From the same company that brought you similar ventures with Barenaked Ladies and Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Ben Folds Experience was announced today, a five-day "musical cruise" setting sail from the Port of Miami on Feb. 21, 2008 and docking in Ochos Rios, Jamaica. On the cruise ship's website (cabins start at $669 per person!), Folds explains:
"I wanted to get a lot of talented musical artists together in one holiday moment of glory with possibly a few comedians and have some kind of magical experience. The idea of painting a large bus psychedelic purple, not taking baths for a week and driving around the country jamming out on one chord about the war got shot down quickly, so I decided to take a cruise."
If it goes anything like his recent gig at the Boston Pops, they may need some extra life-preservers. In the meantime, Folds is preparing for a summer tour with John Mayer, who chatted about Folds' inspiration on his own work, saying:
"When you think about lyrics and being conversational and my lyrics being honest, that's really just me trying to clip that from Ben Folds."
Oh, so that's where all the honesty comes from! We were wondering.