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Photograph by Patrick Doyle

Day three of our journey at RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest and we’re starting to feel overwhelmingly at home amidst chest-rattling bass and portable toilets. This is concerning on multiple levels, but there is still much more to see and many more people to talk to. We soldier on.

It’s early evening, so we make our way to the catering tent to grab some grub and as we sit down, Matt says to me under his breath: “Iron Maiden. That’s Iron Maiden. We are eating beside Iron Maiden.” I glance over and sure enough, there is a table full of legends casually enjoying dinner right beside us. I realize this might not seem like such a big deal at first; even rock stars need to eat, right? But one must understand the complete transformation backstage that the presence of this band at the festival inspired. When we arrived to the site, our all-access passes were suddenly more like some-but-not-ALL-access passes. Huge semi-trucks were positioned rather conveniently in front of an area we had spent the past two days roaming about and shooting footage in. So by the time we managed to find an alternate route to the catering tent, seeing the band eating IN there was (to say the least) unexpected.

Photograph by Patrick Doyle

As we finished up our meal, it was time for another legend to take the stage. With copious amounts of stage blood, grotesque masks and a live python, 64-year-old Alice Cooper created one of the most elaborate stage shows I’ve ever seen. He was even brutally beheaded by a guillotine. You know what that’s called? Commitment. Thankfully he was reincarnated (in a Senators jersey, much to the crowd’s delight) for one last song. Did I mention this man is 64 years old?

Photograph by Patrick Doyle

Securing interviews at a festival takes equal parts skill, perseverance and luck. There are multiple levels of clearance you must suffer through and plenty of red-tape hurdles that must be jumped over. Thankfully, the Bluesfest team are pros at this and have managed to score us exclusive face time with some of the biggest names on the bill every year, Alice Cooper included. Matt sat down with him on his tour bus and chatted about everything you would normally chat with Alice Cooper about. You know, things like how he taught Lou Reed how to golf and what it was like the first time he ever saw Pink Floyd live. (Spoiler alert: at first he thought it was just going to be some guy named Floyd dressed up in pink.)

RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest goes until July 15. For the full schedule head to http://www.ottawabluesfest.ca and be sure to follow us on Twitter @MuchMore for real time coverage of all our #Bluesfest antics.

- Sarah Dawley

Tags: Alice Cooper, Bluesfest, Iron Maiden, matt wells, MuchMore, Ottawa Bluesfest

Posted: July 9th, 2012 | Category: Music
Tags: Alice Cooper, Bluesfest, Iron Maiden, matt wells, MuchMore, Ottawa Bluesfest