A look inside the world of Pat Monahan of the band Train
Because I feel like I am arriving to a place where I recognize all of the people in my life are crucial.
For the past 20 years, I feel like I have been awake, aware, conscious. Today I realize that there is absolutely no one in my life that I want out of my life. That’s a huge deal for me. I mean I seriously am very connected to each person in my day. What a remarkable accomplishment that is for someone like me. I have always wanted what others have. I have always thought that those ahead of me are happier, more successful, closer to God. But today I feel like I am the leader. I have no spare parts. I love those in my life and I feel lucky to have them. Wow. I’m really excited about this. It’s a big ass deal. Just around the corner is a world of stuff I have never witnessed. Today I am content and grateful for this crazy bad assed existence.
I’m hoping that you are all filled with the same enthusiasm that I have right now. It’s pretty cool. Can’t remember when I had it last.
By the way, wild flowers rule the world!
Love, Pat
When I asked, via twitter, if I could use the word ‘f***’ in a song, there was a blast of hundreds of “F*** yeah!” answers. Then the “no ways” started to roll in and then hundreds of “no” came in and some had great reasons.
I was way behind the idea of not censoring myself at first. I was pretty sure it was making the song better. But then someone said her Glee club does Train and they could never do a song with F in it. Then lots of parents said that they finally have a band that they can all listen to and using that word could damage that for their family and that was a big deal to read.
I swear a lot. I do. I always have, right or wrong.
BUT! I don’t have to do that in my songs or on stage. I think I’m going to leave that to the artists that do well with it. 20 years into a career may be a bad time to start rebelling;)
Anyway, thanks for giving me your opinion. Means a lot to me. Some artists think that you shouldn’t ask anyone anything about your art. “Just do you.” , but I’m not that sort. I need you guys or there’s no one to care about what I do. So, I also need you to be with me on what I do.
Hope that doesn’t make me lame but if it does, fuck it. Ha!
Thanks.
Love, Pat
As I get ready to write songs, I always visit Sedona to give thanks, meditate and ask for help in the next part of my life and my work. It is the most beautiful landscape of red rocks and clear blue skies and you can feel the love and energy when you enter the area. It’s as though all of your past relatives are there and they are wanting to give you what you dream of. I can’t wait to sit and be there, grateful and humbled by the beauty of the desert.
Last night I got to be in San Francisco after that great Napa music festival, Bottle Rock. It felt so good to be there in the Bay Area among the eucalyptus trees and the ocean breeze. Such a remarkable place. I love it there. I met a woman there that sang with me last night and she is in her second round of chemo therapy for something that doesn’t want to go away yet. I never know what to say to that sort of thing but I hugged her for a bit and gave her any healing energy I could muster. She is lovely and strong.
The things that we go through on this planet are so overwhelming. I don’t understand most of them and so many things make me sad but the true spirit of humanity is beautiful and I feel like it will get better and better in this new age we are in. People that I meet are so caring for others. It makes me hopeful. It’s disappointing that we see and here about all of the terrible events on the news but we rarely get to see the Angels that are helping others, healing others and caring for others.
Maybe someday I will be able to create a chance for us all to see those folks. I’ll start working on it.
I head to London soon to write and then we start to get prepared for our summer tour. It’s going to be Amazeballz with the Script and Gavin. I love all those guys and their music.
I hope that I will see you all this summer.
There are other cool things that will be announced soon but I’m not aloud to mention them yet. Sorry
Well, I hope you are all healthy and well and taking care of yourselves. I miss seeing your smiling faces.
I’m hugging you…most of you ;)
Love, Pat
I’ve reached a point in my life(due to age perhaps) that I have decided something crucial for my continuation. Inspiration! That’s what it all really comes down to for me. I am so completely bored with the uninspiring parts of life. It doesn’t have to be miraculous to be an inspiration. For example, I think that hard working people are inspiring. I think that complaints are boring. Smiles inspire. Gossip is a bore. See?
My son, Patrick, told me to read Catcher In The Rye years ago. It was really inspiring and I got what he was saying about phonies(bore fest). Being disingenuous is a bore.
Here’s what I’m talking about basically, I’ve done some pretty cool things, seen lots of the world and met thousands of different sorts of people. It’s all the same unless it comes with something inspiring. Even if that spark starts with me. If I’m up, so is the trip. If I’m a shit, so is the trip. I’m tired of being a bitch. I’m bored with not being satisfied. It’s time to be an inspiration or at least try. If my music isn’t inspiring, I will work until it is, even if just to myself.
My commitment is to be filled with reasons to want to be around me. All that other stuff is for the birds(not the band, The Birds, just the old saying). I promise to do my best(talking to myself currently) to quit whining and finding the problem with things. I swear to look at things for ways to improve life, yours or mine and probably both.
These things inspire me:
Good parenting(not self righteous ass tit parents)
Good comedy
Good music/art
Happy people
Givers
Helping kids
Kids
Laughter
Great stories
Smart people(not self righteous ass tit smarty pants)
Good conversation
The bright side
Everyone winning
Babies
The moon
My wife
Things that bore the shit outta me:
Complaints
Know-it-alls
Gossip
Shit talkers(unless its on the bball court)
Laziness
Procrastination
Forgetting where you came from
Cheapos
Bad tippers
Bad drivers
Car horns
Bad travelers
Bad cooks
What about you?
Pat
Help me transform to a better “me”.
Bring this gift in abundance, please.
Help me reach my highest potential.
Bring me inspiration, clarity and wisdom.
And rid me of any negative energy and bring me light and love.
Thank you!!
I’m not going to complain anymore.
I realize that my complaints are really due to boredom. I have no “real” problems. Oh except when wifi is bad and playing Words With Friends is slow. *joke
Really I have nothing to complain about.
New rule(for me):
If its not funny and or it isn’t a reflection of my awesome life, don’t say it. Amen
Hope you guys are doing well.
Gonna write some songs next week. I’m real psyched!
Love, Pat
Love and thanks to
New castle, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Manchester, Leeds, London, Wolverhampton and Tilburg!
Not a long tour but an incredible one for us. Thank you for you kindness, enthusiasm, love and forgiveness.
I was personally not in my best form but you reacted as if I was and that made me continue to get stronger and perhaps better each night.
You are a part of the world that the entire world could learn from. People came here from many parts of the world and insisted in telling me the the rooms were filled to the brim with positive energy and smiling faces like no other shows they had ever been to.
There will never be a bigger, better compliment than that for us. It’s as good as it gets.
Other than my very worn out vocal chords, I had an amazing time here. I always do but this time was very special to me. Thank you for the healing that you did for me from the crowd. I felt it and it worked.
What a powerful group you were each night.
I will never forget this tour. It will forever be the most memorable with as many that are yet to come.
Plan is to have something new in the fall for you and perhaps a new visit. I sure hope I’m right.
Thank you all and thank you Gin Wigmore and her bad ass band!!
Love, Pat M
in this very brief moment in time. What will we do? What obstacles will we have? What will our parents be like? What will we be like as parents? Will the glass be half full or empty? Will our genes make us weak or give us strength? Who will we choose to be?
Today in Glasgow I was likely going to cancel our show just before going on. Actually it looked like I was going to have to cancel this tour. No voice to speak of (pun intended) and more than slightly exhausted and depressed. “Sometimes you need to stop.” “Life can be disappointing.” And many other pieces of wisdom were eased my way. Knowing that people had flown in from all over the world to see us and to connect with friends they’ve acquired through our music certainly didn’t make it easy to take the night off.
I decided to do my best and disappoint people on stage rather than not try. As it came to be, something miraculous happened. Maybe not a miracle to anyone but me however but a miracle to me for sure. I sang one song then another and then another and as I was singing I was actually getting stronger and better and clearer and healthier and so on. I swear that the people in that room in Scotland wanted me to be well and they willed it on me. I felt as though I was being given one after another gift until I was full of light and love.
This may seem lame or “uncool” or whatever to some but to me it was all good things coming into human existence and I want to acknowledge it and appreciate it and say to everyone there tonight that I am so thankful to you all for loving me through the most difficult time in my career.
The night before I was scared that my time as a singer was coming to a close. Today I feel like the sky is the limit.
So, thank you, Glasgow!
Thank you everyone who wishes well upon others. It is a lovely courageous thing to do. I’d like to thank all of your parents as well. Great work! You did it!
Love, Pat
Hawaii is my favorite place to spend time. While I was there I was surrounded by famous athletes and actors and I loved what I witnessed for the most part. NFL players from every team were such great guys. Zane Beadles from Denver, Chad Greenway and Toby Gerhart from the Vikings, Andrew Luck of the Colts and Coach John Fox of Denver were just a few notables that were amazing guys. It means a lot to me to see celebrities and famous athletes be good to people when they are off duty. I have to believe that what those people have in common is parents that did a great job. I’m sure there’s more to it but I bet good people as parents is a big part of it.
Also got to be on the Hawaii Five O set and meet all those guys. Super sweet people and the director, writer and producer friend of mine, Peter are all awesome people as well.
Those types of experiences give me a great feeling about humanity. There are really good people out there who are getting a lot of attention. They get attention because they’re really good at something that people love, acting, sports, music, all kinds of things we love. I’m real happy that many of these people are so solid. It’s good to see.
Another cool thing was that SNL, even though we’ve never been invited on and at this point I’d say we never will, did a skit about us and Maroon 5. Adam was the shows host and he did a terrific job. The skit was awesome and even though they gave me a soul patch, which I don’t really have, it was flattering because it was fun without jabbing anyone in the heart, if ya know what I mean.
The Pro Bowl pre show that we performed on was incredible. Not us per say but the production was incredible. Hundreds of Hawaiians in native attire doing great Hawaiian traditions such as hula dancing and drumming and ukulele playing and many other awesome things that make Hawaiians so beautiful. It was such an honor to be a part of it all.
Being in someone’s home and being loved and accepted is so lovely and flattering. It really was a beautiful time and a humbling time as well.
I have so much to be grateful for. I try very hard to be in a constant state of appreciation but at times I feel fatigue and I’m not so good at the appreciating. If you ever catch me at a time that I remind you of a whiny asshole, it’s probably true but only for a moment. In general I feel like I’m pretty consistent in my being grateful. I hope that if you ever run into me, you will agree.
Anyway, thank you, Hawaii! Thank you, Hawaiians! Hawaii Five O! NFL! And thank you Train fans from everywhere. I don’t always feel confident and comfortable in what I do but you all make me feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.
In New Orleans now so I will soon be thanking , The Talk, VH1 and many others.
See you soon, UK and Netherlands!
Love, Pat
So ya know
I wrote a blog a week ago and deleted it on accident. Bummed me out so it took till now to try again.
Just wanted to wish you all a happy 2013 and let you in on what is happening in our lives, or at least what’s happening with Train.
We have our first song on country radio, Bruises, and we are so excited to have this chance to be on country radio and on CMT(one of my favorite networks). We’ve written county style songs since our beginnings but this is our first stab at entering this new family. We never wanted to try it in an inauthentic way. We loved doing Crossroads with Martina McBride and I hope to do lots more with her in the years to come. And now we are joined by my good friend, Ashley Monroe, who has a new album coming soon. It is an amazing album too. I’m so proud of the great work she’s done.
We also released Mermaid to the Hot AC format of radio. We shot a video for it in the Bahamas and even though I don’t know when it will be ready, I am really excited for you to see it. Plan on seeing some greatness.
We do Leno next week and then head to Hawaii for the pre game Pro Bowl. I shoot an episode of Hawaii 5-0 while I’m there as well. Then we head to New Orleans for a week on The Talk and the VH1 Pepsi Smash.
Fun and its in Hawaii(my favorite place on earth).
So there it is. And then of course we head to the UK and the Netherlands in February.
Please be safe and take care of the love you’ve got.
See you soon.
Love, Pat