Old Rockers
Today, a friend of ours passed a comment to Rocksey stating " I am getting worried about you, an old rocker, becoming domesticated'.
This comment was part of a conversation about what Rocksey does in his spare time when not being a rockstar.
Now being a Rockstar can either be a full time job or not, depending on whether you are on tour, getting ready to go on tour, in the recording studio, or chilling out before or after a tour.
Rocksey is currently in between being in the studio, doing a few local 'intimate' gigs and getting ready to do some festivals this summer.
So what does he do to fill the hours/days /weeks in between?
First thing in the morning you will find Rocksey in the chicken run talking to his 'girls' ( and Dave). Its amazing what chickens will find to talk about for at least 10 or so minutes, the conversation carries on when Rocksey then wanders into the greenhouse to look at how all our vegetable seedlings are doing. He may now be joined by a cat or two wondering whether he has any treats in his pocket. Then he'll wander round the orchard for a bit, into the kitchen garden to see whats growing and then come back to the house for breakfast. Then in the gym for a while, shower, then check emails and other bits and pieces in the office before heading down to the studio which usually involves sitting around playing the guitar, adding a few lyrics to half finished songs or fine tuning those already written. Before you know it is lunchtime, Rocksey always makes lunch for me if we are both at home and we usually sit for a while to discuss business, family matters and plans that we have.
Rocksey likes to do the most unrock star things in the afternoons, currently his passion is making bread which takes up a lot of time. Now there are an awful lot of good cookery shows on TV right now, Paul Hollywood ( the silver fox) makes fab bread and makes you feel like getting naked and kneading him a few times along with the dough, but our favourite is the 'thinking womans' bit of posh totty, Hugh Fernley -Whittingstall in his River Cottage series. I don't know out of me and Rocksey who likes him best and what we like about him. I think Rocksey is envious of his amazing kitchen garden which has the most wonderful veg growing (seemingly at all times of the year). I really want to live in his house which is in the middle of nowhere and populates mostly with chickens, goats and sheep ( oh and a film crew or two!!). Just as Rocksey can make sweet and sexy music out of chaos, HFW can make delicious looking and tasting food out of nothing much and I think that what we both like about him ( and it all looks so effortless....me? well I am a terrible cook who can create anarchy in the kitchen but not much else!!). Rocksey aspires to be HFW ( but perhaps in a bit more rockstarish way ) as he turns the kitchen into a warm and fragrant bakery, theres bread and rolls and cakes piled up by the end of the afternoon. God knows who will get to eat it all, the ageing parents get truck loads of cakes given to them on a Sunday and the band always get a fantastic buffet after Saturday rehearsals!
So for anyone of you who wonder, now and again, what Rockstars do on their days off, its not all groupies, lines of coke and Jack Daniels!, its more strong bread flour, yeast and HFW on Catch Up TV!!.
