Rock stars need safer (and fun) sex tips too.

Last year, having been familiar with my sex commentary in TOC's In & Out column, Invisible Records' Martin Atkins asked me to contribute a sex-related article to a book he was working on called Tour: Smart. The book is now being released and was accompanied by a launch party in Chicago earlier this month. Essentially, Tour: Smart is a handbook for musicians, roadies or just about anyone about to go out on the road. And yes, it's got some sex in it.

It was interesting to consider the sexual issues that musicians and other folks on the road deal with compared to the rest of us (e.g., where to get tested for infections when you're in a different city every other day or week, should you ID groupies?). And it was even more fun to write about sex on the road.

More than 100 women and men contributed articles to the book including my long time friend, colleague and ultimate frisbee mentor, Matt Smith, who wrote about drugs (perhaps not surprising that people who study sex and drugs become good friends). Other contributors include Henry Rollins, Michael Yerke (House of Blues Chicago), Chris Payne (Q101 Chicago), and Cynthia Plastercaster . [Note: Cynthia is the "cockumentarian" who has made plaster casts of rock stars' penises. Why she won't plaster caster my boobs, I'll never know. It would be cool to capture them in their glory before they succumb to gravity. Plus, unlike men's erections, my boobs won't shrivel up at the first sign of cold plaster. Granted, perhaps the fact that I'm not a rock star has something to do with it.]

But I digress. The point is, I contributed an article about sex to Tour:Smart and I'm proud to be a part of this book and I hope you will check it out.

Learn more about Tour:Smart on Martin's MySpace page and stay tuned for more off-the-road sex tips in In&Out. Though we can't all be rockstars, we can all be rockstars in bed... or at least I think so.

Debby