Easter Update

Happy Easter. Sorry for the delay, but with the Holidays, work and a sick family, I am lucky to be able to maintian a weekly update! I have a lot of people to thank this week. Let me start by thanking Little Steven's (of E-Street Band fame amongst others) tech for a generous donation. He not only donated four Little steven picks:

But he also donated four additional picks from his personal collection. One from Weezer, one from the Foo Fighters:

And two from Little Feat:

Thanks Aaron.

Next I got a great surprise from Dan at the BB King Online Store. Dan sent in an even dozen picks from the fabulous B.B. King.

I can't thank Dan and Mr. King's organization enough for the donation. Admittedly, it was solicited, but it is easy to ignore such requests. Which is why I am so happy about this particular donation.

Finally, through my stagehand friend Craig Crosby, I was given thirty REO Speedwagon picks of various style. These were kindly donated by T-Bird and Rooster from the REO crew, so a special thank you to these two guys.

Update...

In the last week, I was fiven 24 more picks for the fundraiser, bringing the total to 813 picks in only 2 1/2 months. First, Ace Frehley's tech gave me 10 picks from the current tour. Check 'em out (two are particularly cool as they left over from eht Kiss 200 Farewell tour):

Next, Doyle from the Bret Michaels tour donated 10 picks and was very enthusiastic about the fundraiser which was really cool to hear:

Last, and certainly not least, a friend of mine for years, Harry Gray donated four picks to the cause. HArry has been on tour with The Eagles and Aerosmith in the past, but thankfully still mingles with us "common folk" and does uprigging at many local venues Here are the picks Harry donated:

Thank you to Joel, Doyle and Harry. With only 2 1/2 months into the fundraiser and over 6 months to go, I am hoping for big things. Thanks for reading.

Another week, another 100+ picks

I know I am behind in my updates, but I've been busy (yeah, yeah, what else is new?)

However, I have been fortunate enough to be given another 114 picks for the fundraiser, this time from the people on the Taste of Chaos and Billy Joel tours as well as from a friend in Texas who donated some pretty awesome picks.

Let's start with the Billy Joel picks, Vinnie the stage manager took care of me to the tune of a total of 47 picks. There are multiples of most of them, and here are the several different kinds that were donated. Thanks a ton Vinnie!

Next, I want to thank Chris & Susan from the Houston area. Friends of my Aunt Becky, they heard about the fundraiser and donated a total of 15 picks, including some sweet stuff from Van Halen, Ted Nugent, ZZ Top, Collective Soul and Little Texas. Check 'em out...

Finally, I made some friends on the Taste of Chaos Tour. Alex from Arteyu donated 20 picks as seen below:

Pete and Za from Avenged Sevenfold donated a total of 9 picks:

And last, but certainly not least, Evan. A representative from Ernie Ball gave me 23 promo picks for the Taste of Chaos tour that Ernie Ball is sponsoring:

Thank you to everyone who is following, sponsoring, donating and pledging!

Another long wait...

Between being busy with work and family and the nasty flu-bug that's going around, I've been a bit neglegent in my updates. But, thankfully, I do have something to update.

I was given some pretty sweet picks by the techs from both Daughtry (7) and Bon Jovi (8) last Thursday. The techs insisted that I thank the Bands for the donations, so a big "Thank You" to Bon Jovi and Daughtry!

Here are the Bon Jovi Picks:

And Here are the Daughtry picks:

Additionally, more donations were made by some stagehand friends - "Twinkie" (6), "Mr. & Mrs. Anonymous"(2), "Half of Team Blackout"(1), Jimbo (1), Avatara (1) and Craig Crosby (10)

That brings the new donation total to 677 picks to date.

Keep 'em coming in. Thanks to all donors, pledges and supporters. Because of you the drive has already been a success!

Long time...

It's been nearly a week since my last post. Sorry for the lag, but I have some good news!

The custom picks I ordered have arrived and they look great! Check 'em out:

I will be giving these away to people who make pick donations and / or pledge money as a thank you for their contribution(s). I also want to thank the people at InTune Guitar Picks for not only helping underwrite the picks they made for the fundraiser, but they also contributed 23 promotional picks to the drive.

Also I heard from an old friend of mine who did stagehand work with me way back in 91-92 when I started doing this. He went digging through his old stuff (I say old because he was smart and got out of the local stagehand biz early...) and found some picks he had from Heart, INXS and Metallica from "back in the day". Thanks to Chad Larson for these picks:

Finally, I met with two of the techs for MachineHead the other day and they were generous enough to donate six picks, but refused to take credit. Instead, I was instructed to give the thanks to Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel of MachineHead...so thank you Robb and Phil!

Add a cool 100 (plus 10) to the pile

Well, it's been a week since I last updated, and I can say it has been quite a week. Shows by matchbox twenty, Alanis Morissette, Marilyn Manson and Blake Shelton. First, I was given a total of thirty picks from those who wished to be identified as "Alanis Morissette's Band"

I was also given a total of 24 matchbox twenty picks by various members of the tour staff:

During the show, I was given 45 additional picks from a fellow stagehand and pick collector Craig Crosby, bumping his donation total to 70.

I did the Marilyn Manson show on Thurdsay and Blake Shelton on Friday, but had no luck with the guitar techs with donations, but I did find some picks during the load-out. I was also given another Manson pick by a friend who I will identify as "Half of Team Blackout".

Finally, I want to thank "Mark" from the matchbox twenty tour who donated what may very well be the funniest picks I have ever seen

Well, until next time, thanks for looking!

- Chris

Tucci and Nugent and Kid Rock...OH MY!

As a follow up to the posting on 1/31, I want to take a few extra lines to thank "Tucci" for his donation of 46 picks. I knew I could expect some picks, but I had no idea that the donation would be SO generous! Below is just a sample of only a dozen of the 46 he donated.

I also wanted to give some thanks to the techs on the Kid Rock tour who donated a total of 14 picks, some of which are shown here:

Finally, when I came home from work last night I was surprised to see a package on my table from Ted Nugent's camp. Word of the fundraiser had gotten to them and I received a donation of 16 picks from the Motor City Madman!

This is an incredible donation and really gives me hope that other artists and bands may follow this example and make donations as well.

I know it's been oft mentioned in previous posts, but I am continually amazed and humbled by the generosity of strangers or people I have just met and are willing to help in. To those of you who have donated, thank you. To those of you keeping up with this by reading, please help spread the word.