Here is the summary of the "Open ears" article where Steve tells some "horror" stories from the tour. I've found it interesting since I have this romantic view of the touring musician. You know, seeing new places and being payed for doing what you like most. Well, Steve gives us some other point of view. The article is on the October issue of "Guitar" (US), the one with Steve Vai on the cover. I cannot copy it for obvious reasons so I'll try to "elaborate" a summary.
The security guys: Steve notes how in one country (not mentioned) those guys are were "violently squelching" any "overt of enthusiasm" from the crowd. Same type of guys in another country handed bottles of water to help the people from heat chock. Some of crowd where lifted to help them recover. In another country a fan jumping on the stage to shake hands got his head smashed by a security guy. The two falls together against a metal barrier and the security guy got punched by big Ian (Steve doesn't make names he just says "our singer" ;-)). Let's chanmge country again and see that the security helps people to not be squeezed agains the stage. Big Ian gives public tribute and the crowd cheers.
On the bus: hot summer and the air conditioning doesn't work. It's a very long drive and the windows don't open. I just can't immagine how it could be. Steve expresses his confusion describing a "typical party" as some English rock stars doing crosswords with an Oxford dictionary while drinking tea.
Steve finds out the hard way that he didn't pack clothing for extremely cold or hot outdoor gigs. How he managed to play Purple songs at temperatures that he defines "finger-numbing" is a mistery for me. For the "best of both worlds" series, the bus has now a freezing temperature upstairs and a steamy sauna downstairs. At this point the romance is definitely gone...
In another place (no details) a traffic jam was threatening to keep Steve from arriving in time at the gig. One of the organizers managed to have a police car in front of the car. They ran into a one-way street in the wrong direction, drove down sidewalks, scared pedestrians and they escaped crashing only because on the ABS.
The careful omission of names for people and localities demonstrates what kind of incredibly nice person is Steve Morse. I clearly got this impression from his reply to Yngwie comments about his playing ability and this article just reinforced that impression. I guess that for the rest of the band it's a *big* change. ;-)
Paolo Ciccone