The Day before Iraq...

We are in Minneapolis about 12 hours before the biggest tour of our lives. We have rehearsed the songs, dialed in the equipment, talked about what to expect, what this tour means to us and what it means to our Country. I can honestly say that there has never been a gig so prestigious and important in our career. We are feeling so blessed and excited to take this journey. Our families will tell you that we live a life of "rock and roll". Sacrificing relationships, family, money and sanity all for the love of music. Then I think about what our soldiers sacrifice everyday; risking their lives, their families, wondering when they get to see a green field again or a snow covered mountain top. Instead they are stuck in a litter box. Wondering when the next bullet will buzz by their head or bomb blow up in their face. Doing all of this so we as Americans can be whatever we want to be. So people from other countries can move here and chase the dreams that they see on the TV. The soldiers are the true "rock and and rollers". Risking their sanity and lives so I can sit here in this hotel room, drink a Heinekin and write what I am feeling. The land of the FREE.

As artistic Americans we tend to question our government, wanting peace and not war. Why are we fighting? We don't know why...or do we. We sing about it, write about it, bitch about it, but never get the chance to really SEE why freedom is worth fighting for. We know why it is worth it of course, but it is not something we have had to fight for, but something that we are luckily born into. We have become spoiled with a golden way of life that others in the world fight for their whole existence to feel and experience. Now we get a chance to say thank you. To be true Americans and see WHY freedom is worth fighting for. Thank you to the men and women who risk their lives everyday fighting for the freedom that we often times take for granted. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to live a life of traveling, playing music, sharing what we think, feel and strive to be. We live in this bubble of a society that tells us what it means to be an American, but in reality we have no freaking idea what that really means. Going to play and share with the Troops in Iraq is going to bring us one step closer to understanding what freedom truly means.

This is what I am thinking the day before we head to Iraq.