Camp Freddy. What the fuck have I created?! The five members of the band
 – that is myself, Scott Ford, Dave Navarro, Matt Sorum and Donovan Leitch,
 first got together to play five or six tunes at a friends party in LA. 
We ABSOLUTELY thought it would be a one off show. At the time of writing 
this, we have just played a completely sold out show, and had Macy Gray, 
Slash and RONNIE WOOD from the Stones all thank us profusely for one of 
the best nights EVER!! How did it turn into this?

We decided we would do it again when Blender magazine offered to put on 
a show at the IVAR club in Hollywood. Local promoting genius, Brent 
Bolthouse was on board, and we all thought it would be a blast to do it 
again. This time it took two months of planning, emails, meetings etc, and 
the guest appearances started to get even more bizarre than last time. 
Of course, the old guard of Slash, Billy Duffy, and my singer, Jon Clayden 
were in. We also had the actor Michael Wincott and lounge singer 
extrordinaire, Mr Johnny Fayva agree immediately. As the word spread 
that we were doing another show, Twiggy and Casy Chaos (from Amen) came 
in, and Duff McKagen agreed to do a couple of tunes. By the time we went 
into rehearsals, we had Sebastian Bach flying in to do a tune. We had 
also had word that Wes Scantlin wanted to do one, but was in his 
own rehearsals with Puddle Of Mudd, so we were not sure if he would make it. Perry Farrell and 
Steven Perkins from Janes Addiction had also agreed to do the show, so it 
was shaping up to be a good one. Rehearsals started, and next door, The 
Strokes were rehearsing for their LA show. Suddenly, Fab, the drummer, 
appears in our room, and Matt has got him behind the second drum kit. 
We then hear that Macy Gray is on her way down and wants to do a 
Pretenders song. 


OK……it’s getting exciting now!! We sounded really good in rehearsals and 
the vibe on the show was picking up momentum. Marc Ford, from the Black 
Crowes came on board, and by the last night, we could all see that it was 
looking to be a good night. Everyone came to rehearsals, sounded 
great, and we all started to feel good about the gig. 

The day of the show finally rolled around and we all thought we knew 
exactly what was going on. 
And then the phone rang…….

“Billy?”
“Yeah”
“……..er………Ron Wood from The Stones wants to play with you guys”
“……………..”
“Billy?”
“………….OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!”

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it. Even when, at soundcheck, 
arrangements were being made for his arrival, I didn’t think it would 
happen. After all, this was just a fun little covers band we had created 
in order to have fun playing with our friends. But when the curtain 
was pulled back half an hour before we went onstage, and Ronnie Wood 
walked into the dressing room with a guitar, I stuck my hand out, 
introduced myself (….”Hi Ronnie, I’m Billy and I’m responsible for this 
mess!!”) I went cold inside. We were playing Brown Sugar, but he wanted to 
play the G’n’R classic, Paradise City, with Sebastian singing it. So that 
meant that he would be watching while I played a Stones song. 
AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!!

The dressing room was a nightmare. Every guest came with an entourage of 
people, and we gave up trying to clear it and just walked onstage at 
11.30pm to see a completely packed room. People were in front of us, to 
the sides of us, behind us, above us. Everyone had turned out to see 
what the fuss was about. And we didn’t disappoint them. We launched into 
20th Century Boy and everything went skywards from there. Marc Ford and 
Michael Wincott came out for Brown Sugar and Roadhouse Blues, and Marc 
played amazing blues guitar. Brown Sugar was a blast with Fab and Matt 
on double drum duty!! Ron watched from behind the stage as we ripped 
through their classic song and I could see him smiling. We brought on 
Billy Duffy and Jon Clayden for a savage version of the Pistols Pretty 
Vacant, and Duff McKagen came out for New Rose and Should I Stay, by The 
Clash. Duff took guitar duties on The Clash song, and I did my best Joe 
Strummer on lead vocals. Everyone was beaming by now. Macy came up and 
we took it down a notch for Brass In Pocket, and she was amazing. What a 
voice. And then….it went ballistic!! Perry, Steven and Slash came up, 
and we did Whole Lotta Love, by Zeppelin. Most people said to me afterwards that the energy in 
the club went crazy from this tune onwards. It was just insane playing 
that song with those guys. The rest of the set was high volume, high 
drama and high smiles! Fat Bottomed Girls with Slash, My Generation with 
Wes, did in fact, make it, and did a great job, I Wanna Be Your 
Dog, with Slash, Duff, Steven, and then we were done. The crowd were so 
loud when we went off, and covered in sweat, got back into the dressing 
room. But the best was yet to come. We went back on, and introduced 
Sebastian Bach, to do the Rocky Horror Show classic, Time Warp. 
After all, it was almost Halloween, and we have nothing, if not a good 
sense of humour!! At the end of the song, I asked the crowd ………

“Does it get any better than this?”
A resounding…….”NO!!!!” came back to me.
“Ah, well that’s where you’re wrong”, I said.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr RONNIE FUCKING WOOD from THE ROLLING FUCKING 
STONES!!!”

The place goes absolutely nuts!! I look over at the line up, and feel so 
proud, lucky, happy, humble – so many feelings. Im looking at Dave 
Navarro, Duff McKagen, Slash, Ronnie Wood……..and I’m up there with ‘em. 
What an honour. Slash begins the opening chords of Paradise City and 
the crowd freak out. The song kicks in and my whole body goes cold as 
four guitarists launch into that famous riff. Scott and Donovan are 
next to me on the mic doing backup vocals, Wes has found his way onto 
the stage with a mic – everyone is singing along, and we all play the 
song. The crowd jumps up and down with Sebastian as he sings the chorus. 
Just awesome. Ronnie is his usual amazing self.

And then its over. The usual round of handshakes and smiles backstage as 
everyone is buzzing, and pretty soon afterwards, I leave to go home. 
My wife Jennifer has been working her ass off all day, doing guest lists, 
fielding telephone calls, giving the guests silver engraved guitar 
picks, which she had made for everyone (yeah, she’s a fucking sweetheart!) 
and I feel suddenly drained. I just want to go home with her and be 
together. It has been one of the most special nights of my life, and on 
behalf of Camp Freddy, I want to thank all the guests who made the 
effort to rehearse and perform, Brent, who organized everything, Karen our 
press person, Blender Magazine, who made the event possible, Sean London 
and all the sound guys, all the guitar techs who worked so hard, and 
all the people who had the tenacity to get in. 

We WILL be doing general admission shows next year, albeit not very many. 
This is something that has to be seen to be believed, and we all want 
to make it happen for everyone. So don’t worry at the ‘invite only’ thing. 
We had competition winners at this show, and we WILL get some ‘real’ 
shows happening in 2003.

For now, I have to sleep. Its been a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………………