FIRST KISS
LORI ANN
SWEET RED CHERRY WINE
WON'T YOU
This is a song about that bubbly feeling you get when you've met someone new. Personally, I get a bit awkward and silly. Once you land that first kiss, though, the only thing that really matters is how good you feel being with someone special.
On October 19, 1998, I was scheduled to be on Extreme Gong, the nineties version of the Gong Show. They told me that I had to perform an original song. I didn't feel comfortable singing Won't You for a TV audience. I was driving home from a comedy show in Beverly Hills when I started flirting with a beautiful blonde lady in a green sport-utility truck. Her passenger side window had been broken out, so she couldn't roll it up. I guess she could have raced off and left my '69 VW Bus in the dust, but she didn't I was trying to persuade her to stop for coffee. She said she couldn't because she had a boyfriend. I did convince her to stop, take my card , and shake my hand, though. I told her about Extreme Gong. I told her if she watched it, she would probably hear a song that no one had ever heard. I said that I might even write a song about meeting her. I had already complimented her on her blue eyes. She said if I mentioned Blue eyes in the song, that would be worth some points. I began working on the song at 1:00am on the morning of the show and finished at about 6:30am. I won the grand prize of $317.69. To this day, Lori Ann doesn't know that she inspired a song.
This song represents my first paid recording gig. Chris McCarty, who co-wrote Swingtown with and for Steve Miller, asked me to record a demo of this song. I think it's a beautiful song and I've enjoyed singing it over the years.
This is a song about a girl named Amy, whom I met in a laundromat. I helped her with her queen-size sheets and comforter. I gave her a quarter for the parking meter because she had used all of her money. I invited her to come listen to me sing that afternoon on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. I began writing this song as soon as I got on the bus and finished after I arrived at the Promenade. Amy never showed up. To this day, she doesn't know that she inspired a song.