good evening! last night i received a lovely email from a local (venice beach) cute singer named **matthew moon** who was up at sundance - and ended up perfoming with velvet revolver this past sunday! the entire tale is below - and yes paris hilton makes an appearance in the story - girlfriend sure does get around! (she's pictured below with matthew) i thought the story was really sweet and very cool - i asked mr. moon if i could share it here on popbytes - and he said he would be honored if i posted it! so read on below for all the details (plus you can find more pictures from the evening here) popbytes over & out for now...xxoo! (i didn't cover the film festival at all on popbytes - so consider this is my one post on sundance which seems to be in decline w/ the attendance of loads of C & D-listers!)
Two days ago I was performing at a Sundance Film Festival event in Salt Lake City, UT. After my performance at Rose Wagner Theater, I began driving the 25 minutes it takes to get back up to Park City. I checked my voicemail and there was a frantic message from my friend Jenna Lynn. "Mattie Moon, it's Jenna", she said. "Call me back, it's urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent, about tonight", she continued, tension in her otherwise smooth voice, "come play with Velvet Revolver, come sing...we need somebody who can sing...call me...bye!" If you are not familiar, Velvet Revolver is a rock band comprised of rock n' roll icons, Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum from Guns N' Roses, and Dave Kushner and Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots. I looked at my traveling companion, Kooze, and said "Dude...I think they want me to sing with Velvet Revolver tonight." My stomach began to turn. I received a text five minutes later that said..."Wanna play vocals for Velvet tonight?" I looked at Kooze and we both started laughing hysterically. "Hell yeah!", I texted back. Apparently, Velvet front man, Scott Weiland, had missed his flight from Los Angeles and would not be able to make the gig.
We jetted up the mountain as fast as we could. While we were driving I began downloading lyrics off the Internet from my Blackberry. I had never even heard a Velvet Revolver song before! When we arrived I was escorted backstage to meet the band. I walked in, said hello, and took my guitar out. We began mapping out a game plan. Duff asked me if I knew any Stone's covers and I told him I knew Honkey Tonk Woman. I started jotting the lyrics down on a piece of paper. Soon after, Donovan Leitch, son of legendary singer, Donovan, arrived and began learning songs. Then came a singer named Cisco Adler (Whitestarr). He was accompanied by an actress named E.G. Daily, known for her role in the cult-classic movie, 'Valley Girl'. We ran through the song in an empty stairwell and then made our way to the stage. My song was not until second from last, so I stood and watched as Donovan and Cisco sang 'Rock N' Roll' by Led Zeppelin.
Right before their song was about to finish, I noticed Paris Hilton making her way to the front row - I actually thought about running! Could there be any more pressure than this? Then Paris jumped on stage and made her way over to where we were standing. I took the microphone from Cisco's hand as drummer Matt Sorum started the legendary cowbell count-off that signifies the beginning of one of the best Stone's songs ever. When the time came, I began to sing, "I met a gin soaked, barroom queen in Memphis." The whole crowd was singing along - Everyone was grooving! Then Cisco and E.G. joined me on the harmonies. It was AWESOME. The band was so friendly and cool. There was something very serendipitous about Sundance this year!
- Matthew Moon
