So it is over for now. I am back home again in my apartment in Stockholm and i must admit it feels fantastic. It has been a hell of a ride as always, and it is YOU, our dedicated Painheads that keeps me going.

We have a fantastic team that have been working together for a long time now, which makes the daily routines very smooth. Stage set is always built up correctly and in time, our instruments are always perfectly set up, we have our towels and drinks where we want it, picks on the mic stand, set-lists at the correct places we prefer and so on and so on. We can always rely on the team.

Macke ("Backline-Frasse") takes good care of my precious guitars (and wireless guitar systems) and makes sure they are always shiny with fresh strings, tuned for perfection. Macke has never worked with us without his hat at any show so far. I am starting to think it is stuck there on top of his head. Dee-doo, dee-doo!

Emanuel ("Junior") does the same for the drums, but also keeps all our wireless In-Ear systems tuned and programmed for each days environment, along with our backing track system. He is the youngest dude in the team, and i can make sure he gets to hear it very often… As a matter of fact, he could be our son…

Hede ("Lamp-Roffe" or "Kablage-Lars" depending on which day it is) is just the best light guy you can have, and i so want to see a Pain show some day, just to see and indulge what he is doing when he is giving a new dimension to the music with his visual creations. He is often way too loud, and have been teasing me for my big and/or ugly guitar cases for the last 5 years, but he sure knows what he's doing when it comes to the lighting design. Stick to that please!

I get to hear so often from people who comes up to me (or reads in reviews) and say that the sound was just amazing and that "we have never heard this good sound in this crappy venue before" and things like that. We get to hear that it is "so clean" and "powerful" and "you could hear everything" and so on. This is all down to Kimmo Ahola ("Finno Mustalainen"), the crazy Finnish dude who mixes 50/50 Whisky/Coke and can make almost any place sound good. I have no idea how he do it, but it is proven that he is really one of the very best! He is also working with Nightwish, which is a band that always sounds good live. Working with a real pro is always a privilege. He has this Finnish attitude and pretends he hates us all Swedes, but i think as a matter of fact he likes us, at least a little bit. 

So, overall i must say that i am happy to have such great team around me and that everyone works so well together to make every show, every night, to be as good as possible on a common goal. Most of the times they all go beyond that level, and i just wanna say that i love them all!

Some tour statistics:

21 Shows

22 Days

10 Countries

5 Flights

9000km on the road (approx)

2 Nightliners with 5 drivers

5 Bands

170 Personal Michael Bohlin-picks

0 alcohol for me!

It was not intentionally planned like this, but i went through this whole madness tour without drinking one single drop of alcohol, and i must say i am so god damn proud! I feel great and i had loads of fun even though i was sober all the way through. Is this the new way going forward? I don't know and that's not the point, but it was a great experience and i can honestly say: You don't need alcohol to have fun, just make sure to be amongst funny individuals! Or maybe i am getting old...