Going to KROQ Acoustic Xmas tonight.  Whoa.  Very excited to see Phoenix, Metric, Vampr Wknd and for hilarity’s sake, 311. I’ll check out Muse, too.

I haven’t been to one of these since I was in the eighth grade, about ten years ago. I have many fond memories of seeing Blink 182, No Doubt, Garbage, Beck, The Foo Fighters, Bush, The Aquabats, and Green Day. I’ll never forget meeting David Bowie backstage my first year (he headlined), and talking to him as a seventh grader about The Sex Pistols. I’ll always remember banging on Green Day’s dressing room door desperately wanting to meet them only to have Tre Cool open it, grab me by the shirt collar and throw me into the room so that Billy Joe could write NIMROD on my forehead with sharpie. And finally, I wouldn’t trade anything for the moments Gwen Stefani and I shared, as I started falling in love with her. (Romeo + Juliet had just come out, I was emo before it existed).  I think my fondest KROQ AC-X moment was telling Tony Kanal he was way cooler than Gavin Rossdale when Gwen started dating the Bush frontman.  I mean, come on, “Don’t Speak” is about Tony, it don’t get much cooler than that.

I know you’re probably going “how did this little shit get to do any of this? He’s lying through his teeth.”  I’ll tell you how: I used to finger a girl whose father managed No Doubt and founded Trauma Records. Her and I remain friends to this day. See, there she is above in the fifth grade, eating Caesar Salad with Gavin Rossdale.