After our last tour together in 2013 and what turned out to be the last tour of his career, I told Joe I would archive the update emails I had sent from the road and post them.
He said, "That's a good idea, Nick."

About halfway into what turned out to be thirteen years in his band as keyboardist and then music director, I started writing regularly—first to family and a small group of friends to digest the experiences that constant travel can sometimes wash into a blur. Over the years the list expanded to almost a thousand people. The first twenty posts here are the original update emails in chronological order.

I post these to honor Joe and all who worked with him. There are more stories to write. I will continue to gather them and post from time to time and to invite others to contribute.

Come visit frequently, hang out if you want and get to know my experience of this great artist and true gentleman, Joe Cocker.

In Respect, Gratitude and Love,
Nick

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Hard Knocks Tour Update, November 19, 2010

Hi Everybody,

Yesterday we were in Prague.  What a gorgeous city it is. On the original schedule we were to play tonight and then have two days off.  But now we are in Hamburg to do a television show tomorrow.  When we arrived in Prague around 5AM from Vienna, the buses couldn't get all the way to the hotel.  We were met by a hotel van to take us the rest of the way through narrow streets and tunnels.  The hotel, The Augustine, used to be a monastery.  It is one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever been to.  It had a wonderful feeling of quiet and contemplation.  What a spectacular place for a couple days off, but as it was, we only had half a day there.

The view from hotel room.

The night before we played Vienna.  The hall there was a good sounding room and Bruce Jones, our front-of-house engineer said the place was going to rock. He was correct!

Vienna has some special meanings and two things in particular make a concert there more intense for me. 

One is that my childhood piano teacher, Mrs Klumpner, studied in Vienna.  I'm not sure exactly how old she was when I took lessons from her in Ottawa, Illinois, but I guess she must have been in Vienna in the 1920s.  There are many stories to tell about her, how she intimidated me as a nine year old with her strict classical training and gruff cigarette stained voice, and as I started to play more, thanks to my brother and his friends, she started to challenge me with Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt and I fell in love with the piano.  As well as being teacher and student, over the years we became good friends.  One of her sayings was, "String of Pearls" when she was talking about touch, making the notes sound round and distinct.  I tell myself this at random to this day.  

The other particular moment of intensity was the early morning in May of 2005 when the tour was just arriving in Vienna, I received the call that my dad had just passed away after a long illness at his home in Laguna.  I missed three performances on that tour, Vienna being the first, when I returned to California to be with my family.  Now when I play Vienna, I always dedicate the night to my father and my teacher. 



More updates coming.  And, songs from my new album with Rocky Maffit, "All The Lost Angels", will be available soon on milomon.com and elsewhere, as we are just finishing the mixes.



Here's a few photos from the show:








Keep rockin'!
Nick
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