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When our trip to Barbados ended last year (a trip that involved submarines, pig intestines and a 50k a week private villa where I got to watch old James Bond movies), it occurred to me that we might have to top that if we went back. Well, we went back, and at great risk to my safety and ego…..the 2011 edition of Barenaked in Barbados is here and it’s a Jim Dandy*.

*”By the turn of the 19th century, ‘Joe Dandy’ was a variant for ‘Jim Dandy’ referring to any remarkable or excellent person or thing,” according to “Listening to America” by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982)

That’s right, a Jim Dandy of a TV special that involves turtle heads, dangling above a pit of deadly snakes and spiders, almost puking in the sand on Payne’s Bay and a $4,000 per round golf course all mixed with Maroon 5, Jennifer Hudson and Suzie McNeil….or something very close to all that. While all three artists were taking part in CHUM FM’s annual Breakfast in Barbados shindig we were scheming to make our interviews with them a little less like the normal interviewer and interviewee interaction and a little more like the Indian Jones adventure vibe that only Barbados and your old pal Wellsy can offer. For instance, we were armed with the knowledge that this was Suzie McNeil’s first trip to Barbados so we wanted to make sure we could really show her the island the way it’s supposed to be seen – dangling hundreds of feet above the ground.

So we talked music and then took a little zip lining adventure together and while I can’t say for certain that there were any snakes below (because of all the amazing forest between us and the ground) I also can’t say for certain that there were NOT any snakes. I’m just sayin’.

This moment has bonded Suzie and I for life and I’m pretty sure we also started a band…although she hasn’t called. Mentally I’m always ready for some music talk, but physically I wanted to make sure that I was ready for Suzie and a zip-line. So it seemed totally reasonable that beforehand I connect with professional fitness athlete and personal trainer Ryall Vasani, a Canadian living in Barbados, so she could whip my ass into zip-lining shape right there on the beaches of Payne’s Bay. I wouldn’t say she whipped my ass into shape as much as she just kinda whipped my ass, but it’s the part of our journey where I sacrificed my ego for your entertainment….and I would be lying if I said having my ass handed to me by a professional fitness athlete in a bikini wasn’t a whole lot of all right. So yeah, we did the fitness dance in the sand, I almost puked, but I was ready to zip-line (I hope Suzie reads this and realizes how much I did to make sure I was ready for her).

Another example of our mixing music with adventure came in the form of a little diving for turtles with Maroon 5, but as I suspected (and I’m sure to the disappointment of our female viewers and some of our male ones) Adam Levine is too much of a mega star to go snorkeling with the likes of me, so you only get to see the drummer, guitar player and bass player’s soaking wet bodies glistening in the Barbados sun.

In Adam’s defense however, he is the lead singer of one of the most popular bands in the world and the star of a big network music reality show (“The Voice”) so even if he wanted to hunt for turtle heads with me I’m sure he wouldn’t have been allowed on the day of a show. Or maybe it’ because I whispered in his ear “Would you like to go hunting for turtle head’s with me Adam?”. Either way it was an interesting chat with him and keyboard player Jesse Carmichael on the topic of music but a far more interesting hunt for the grandfather turtle with Adam’s rhythm section that followed.

Oh, but there’s more! If defying gravity hanging from a zip line, defying death doing Hulk Hogan lunges or defying the laws of turtles wasn’t enough to get you full of Viagra (so to speak) for Barenaked in Barbados 2011, then get a load of this – with Jennifer Hudson…..I…..wait for it…….sat on a practice green and talked.

Yeah, we initially had pitched a Wellsy and Jennifer date that would be a romantic walk and chat on the beach followed by a nice dinner in a super high-end Barbados restaurant, but her people really weren’t cool with that for timing and logistics, which makes sense (I hope it didn’t have anything to do with me asking what Jennifer’s thoughts were on a first date kiss). Anyway, we connected on a practice green at “The Country Club at Sandy Lane” which is a stunningly beautiful golf course ($4,000 for a round of golf) so the back drop of the interview is almost as perfect as my questions…

I also had a complimentary Ice Tea while I waited, which tasted as good as the 11 dollars I’m sure it probably cost. One last note; it’s possible that I may have sent dirty texts to a few strippers as I waited for the interview to start, but I blame that on the heat and the ghosts of Tiger Woods’ wedding, which took place at Sandy Lanes 7 years earlier.

So yeah, like I said, it’s a Jim Dandy of a special. I don’t know how the hell we’re supposed to top it next year unless there is a family of Green Barbados Monkey’s and a unicycle involved or a cannon to shoot me to a Bob Dylan interview but in the mean time, I really like saying Jim Dandy.

xo
=matt

Don’t miss Barenaked in Barbados 2011 when it airs on MuchMore:

June 21 @ 8pm ET – premiere
June 24 @ 3pm ET
June 25 @ 8:30am & 2pm ET
June 26 @ 5:30pm & 8:30pm ET
July 1 @ 3:30pm ET
July 2 @ 2:30pm ET