Boog's Blog: Hangin' with Hinder

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Last week I received a phone call from Austin Winkler’s mother-in law. Now Austin is the lead singer for Hinder and she was telling me of how they are fixing to start a college tour and what Jonesboro needs to do in order to get them to come play here. While talking with her she told me that they were going to be playing over in Nashville with Motley Crue. She then offered the opportunity for me to go over there and watch the band and get to meet him and his wife Jamie who is her daughter. That just seemed like to good of an opportunity to turn down.

So over this past weekend I went over there and got to watch the band put on a really awesome performance. That was probably one of the coolest concerts I’ve ever been to! To think that we could have a rock concert like that come to Jonesboro would be amazing.

Let me tell you about my trip though! I left Jonesboro early Saturday morning in the pouring rain and it rained on my pretty much the whole way there. It was raining so hard at points to where I couldn’t see the road nor cars ahead of me. Once I got there though I called Diane who’s Austin’s mother-in law to let her know I was there because she was too. He sat us right next to the stage, and just before the show started Diane showed up with her Daughter Jamie. It was nice to finally see Jamie, a girl who I claimed over a year ago that I dated while I was in high school. She wasn’t aware of the claims I was making or have been making, but she did say that she hoped we had a good date.

After Hinder got through playing Diane & Jamie left to go back stage and see Austin. As Motley Crue was playing I received a text on my phone from Diane that said Austin was ready to leave but because Diane had rode to the show with some friends that she came with who weren’t ready to leave the show she was asking me if I would take Autsin and them back to their hotel rooms. Talk about being freaked out, that was me at that moment! So Diane, Jamie & I all walked to my car and drove up next to the Hinder tour bus to pick Austin up. Next thing I knew I was driving through Nashville with the rock star and his wife in my back seat! Now normally if you ask anyone who knows me about my driving skills they will all tell you that I drive like a maniack, but while I had them in there I drove probably the best I ever had.

Once we got back to their hotel rooms though I was going to let him shower and clean up and then I just was going to ask for a few pictures and autographs. But the rooms key of Diane’s didn’t work which caused us to have to go to his hotel room anyway. I felt so bad at that moment for going to his hotel room and bothering him. While I was in the room though I learned so much about Austin Winkler. I mean first off he’s a real nice person, actually rather quite but while were in the room talking and playing with his little Yorkie named Winks he’s in the shower singer. While he was in the shower though Jamie was starting to pack their stuff up and she showed me his boot. This guy has got a huge foot. He’s like 6’4”! Towers over everyone just about. He’s so big that his shoes have to be special made.  Aftet he got out we all went down to the Applebee’s in the bottom of the hotel and had drinks.

It was down there at the restaurant where we learned that earlier in the day he had been with Chad Kroeger of Nickelback & John Rich of Big & Rich writing songs with them. While talking over drinks though Jamie tells us that there are times where they travel on the road and they don’t even know where they are. He tells us that he and Jamie have a separate tour bus from the rest of the band as well. That allows them their privacy and alone time. At the end of the meal though when the waiter asked if we were all on one big bill or separate, now I was one of the first to speak up and let him know that I wanted to pay for my drinks but he insisted on covering my few drinks. I mean how cool was that! I gave a rock star a ride, was in the dudes hotel room with him, had drinks with him, and then in the long run of it all he was nice enough to cover my small tab.

I would love for Jonesboro and North East Arkansas to experience what I was able to experience over the weekend. Here’s how we can get them to come to Jonesboro. All you have to do is go to their website which is www.hindermusic.com , go to the bottom where it says enter site, and then scroll down to the bottom where it says demand Hinder and then click on that and enter your zip code. Any zip code in the region will be enough to get them to NEA.