Since this whole Mayercraft deal was a special occasion and we wanted to sound our best we decided to bring a second guitar player, our good friend Dean Berner from Nashville, TN to play along with us. Filling in for Lester on drums was our buddy Chase Lovelace. Lester couldn't get out of a country gig he had booked. Then of course myself, Joey, and Chris rounded up the group. On the morning of March 27 the nice people at the cruise company, Sixthman, picked us up in a shuttle at the airport and drove us to the dock in San Pedro. As we pulled up I couldn't believe the size of this ship. Now I have never been on a cruise before so this is all new to me. The ship was a Carnival Cruise ship by the name of Splendor. The Mayercraft 2 happened to be its maiden voyage. Since we are "artists" of course we had special VIP boarding. They even brought all our bags up to the rooms. The first thing we did was check out the boat. See what's up? Within the first hour of being on the boat we walked by the gym and there were people working out?!?!? What is wrong with these people! Shortly after everybody was boarded we had to do an annoying drill where we put on our life vests and pretended to board the little life boats. As the Mayercraft shipped off to sea the first concert started and John Mayer laid it down on the outside Lido Deck stage. During his concert we had the opportunity to meet Brian and Scott Ball with Ernie Ball. They took us to their room so we could pick up our custom Ernie Ball guitars and bass. I ended up picking up an all white Sting Ray bass. I copied Joey so we could match. Like twins. Except I am really tall and he is part mexican...? We just want to thank Ernie Ball, Brian, and Scott for picking us and just being so cool. They made this trip amazing for us just with their support. We found out that first day that we were performing 3 times during the cruise (Sat, Sun, and Mon). Our big show was on Sunday at 8pm. 

That first day at 4:30pm John Mayer scheduled a "band mixer" for all us VIP artists to get to know each other. We were a little shy since we didn't know too many people. We did talk to Brendan James and his crew. We were supposed to play with him in Tulsa back in December, but he got sick. At least we had something to talk with him about. John Mayer was very cool and nice to us. He seemed to know who we were and mentioned liking our music. He also said to "steal" as many fans of his as we could. "Take them all!" Not that he didn't love them. He is just into sharing. Thanks John Mayer for having us on your boat! 

I did eat entirely too much food. Here is one thing I learned being on a cruise. Eat smaller meals so you can sample more items. I would eat and get sick and then not be able to eat the whole day. Bad idea. Especially on a big boat out at sea. Now, this wasn't just all play for us. We brought these little SGD promo cards to promote our big Sunday show. So everyday we walked around meeting people and inviting them to come see us. We were working it! We even had a few people from Tulsa (Angela and her friends) who sported Stars Go Dim shirts and were promoting for us. Thank you ladies! 

Our 5 days at sea consisted mostly of watching amazing artists, eating lots of food, and napping. Some of my favorites were Justin Nozuka, Erin McMarly, and of course John Mayer. This was my first time seeing John Mayer live. He was amazing! That boy can play the guitar. He is also a comedian. Very funny. You can tell he really cares about his fans and make the experience memorable and special. We saw him perform 3 times on the cruise. We were also very honored that some of the other more established artists came to our shows and said nice things to us afterwards. We met some very cool people on this cruise. 

Highlights of the cruise? Well, Chris celebrated his 24th birthday on Sunday, Mar 29 the day we stopped in Cabo San Lucas! We just walked around Cabo and took in the sights. I took a short, guided tour on a boat and laid on the beach for a while. Got a little burned. Not too bad though. The other highlight was playing our three shows! Show number one was Saturday at midnight in the casino area (Promenade Deck). Lots of fun. We really promoted and hyped up our show the next night on the Lido Deck. On Sunday, after getting back from Cabo I put SGD promo cards promoting that nights show on every cabin door on the entire boat (all 11 floors). Our last show which took place on Monday at midnight again in the casino was the best of all at least in my opinion. Once we were done the people wanted to hear more, but we were out of songs so we just started making stuff up and jamming. And soon after other musicians from the other bands started jumping up on stage and jamming along with us. You can see part of this jam fest on the video. Of course we couldn't film ourselves while we were playing. Maybe somebody posted footage of us on Youtube or something?

In short we had amazing time! It was a dream come true. Special thanks to John Mayer, Ernie Ball, Sixthman, and all of you our fans for making this happen. Again, sorry this is so long and jumbled. Its been a long week. I am just too tired to try and organize and spell check this whole thing lol.

Peace, Michael and SGD