It’s been a long time coming, but the Nothing To Hide Tour Fan Gallery has seen its final update. Thanks to all who submitted photos, we managed to squeeze in most of everything we received.

The Gallery will remain online until the end of this month.

Clicking on the ‘more info’ links in the box below will take you to the online store where images and pricing information are available.

We’ve been working on the final updates to the Fan Gallery, as well as adding some extra video footage that Pete shot. Sorry it’s been a little slow, but Dale maintains the gallery and was unable to add more photos during the tour due to connection and bandwidth issues. Now home, he’ll have a chance to add the remaining submissions.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to send your stuff in, we’ve received many e-mails from others who really enjoy having the Gallery. We’re no longer taking submissions, however. The final updates should be added by the end of the weekend.

I forgot to take a picture from the stage last night. No idea what I was thinking, it just slipped my mind I guess.

Tonight’s it - the last show of the tour. Tomorrow night I get to sleep in my own bed, see my dogs, walk the streets of my neighbourhood, stare at my own ceiling for a change.

I want to thank the thousands of people that have attended the shows on this tour. I want to thank the countless people that have shared their stories with me after shows, some carrying personal burdens so secret and so great that they broke down in tears in front of me. I want to thank the Live Nation promoters for their tireless work, everyone at Feldman, Jeff Craib especially, everyone at my management for their endless hours of dedication, and lastly my unbelievable crew – Lance, Pete, Tim, Anthony, Ray, Greg, Benson, and Dale, without whom the last two months would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank Taylor Guitars – Bob Borbonus and Bob Taylor, Christie Lites, Rob Nev, and Duncan Coutts.

I’ll see everybody next time, and thanks for your continued support after all these years.

Best,
Matt.

I’m tired, not to mention tired of being sick. I battled my way through tonight’s show, coughing between songs, running out of air at the end of notes, in the middle of notes, as if someone were pumping dry air down my throat. The area of my lungs, both front and back, aches as if the muscles are pulled, and then there’s the constant phlegm running down my throat.

Fear not, I won’t cancel anything, not with two shows left to go, but I’m not feeling so hot. That and I have to quit smoking. I have this bad feeling about not being able to breathe properly lately, sort of to the point where I’m almost afraid to go and see a doctor about it. I haven’t had an MRI on my lungs in two years. I’m supposed to get one annually because of my sarcoid, but have obviously had other things to worry about, so I’ve neglected to.

Yes, I am a complete idiot. You don’t have to remind me.

It will be good to see my boys. I am looking forward to that most of all.

Nearly there, only six shows left and then home. The boys, my own bed, life moving at two miles an hour for a few weeks. I’m looking forward to it.

Had another terror dream last night, worse than the last one. My head feels like it’s had experiments done on it while I’ve been sleeping. I’m getting rather sick and tired of them. I’ve had them my whole life, but over the last year they’ve become almost unbearable. With all the medication I take on a daily basis for my illness you’d think they’d help, but it seems that their powers end when I close my eyes at night.

Since posting that email from a fan regarding her boyfriend, I have received a lot of emails from others sharing their stories with me. Some of the things that I have read have simply astounded me, some have saddened me, and some have certainly given me hope that there continues to be good, caring people out there that are committed to the ones they love at the highest, most unshakable levels. They have filled me with both jealousy as well as relief that those that find themselves faced with mental illness and the prospect of losing wives and husbands because of it have been fortunate enough to be in relationships that are strong enough to endure it.

Dale’s just finishing up the new changes to the site, so look for those in the days ahead. I think everyone will like them. Being that getting online out here is pretty touch and go, we’ll see if we’re able to implement them before the end of the tour.

It’s been almost two months of non-stop travel and performances, so it’s been getting harder and harder to get up in the morning and spend the time that I usually do focusing on global events. When I get home that will change, obviously, which is something that I am also looking forward to. At this point in the tour I feel as though I’ve been disconnected from things for what seems like a lifetime – not something that I particularly like. So getting home will be nice in that respect as well.

So here we find ourselves – in Brandon, Manitoba. Yesterday the Hobbit and I spent most of our time working on a few new site refinements that I think everyone is going to enjoy. Nothing significant is going to change, just a bit of a face life – a little plastic surgery, if you will. And while we exhaustingly searched for a photo of a girl stabbing another girl with a broken beer bottle for the header, it just wasn’t to be.

The show here tonight should be interesting. I’m breaking in a new soundman today (Tim has been under the weather of late and was forced to return home) and have a new opening act for the rest of the tour. Unfortunately, Dala was unable to make the rest of the dates due to their inability to travel the distances. They were initially traveling on my bus, but on this leg I have had some close friends sign up to finish the tour with me, so it was a priority that they be given room on the bus instead. To me it seems strange. In the old days we used to drive insane distances, sleeping at night with our legs pinned against the van seat in front of us. In one instance we did that for over twenty shows in a row. The kids these days just have it too cushy.

That said; I have a new web addiction - Hot Chicks With Douchebags. Oh to have the anonymous freedom to run such a wonderfully fun website!

We checked to see if there was a decent DVD retailer here in town yesterday but couldn’t find anything. I’m sure there is, but after a certain amount of time you just give up. I want to get my hands on the last half of the sixth season of The Sopranos, not to mention the third season of Lost. I’m not a massive fan of the show, but it’s good to fall asleep to at night.

Well, only seven days left and then home. Hopefully, by then, I’ll get some time to kick this cold that doesn’t want to seem to leave me alone.

This evening I received an email from a fan and, after asking her permission, wanted to share it with everyone. I was profoundly moved by it, most likely because when I was in the psyche ward last year the one person that I thought would show up didn’t. The email’s author won’t be attending the upcoming show in Regina, and for good reason, as her email explains…

“Hi,

I bought Hospital Music a few weeks back because it was your new release. Although, at the time it had nothing to do with the reality I have now been confronted with in my own life and I would like to express to you how much this CD has captured what I’m presently going through.

I was to be attending your concert here in Regina on the 7th. But now, I will be unable to attend. The venue changed and so did my life. My boyfriend was admitted into the General Hospital here on the 4th. He has been diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder and acute anxiety. I cannot in good conscience attend the concert without “my partner in crime.”

I had no idea that when I purchased that CD it would be passed through my hands, to his.

He had what I will call for lack of better words an “episode,” while drinking and I took him to the hospital the night of the 3rd and he will be there for the next month or so. During these last few days I wondered what I should do. I wondered if I should stay with him, and I wondered if I could let him go.

I went to visit him the following day and wound up looking at what I’ll call the most pathetic room in the world, as he lay facing the wall, in hospital gowns and all. Probably the worst but most insightful day of his life. I told him I did not know if he could come home. Last night I came to your site and saw the profile for hospital music and decided that I would slip it into the player. She’s In It for the Money came on. I may not know what you were talking about and I may not know the extent of what happened to you to write that. But I know what it meant for me.

I remember when I was 16 lying in a similar room after my Mom admitted me and wondering why everybody left. I remember when she signed me over to the government soon after and left me to my own demise. And though I conquered the tyrants within, since then I remember thinking that I would never leave anybody alone in that situation. And so when the lyric “build your heart a diamond and it don’t need no ring,” came on I realized that I was becoming what I never wanted to be if I chose to walk away. And I thank you for that. I don’t want to be that girl. Or that person for that matter.

And so I will not be attending, because my priorities cite otherwise, due to you.”

That’s one very lucky guy.

An email like this is worth more than all the money, sales, and accolades in the world. And I am deeply honoured to have received it.

A new series of desktops for the Nothing To Hide Tour are available for download for Community members, created by designer Derek Gyssels. They are absolutely gorgeous, and we thank Derek for the time and effort he put into making them.

Registered, logged in members can access the desktops by clicking on the Desktops link in the red block header area.

I would like to extend my congratulations to Jeremy Taggart and his wife who had a 7lbs, 11oz baby boy named Jack Henry Jones Taggart at one minute to nine on Halloween. All the best you three!