I bet you thought I snuck off and died didn't you? Or perhaps that I joined a Partridge Family Tribute Show and ran away. Well, nothing of the sort has happened. I am here. Alive and well. Still rocking and rolling whether you like it or not. I do have to sheepishly admit however that I have neglected my updates here on my main website for quite some time. I hope you will accept my apologies and that my absence has not caused a major disruption in the flow of your recreational, musical entertainment consumption. So, I will try and keep this update short as to not offend the short attention span majority. Ok? Good, so let us catch up...
In December 2015 the band and I were lucky enough to be invited to The Grand Cayman Islands to perform at a private birthday party for Adrien Briggs. Mr. Briggs owns the vast majority of the island so it goes without saying he is a local and well respected dignitary. He is also an A1A fan, so everyone treated us marvelously. I had the grand opportunity to take my daughter with me and we all spent a few days in The Grand Caymans over the Christmas Holidays. I remember swimming with the stingrays in the warm Caribbean water on December 23rd thinking 'this does NOT feel like Christmas', but it sure felt wonderful.
I arrived home just in time to celebrate Christmas and then head out to Hollywood, California for the last week of Christmas and New Years Eve, with Abba Mania at The El Portal Theater. They love us there and our shows are always sold out. I had a wonderful time and even though I missed being home for New Years Eve, it was a very special treat to spend that time with my Abba Mania band mates and a theater full of fans in Hollywood.
After a short couple of weeks at home we went out again on January 24th and returned home on March 7th. Being on tour with Abba Mania is a real treat and I am very grateful for my band members, the beautiful venues, the wonderful audiences (virtually every show has been sold out) and the experience of seeing the country in style, play music I enjoy and get paid very well to boot.
In April 7, 2016 the band and I were given the pristine honor of being Jimmy Buffett's band for the evening at a small and elite private party for The World Surf League at The West Lake Country Club in Augusta, Georgia. We are celebrating our 25th birthday this year so it was an extra special treat for A1A to perform with Jimmy Buffett and Mac McAnally. Jimmy was very cool, kind, appreciative, professional and complimentary, which really made me feel good. Everything felt natural and fit just like a glove and I even got to spend some quality time with him after the show.
When the evening was over I felt a 'full circle' feeling of accomplishment surround me. A feeling I have been experiencing a lot of this year. It was a very special evening with the band that I will always cherish.
While we are talking about A1A and Jimmy Buffett now is the time to let you know that there is a full length documentary movie called "Parrot Heads" which is coming out in November of this year. I have not previewed it yet but from what I hear there is a lot of me and A1A and our history included in the film, I will let you know nearer the time when it is going to be released.
In late May, A1A flew out to Hawaii to play at the beautiful St. Regis Princeville Resort in Princeville on the island of Kauai. We were there to perform at an annual convention for Optimum Health Care and they treated us very well. We got to stay for a few days and everyone thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Kauai is one of my favorite places on earth. It was very hard to come home and I look forward to returning....
So yea...full circle. Oh yea, adding to that I thought I would share with you that I turned 55 on July 13th and my daughter turned 21 on April 19th. I had a wonderful Birthday Benefit Celebration Concert with The Jeff Pike Band for 'Atlanta Plays It Forward' and 'SERV International,' at Chukkar Farms Polo Club in Alpharetta, Georgia that was well attended and very successful.
On July 23rd I had the opportunity to perform with The Alice Cooper Tribute Show as the executioner, put Alice in a strait jacket and also be Donald Trump! A serious boyhood rock and roll fantasy was mine for a night and I will never forget it.... Remember 'The Coop'....
So while I am feeling a bit old and strange by the fact that my daughter graduates college in less than a year and I am now an Official AARP card carrying senior citizen, I am appreciative and grateful. I try to keep an attitude of gratitude about me every day now, put the past in the past and look towards to the future and my next adventure. It is not always easy , but I do think something has shifted. I just hope it wasn't my back, or my knee, or my elbow, or my neck, or my...blah, blah, blah....:-)
Thank you for your time, your ears and the years...:-)
Lights out...
Jeff Pike
