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September 22nd.  Riding With The King - In Paris

Whoa.   What fun we've been having.   Got back from the Habitat World Tour and finished five national PSAs for Habitat which have been released to all commercial television stations in the US and Canada, as well as all the networks and cable outlets. 

Late in August, we took a week off and went to the mountains in New York State and then went over and spent the week in Vermont, on the shores of Lake Champlain.  

We left on September 14, and went to Amsterdam to catch up with BB on his "Farewell Tour" in Europe.   We followed BB on the tour from Rotterdam, to Brussels, to Paris and finally to the last night of the tour in Luxemburg.   Great stuff. 

I have to tell ya, trying to keep up with BB is tough.  The Man is 81 years old (we got to celebrate his birthday with him on this trip), and we are hard-pressed just to keep up with him, much less have any downtime to blog about it.  We didn't get much sleep. 

The arenas were large, beautiful and the fans were great.  The road-show people (concert sound and lighting) were some of the best people in Europe.  Totally awesome and willing to help us with anything we needed. 

We were astounded by the fan's knowledge of BB and their reverence for him, as one lady put it, "he's the grand-daddy of the blues". 

And if the notion of BB as Grandfather strikes you -- I would have to say something about his tour.  Everyone on the road was like family.   The bus operators, his European security and local tour guys.  BB has a way about him that makes everyone feel like they have been treated right.   I guess he is just such a perfect gentleman, that everyone who knows him, respects him deeply for the kind of man he his.

We got to do little pieces (short interviews) with a few of the band members and some of his staff and family that traveled over to see the final days of the tour.  In particular, Laverne Toney -- who has been with BB for about 30 years -- summed it all up for everyone close to BB.   "He's the father of us all". 

We're back home just for two days and are headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a week-long shoot.   So we will post more when we return.     Lots of photos coming up soon. l

Jim