous camp was our precious RV breaking down all the time.

Now enter Dave Farley, our new TM. After spending three days broken down in San Diego, he basically gave us two options; Either spend all the money the band had (including some personal money) and get EVERYTHING wrong with the RV fixed and hope it makes the tour, or get to LA and rent a van. Being on a tour with a very professional crew and head TM, if we couldn’t get to the shows reliably we were in danger of getting the boot early. We found a home for the RV to stay and we went to get a van.  It was so nice to have a solid reliable vehicle, but sleeping arrangements sucked, well, for me a Craig it did. Craig was the smallest and I’m the least important, so we got stuck sleeping in the front. That was so much fun. Anyways, with a reliable van we were able to make every show of the tour and our biggest weight was lifted from our shoulders. 

Besides all the BS, the tour was pretty sweet. Tons of kids coming out every night, and (mostly) everyone on the tour turned out to be very chill. Justin, who runs merch / photo for Jumpsuit was one of my best friends now. He is one of the coolest and most down to earth guys you’ll ever meet. All EVERY SINGLE DUDE FROM THE ONGOING CONCEPT was beyond nice and so so soooooo chill. Each one of them had their own different personality, and just overall a fun group. I ended up becoming great friends will all those guys and gals, and their music was so different and great. I remember in Spokane, WA, they weren’t on the tour yet, but they were one of the locals for the day. Everybody HATED them. Hated their music, their style, and (for some off reason) thought they were cocky, except me apparently. I fell in love, and when they joined the tour everyone immediately became friends. 

It was definitely one of the longest tour(or so it felt) I’ve done. I had been on the road since the beginning of June, and by this time it was September, and I was just over it. I will say I got some of my best photos of the guys throughout this tour. I was really happy with out they came out and so were the guys. I got to spend my 21st in Spokane, Washington on an off night we had a headlining show that went great. It was great to spend my second birthday in a row with a bunch of solid friends. Even though the tour was filled with more drama and unnecessary bullshit than anyone should have to put up with, I still love those dudes, and look forward to many more tours ahead.