I was hanging out with a friend of mine in Indianapolis, and he asked me if I would drive him to the local Quikkimart so that he could buy a lottery ticket.

I've never played the lottery but I don't care if anybody else wants to, so.

We jumped in the car and we drove down and right about the time I was about to get out of the car as we pulled into the Quiky Mart,

riding the storm out came on the radio.

And this guy's the biggest REO Speedwagon fan that you'd ever

met, really big fan. And I'm about to turn off the car and he says, no, no wait, let's listen to it.

So we sat there for a while listening to riding the storm out while he's playing air guitar.

Somewhere along the line, I saw a guy pull up next to us and he got out of the car

and went inside. Right about the time Gary Rich Raff was playing his eighth or ninth guitar solo,

this thing finally winded down and we got out of the car and walked in. So as we walked in,

the woman behind the counter had a big smile on her face, and she says,

you should have been here.

The guy that came in just before you guys won $5,000 on a scratch-off ticket.

And then my buddy just stood there with his jaw open, and he couldn't believe that he'd actually

sat outside and listened to riding the storm out.

He played air guitar to it instead of buying a

$5,000 lottery ticket. And this was years ago. This might have been 20 years ago, but to this day,

he hates Oreo Speedwagon. And... ...and... Hi, friends, this is Otis Gibbs, and you're listening to Thanks for Giving a Dam.

I'm in a hotel room in Texarkana, and I paid $28 for this hotel room, and you don't get much for $28 in Texarkana. And I paid $28 for this hotel room and you don't get much for $28

in Texarkana. I'm not saying it's bad, but I left a piece of dental floss out on the counter

and a cockroach hung himself. That's how bad it is. This is a personal journal. This is an experiment.

I like to say up front that I haven't the slightest idea what I'm doing, but I decided to do it anyway.

...