January 1999 that she was involved in an upcoming movie titled The Next Best Thing. Filming lasted from April to June 1999, with Madonna initially planning to tour during the second half of the year, stating that once filming was completed she would "rehearse to go on tour. And then I'll probably play up until the millennium". However, said plans fell through and the tour was pushed back to 2001; this was due to the fact that she had, in her own words, "been distracted by having children and filming movies". By 2000, Madonna was in a relationship with English director Guy Ritchie; their son Rocco was born in August 2000, her eighth studio album, Music, was released that September and, three months later, her and Ritchie married in Scotland. In November 2000, Madonna stated that she was eager to go on tour again: "I've already got ideas [...] of stuff I'd like to do for a big tour. I feel like it's time. I need to take a trip around the world and sing a few songs". The tour was officially announced by the singer's publicist Liz Rosenberg in April 2001. Her first concert tour since 1993's The Girlie Show, time was short and Madonna had to prepare everything within three months; auditions for dancers took place in New York in March and April and were personally supervised by the singer and dancer Christian Vincent. Jamie King was appointed creative director and the tour's official choreographer; King recalled that the tour "was so hectic that I suffered from depressions and fell considerably ill". Madonna had begun taking guitar lessons in 2000 with Monte Pittman and played both acoustic and electric guitar in four of the show's numbers. Other personnel included Madonna's backup singers and dancers of 14 years Niki Haris and Donna De Lory, Ron Powell on percussions, Steve Sidelnyk on drums and French house music expert Stuart Price as bassist and keyboards player; the latter went by the moniker Jacques Lu Cont and had worked with the singer on remixes of Music. In the end, the troupe was made up of ten dancers, two backup singers and six musicians; rehearsals went on for five days a week, thirteen hours a day. Clair Brothers Audio support was roped in for providing a mixture of high-tech techno sound and fusion of acoustic and trance. Madonna later clarified: "I don't see