There's a buzz and "Mister Perry's limo is here", so she buzzes the front gate to let them in. In just a few seconds, Steve comes in the right-side door, smiles at me and asks, "Hi. How are you?". I just smiled and said, "fine,thanks" , as I'm watching him go up the stairs. Then, he turned and just gave me the biggest grin I've ever seen. Well, a few more seconds go by, and someone came to get me. I'm escorted into the dj booth, and told I can sit on this stool that's placed directly across from Steve! They were ready to go on the air and I'm left alone in this room with the dj and Steve Perry. They talked on the air for a while and then she'd play a Journey ong and take a call from a listener. There's almost continual eye contact between Steve and me. Like, he'd say something funny and look to me for reaction. It was too cool.
During the first commercial break, he asks the dj who I am, she tells him my name and that I'm a big fan. He comes over, his knees touching mine, shakes my hand and says, "so, tell me about yourself.." What do you say?? Everything I had thought I'd say or ask left my brain. All I knew was this beautiful man was touching ME!! So, i tell him a little bit about myself, how long I've been a fan, that I'm in SPIN,etc. He has to go back on the air. The assistant comes in and asks if he or the dj want something to drink. He looks over at me with that bad-boy grin and asks, "Mary, do you want anything?".( I'm thinking, "besides YOU??" ). I said, "no thanks, I'm fine". So, during the next break, he comes over to talk to me again. This time I grabbed HIS hand, then dropped it, blushing and apologizing. He was so sweet, "Why are you sorry? We're only human aren't we?". We talked some more , mostly about FTLOSM and what songs I like. Then they did a call-in contest where he asked a question and if you were right, you won an autographed cd. He asked me if I'd like to answer the phones. It was cool.
When it was all over with, he came over to me, THANKED me for my help, held my hand and told me that was the "smilingest" interview he'd ever done! We stood there for a little while, he's still holding my hand, and talk. I gave him the cross-stitch love-letter I had for him. He told me it was beautiful and that he'd hang it in his living room. Then, I asked if he'd do me a favor and autograph about 16 pre-addressed postcards for all my pen-pals. He told me he thought I was sweet for thinking of them too. (He doesn't know I kept one for proof!) He asked his manager for a cd to autograph for me since I had helped on the phones. The manager said they were out of cds, but he had a promo picture that I could have. So Steve apologized for not saving me cd, signed the photo and asked if I'd settle for a kiss on the cheek. (Would I settle?) We stepped out into the hallway, continued to talk about memorabilia. He said he was actually amazed that there was so much stuff out there, that he really was flattered that people collected such stuff, but that he was against anyone making profits by ripping people off.
We were gonna take a picture, and we're standing there, with our arms around each other, when the guy starts tickling me! I'm trying so hard as it is not to lose it, so I tickle him back. The manager has my camera and is trying to get Steve to hurry because they're already late for a luncheon. So just about the time the guy's gonna snap our picture, I realize Steve's hair won't be in it, so I reach around to get his ponytail. He's laughing hysterically, gets that bad-boy grin on his face, and says, "You like the hair, Mare? You like the hair?". Then he tickles my nose with the end off his ponytail. We're both just giggling! The manager is getting pretty mad at us at this point so we try to straighten up for the picture. After that's taken, he turns, thanks me again, kisses me on the cheek and tells me it was nice to meet me, but he really has to go. I couldn't quit smiling for weeks!!!!! Unfortunately, I hadn't thought to ask anyone to tape this interview. I wish I had because my friends said you could hear me laughing in the background a couple of times. Anyway, it was an experience I'll never forget.
