BILLY IDOL / CAMP FREDDY guitarist Billy Morrison has checked in with the following update:

"What started out as a beautiful sunset, a nice quality meal at an oceanside restaurant, and a slow night walk into town quickly turned into multiple police cars, eleven Santa Barbara PD officers, cameras from the show COPS, and myself, drummer Jeremy Colson and band security Steve Vacarro getting the tried and true 'hands on the hood NOW!….turn around….face forward….spread your legs…NO TALKING!'

As we walked out of CVS, we noticed the camera first. My thought was maybe some Santa Barbara reality TV show was being filmed, but when the officers surrounded us, I realized – maybe not! At first we thought they were joking, but they weren’t.

'We need to search you for weapons.'

What’s really weird is that even though it’s been 15 years since I did anything remotely resembling this kind of over-reaction, my head started going. What if I’d forgotten something? Had I….dunno….done anything?? Maybe there’s a 15 year old bag of something wedged in my jeans (even though I only bought them six months ago!!). Old memories come flooding back and the adrenaline starts to pound. Jeremy starts getting into it with one of the cops and I demanding an explanation. At one point I suggest that the tattoos and spikey hair have something to do with it. This goes down like a lead balloon and gets flatly denied! Eventually, things calm down, the cops explain that it’s a case of mistaken identity, and we chill. By the time our details come back over the radio, it’s all cool, we’re chatting to the officers about the tour, and we’re on our way.

All I can think about on the way back to the hotel is the CVS store we were in. Twenty minutes wandering around the store waiting for Jeremy to buy a toothbrush, buying a bag of pretzels, using the rest room….and all the time, the staff of the store have called the cops, thinking we’re the bad guys! Never a dull moment around here!!"

Billy Idol's complete tour schedule can be viewed here.