JORDAN GOES TO CAMP:
FEATURE
2009
BY JORDAN WAGNER
and engineer who worked with Jimi Hendrix
and Led Zeppelin. Last, but undoubtedly
not least, each band would get to play an
Aerosmith song with the legend himself,
Steven Tyler, who arrived on the third day for
a long Q&A session followed by a visit to the
practice sessions of each of the 12 bands. He
talked to the bands, listened, and jumped
in to sing along while they played. And
although it wasn’t in the original plan, he also
made a surprise appearance at the Whisky
and saw each of the bands perform on stage.
Elliot Easton, Jordan Wagner and Slim Jim Phantom
Dancin’ on that number 9 cloud
“How’d you like to go jam with Steven Tyler
in a few weeks?” was the question I got
from a PG editor over the phone. As you
can imagine, I was a bit taken aback by the
proposition; I thought it was a lame attempt
at a practical joke. Ready and willing to follow along with the gag, the subsequent
statement put things into perspective: “We’d
like to send you to Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy
Camp.” As the details followed, I was soon
overwhelmed with excitement, trying to wrap
my mind around the fact that in less than
a month I’d be meeting the likes of Todd
Rundgren, Elliot Easton and Carmine Appice.
I was going to take part in the grandest of
rock daydreams.
For those who are mostly in the dark about
the details, Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp is a
five-day excursion to a city well established
in the popular music scene. Each camper
participates in a band with other campers…
and one rock star. The whole shebang concludes with a gala event on the final night at
a famous music venue, where the band rocks
out on the stage. R&RFC just celebrated its
eleventh anniversary this year with a camp in
Hollywood, CA (from April 29 to May 3).
I spoke to Fantasy Camp founder David
Fishof, and asked what prompted him to
start it. “I was on tour with Ringo,” he told
me, “and it would be me and these rockers
on the plane… Joe Walsh and Levon Helm
and Dr. John… I saw how amazing these
guys were, you know, when they had no
one around them and they were just regular
musicians… not the way people always talk
about rock stars. Whenever someone would
ask me what it was like, I thought, ‘If I could
only give this experience to people.’ I saw
how much fun the rockers were having on the
tour, so in ’ 96 I decided to share that experience, and I did my first camp in Florida. I
called guys I’d met on tour, Nils Lofgren and
Clarence Clemmons, Mike Love, Mark Farner,
and so on. No one said no. Everyone had
such a great time. For me it’s just about giving people an amazing experience, changing
people’s lives through music.”
Like many people, everything I knew about
R&RFC I learned from a particularly good
episode of The Simpsons. Homer and his pals
participate in an actual camp with log cabins
and learn how to “act” like rock stars under
the tutelage of Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz.
Not being an animated fictional character,
I had no idea what was in store for me. It
preyed upon my anxiety. I was going to get to
hang out with legends and actually play with
them? How do you prepare yourself for that?
In the past, they’ve had rock stars such as
Roger Daltrey, Paul Stanley, Brian Wilson,
Slash, Alan White and Jack Bruce take part.
This year’s star-studded lineup promised
to be phenomenal as well, with the names
Bruce Kulick, Mark Hudson, Teddy Andreadis,
Kip Winger, Danny Seraphine and Sandy
Gennaro gracing the press release, just to
name a handful. Each of these seasoned pros
(dubbed “rock counselors”) was set to lead
a band of campers, sculpting and shaping a
handful of tunes to unleash on the final night
at a sold-out show at The Whisky A Go Go.
Not only that, but each band would also get
to record an original song at Capitol Studios
with Eddie Kramer, the master producer
Let the feelin’ get down to your soul
As a journalist, I had just as many questions about the camp as I did a guitarist. I
mean, put five total strangers in a room, tell
them they have four-and-a-half days to get
a few songs, including one original, ready
and polished to play at a sold-out show
at one of the most famous venues in the
world—how is that going to happen? People
who’ve played in bands will tell you it can
take weeks to get a set good and tight, so
this was a big worry for me. A major part of
being in a band is learning how to feed off
