This week, the Kevin Burdick Tour Bus, which has been such an icon at shows and events for nearly three years, goes up for auction in Phoenix. It’s a bittersweet financial move, with the bus running in the tens of thousands of dollars each year to keep on the road. In the future, you will soon find me and the crew in a simple white van – much more gas economical and much less glamoress, but a necessity if I’m to keep this “road on the show.”
Should you feel like owning the tour bus and gaining a piece of history, you can always stop by the Manheim Arizona Auction in Phoenix (3420 South 48th St). I can promise that it’s in good condition, gently used, and contains the ghosts of only a few hundred rockstar memories.
Enjoy, one last time, this classic clip involving Senior Tour Bus.
Check out these amazing photos from the March 31st concert in Arizona! Big thanks to nationally renowned photographer and lifelong friend, Jared Platt, as these are some pretty impressive photos.
Those who know me know that I love women, in fact, some might joke that I love women “a little too much.” So when it comes to the gay community, I can’t say that I understand what it means to have a same-sex attraction or the societal challenges gays and lesbians face, but I definitely know what it meant to be persecuted because I was different (see High School). Needless to say, when my sweet lesbian friend Jessica called me to perform at her Utah Wedding last week, there was no way that I could tell her ”no.” Conveniently, I was already in Salt Lake City recording my new album, so on Saturday I drove to a church near the University of Utah having no idea what to expect.
During the wedding ceremony I played some pretty background piano music that I improvised entirely – mostly variations of church hymns - as Amanda and Jessica and their wedding procession walked to the front of the standing-room only chapel. Jessica’s only instruction to me was “you can play anything but the wedding march.” So I took some liberties, even adding some simple light Jazz to the mix. Later that night, during the evening reception at the Museum of Art, I played a brand new love song off of my new album called “God Made You Just For Me” as well as my rendition of “It’s a Wonderful World.” The brides danced with each other and then danced with their fathers as I sang.
All and all, it was a beautiful snow-covered day and the two girls looked both elegant and ecstatically happy. The biggest thing I got out of the experience was a simple reminder that no matter if we are gay or straight, black or white, or tall or short, we are all God’s children and we all deserve to have love and be loved. Everyone deserves happiness. Thank you Jessica and Amanda for reminding me of that and for allowing me to take part in your important day. Congratulations!!
“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth? Screw that – I want two new sponsors!” Luckily, I must have been on Santa’s nice list this year. So, this Christmas I want to welcome Fashion Revolution and AcaiSoda for joining the Kevin Burdick family and being part of my music sponsors for 2010.
Fashion Revolution: Working with Shane, Ari, and Veronica of Fashion Revolution these last couple months has been an amazing look into the world of commercial and retail fashion. I was able to go with them to the fashion district in L.A. and was treated like rockstar royalty as we toured many of the lines of clothing that they carry. In fact, I was so excited with the whole experience, I hope to have my own line of clothing someday. I’m proud to have Fashion Revolution’s sponsorship logos on the tour bus and am pleased to wear their awesome clothes at night and on-stage. You can see some of the samples of pants and shirts I got from them from our photo shoot at Runyon Canyon at the bottom of the post. To find out more about Fashion Revolution or to order clothes off of their website (coming soon) go to: www.fashionrevolutiononline.com
AcaiSoda:I have been drinking AcaiSoda regularly for the last two months. It’s a lightly sweetened energy drink which has helped me control my appetite without crashes. You simply tear open a pack and add it to a bottle of water. I am excited to be able to call them part of my music family. Dr. Anthony Kleinsmith, the creator of AcaiSoda and also a fan of my music, had this to say about the new relationship, “AcaiSoda is excited to be sponsoring Kevin Burdick’s music. I formulate while listening!” Thanks Dr. K, for the support. To try a 15-day Risk Free Trial of AcaiSoda, go to: http://www.acaisoda.com/?aid=kb
Saturday’s Barry Sobel Show was one of the surreal nights I’ll remember for a long time. As Paul Schaffer has been to David Letterman for years, I was to Barry this weekend – providing music in-between acts such as Late Night’s Spike Feresten, Chris Fairbanks, and Jonas Garvin. It was a lot of fun and Barry was kind, appreciative, and wonderful to work with. If you’re not familiar with Barry Sobel then you probably haven’t seen Revenge of the Nerds II and weren’t familiar with the Emmy nominated writers for Saturday Night Live in the early 2000’s. If you’re not familiar with Spike Feresten then you aren’t watching Fox later than 11 PM, but his talk show is arguably the one with the best “skits.”
At the end of the night I took about an hour and jammed with my great percussionist Aaron Chavez for the few stragglers who had stuck around to jam and drink. Big thanks to Barry and his crew, John the owner of Club Trip, Aaron “Chives” Chavez, and everyone who attended the show and stayed until the wee hours of the night to celebrate life with me.
Recently I stumbed onto a website where LeAnn Rimes bravely discussed her lifelong battle with psoriasis. It was truly inspiring. As you probably know, psoriasis awareness has been one of my passion projects over the last few years and I hope to inspire others living with the disease to come forward and pursue their dreams – I’m excited about LeAnn coming out and hope they’ll be others. Psoriasis is not a contageous (nor sexy) disease, but is connected to so many other problems – including alcoholism, depression, heart disease, and other system-wide problems. As a sufferer, I am almost always uncomfortable in my own skin; skin which cracks, burns, itches, and bleeds frequently as my immune system stupidly attacks my it as if it was some kind of dermal virus. Sometimes I want to send a memo to my own immune system, which would read something like this:
Dear White Blood Cells,
Yo, it’s your boss Kevin (You know, owner of the body you live in and are hired to protect). Yeah, what’s up? Hey, here’s a naked photo of me - you see that semi-tanned layer of soft flesh with cool tattoos and a bit of hair in all of the right places? Yeah, that’s called “skin” you idiots!! So when you get done playing X-box, or whatever it is you do everyday, maybe you could stop screwing around inside my body and instead focus on the flu that’s going around or making sure I don’t get some kind of STD. I’m definitely keeping your damage deposit and may have to evict you if you guys don’t get your act together. You are officially on f*#$ing notice – my skin is off-limits! Hugs and Kisses.
Love, Kevin
Each October, which includes World Psoriasis Day on October 29th, I try and create some additional awareness for the disease and this year I’ve decided to do something a little radical. For the last 2 weeks I have pulled myself off of all my psoriasis medication, medication which was managing the disease moderately well - yep, right now I’m allowing the psoriasis to ravage my body. Don’t worry, I’ve not gone completely crazy and there is a method to this madness. Later this week I’m participating in a drug trial for an experimental new medication called AIN457 by Novartis, some cutting edge stuff which probably won’t be FDA approved for at least a couple years. Hey, someone’s gotta test it and if it kills me at least I die for a good cause. Regardless of the results, I’ll be tracking my progress including photos, ideas, funny anecdotes, and whatever else comes to mind. Hopefully you won’t mind the break from the usual music posts for a few weeks as I work through this process.
Thanks for sticking with me and supporting me. If want to learn more about psoriasis, it’s research, treatments, or anything else, check out: http://www.psoriasis.org/
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Check out the Memorial Edition of The Bedroom Sessions by clicking on this link: The Bedroom Sessions LIVE
Last tuesday’s Kevin Burdick Musician Party for local L.A. musicians was a great night of networking. Club Trip in Santa Monica let us have our run of the place as we had musicians big and small from all over Los Angeles come in and spend some time with me and my team. From these events we will drill down to three or four guys who have the talent, chemistry, and commitment to tour with me next year. I’m sure I’ll also have the opportunity to work with others via the studio or on bigger shows - below are some of the photos from the event.
Big thanks to the “Burdick Girls” who helped bring sexy back to the event and all of the musicians who attended. I sincerely hope that everyone that came had a good time and I’m certainly looking forward to spending more time with you.
This week I was able to pick the tourbus up from Salt Lake City where Jared Rice repaired the several thousand dollars of damage we did to the back last year, and Schmidt Signs upgraded the exterior with a slightly improved wrap. The new wrap is simpler with the tagline “North American Tour” and featuring the easier-to-remember website – www.pianorockstar.com (which simply leads people to my main website).
The thrill of picking up the tour bus was quickly forgotten as a couple hours outside of Salt Lake City one of the four back tires blew. Luckily, the three other backtires continued to carry me all the way to Las Vegas. A couple days and several new tires later, I was on the road again. In the meantime, I made a couple hundred bucks in Vegas and had a lot of fun. Check out the photos and big thanks to Discount Tire.
Well, if you missed the short performance LIVE from my bedroom, I recorded for you. In it, I uncover my top-secret songwriting processes and give some tips to young songwriters (hope they help), plus I performed Basket Case, Never Let Go / Jump, and Camelot. It’s about 17 minutes long, I’m fully clothed, and you can fast forward any of the boring parts… Hope to see you at the next one.
Check out this cool photo of me posing with fans from the July 5th Washington Times by staff photographer Allison Shelley. Great photo, so I had to share it with you guys. (for the original, see http://www.washingtontimes.com/photos/2009/jul/05/49833/)
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On another note, tune in on-line to next week’s Bedroom Sessions for another private acoustic concert from the comforts of my own bedroom.
Register For: The Bedroom Sessions with Kevin Burdick
Next Show: Episode 3, Tuesday, July 14th @ 6 PM PST
This week, the Kevin Burdick Tour Bus, which has been such an icon at shows and events for nearly three years, goes up for auction in Phoenix. It’s a bittersweet financial move, with the bus running in the tens of thousands of dollars each year to keep on the road. In the future, you will soon find me and the crew in a simple white van – much more gas economical and much less glamoress, but a necessity if I’m to keep this “road on the show.”
Those who know me know that I love women, in fact, some might joke that I love women “a little too much.” So when it comes to the gay community, I can’t say that I understand what it means to have a same-sex attraction or the societal challenges gays and lesbians face, but I definitely know what it meant to be persecuted because I was different (see High School). Needless to say, when my sweet lesbian friend Jessica called me to perform at her Utah Wedding last week, there was no way that I could tell her ”no.” Conveniently, I was already in Salt Lake City recording my new album, so on Saturday I drove to a church near the University of Utah having no idea what to expect.
During the wedding ceremony I played some pretty background piano music that I improvised entirely – mostly variations of church hymns - as Amanda and Jessica and their wedding procession walked to the front of the standing-room only chapel. Jessica’s only instruction to me was “you can play anything but the wedding march.” So I took some liberties, even adding some simple light Jazz to the mix. Later that night, during the evening reception at the Museum of Art, I played a brand new love song off of my new album called “God Made You Just For Me” as well as my rendition of “It’s a Wonderful World.” The brides danced with each other and then danced with their fathers as I sang.
All and all, it was a beautiful snow-covered day and the two girls looked both elegant and ecstatically happy. The biggest thing I got out of the experience was a simple reminder that no matter if we are gay or straight, black or white, or tall or short, we are all God’s children and we all deserve to have love and be loved. Everyone deserves happiness. Thank you Jessica and Amanda for reminding me of that and for allowing me to take part in your important day. Congratulations!!
Fashion Revolution: Working with Shane, Ari, and Veronica of Fashion Revolution these last couple months has been an amazing look into the world of commercial and retail fashion. I was able to go with them to the fashion district in L.A. and was treated like rockstar royalty as we toured many of the lines of clothing that they carry. In fact, I was so excited with the whole experience, I hope to have my own line of clothing someday. I’m proud to have Fashion Revolution’s sponsorship logos on the tour bus and am pleased to wear their awesome clothes at night and on-stage. You can see some of the samples of pants and shirts I got from them from our photo shoot at Runyon Canyon at the bottom of the post. To find out more about Fashion Revolution or to order clothes off of their website (coming soon) go to: 
Saturday’s Barry Sobel Show was one of the surreal nights I’ll remember for a long time. As Paul Schaffer has been to David Letterman for years, I was to Barry this weekend – providing music in-between acts such as Late Night’s Spike Feresten, Chris Fairbanks, and Jonas Garvin. It was a lot of fun and Barry was kind, appreciative, and wonderful to work with. If you’re not familiar with Barry Sobel then you probably haven’t seen Revenge of the Nerds II and weren’t familiar with the Emmy nominated writers for Saturday Night Live in the early 2000’s. If you’re not familiar with Spike Feresten then you aren’t watching Fox later than 11 PM, but his talk show is arguably the one with the best “skits.”
Recently I stumbed onto a website where 
Last tuesday’s Kevin Burdick Musician Party for local L.A. musicians was a great night of networking. Club Trip in Santa Monica let us have our run of the place as we had musicians big and small from all over Los Angeles come in and spend some time with me and my team. From these events we will drill down to three or four guys who have the talent, chemistry, and commitment to tour with me next year. I’m sure I’ll also have the opportunity to work with others via the studio or on bigger shows - below are some of the photos from the event.
