Before I start, I'd like to give special thanks to:
Mark and Brian and the staff of 95.5 KLOS Los Angeles for really
appreciating their listeners and showing it by going the extra mile with
events such as the one you are about to read about.
Well, the day started out like any other. I was on my way to work listening
to Mark and Brian on the radio station 95.5 KLOS Los Angeles as usual. Not
paying that close attention, I realized that something out of the ordinary
was going on judging by the manner in which the callers were talking to them
. I soon realized the callers were going to great lengths, I mean, really
great lengths to get tickets for SOMETHING! Getting my interest, I was
paying closer attention.
The guests that particular morning were the guys
from the TV show "Wings", and they too were joining in on the fun with M&B
on getting callers to do outrageous things. I soon learned that this was the
day M&B were giving away the tickets to the private rehersal with Steve
Perry they had been talking about since Steve was on the show a few months
prior. I'm thinking to myself "HOLY SHIT!, I'VE GOTTA GET TO A PHONE!"
Pulling the car INTO the center divider, I cut across the grass and merged
with the northbound traffic. Looking around feverishly, "PHEW! No cops".
Accelerating over 90 mph, I came back to the ramp, exited the freeway, sped
up the road to my driveway, whipped into my carport screeching to a hault. I
jumped out of the car, ran into the house and picked up the phone feverishly
dialing 1-800-955-KLOS. On my first attempt, I got A RING! Unbelieveable,
that NEVER happens. It rings and rings and rings until finally they pick up.
Needless to say, I did something VERY outrageous and won tickets for the
rehersal that night. ( Maybe some time when I have a little more courage,
I'll post exactly WHAT I did :) )
In any event, we were told to meet at a KMart parking lot down in LA where
we would be shuttled to a "secret location". Needless to say, my girlfriend
and I were 2 hours early, and the first ones at the parking lot. Finally
other winners started trickling in, and we had a good time meeting and
chatting with other Journey fans while we awaited the shuttle bus. In our
excitement, my girlfriend and I diddent notice the shuttle bus arrive, and I
was a little dismayed at myself for not paying attention and we were not the
first ones on, but more like the 10th or 11th, somewhere in there. Oh well,
no biggie.
We got on the bus, and were informed at that point that
absolutely NO cameras, video, audio, any type of recording device what so
ever is NOT ALLOWED. Damn, that really sucks! I was loaded to the hill with
still and video ready to capture every moment. Oh well AGAIN, I thought,
guess I'm damn lucky to be here. The driver drove us to a
commercial/industrial complex type of place, one that diddent at all look
like it might be a place where bands might rehearse. We pulled around behind
the building where we got out of the shuttle bus. The place reminded me of
the loading docks behind Wal Mart. Big ramps where semi trucks unload.
There
were normal doors next to the ramps where you walk in, but we had to line up
first and wait for a while. Some guy I diddent recognize was walking around
talking to people, when he suddenly spoke up so everyone could hear him and
said, "who's the guy who ****** on the radio this morning?" He was listening
on the radio that morning, and was describing what I HAD DONE!! Leaning over
to my girlfriend, I was getting ready to tell her "If you open your big
mouth, I swear to GOD you'll walk home." Before I could even utter the first
word of that sentence, she blurts out "HERE HE IS RIGHT HERE". I thought
about closing my eyes so I'd be invisible, but that has not worked since I
was a kid. He walks over to introduce himself, however I cant remember his
name, he was some kinda record executive for Columbia, and he wanted to
shake my hand because he thought it was really funny what I had done. Wow,
my moment of glory.
Finally, we were allowed in. We walked through a somewhat dimly lit building
down a hallway into a VERY small room. I learned that only 100 tickets were
given away that day, and it looked like there were no more than 100 of those
small folding chairs lined up in rows. The first few rows were roped off, I
cant remember how many now, but I was thinking "those are NOT for us!" To my
suprise Mark and Brian directed us into the FIRST row and sequentially on
back as the ticket winners filed in. Also to my suprise, not being the first
on the bus played to my advantage because it put me exactly in the middle of
the FIRST ROW! Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaw! Looking around observing the place, the
stage what not what you would think at all. Nothing fancy, just all their
equipment in the front of this "room". No barrier between the stage and the
first row of seats at all, no ropes, no elevation change, no bouncers,
nothing! Seeing the middle microphone in front of me, I walked toward it to
count the steps between my seat and the microphone. It was four! Four steps!
I could hardly contain myself now. There was a buzz in the air that was just
electrifying.
Finally Mark and Brian came on the stage to introduce Steve
Perry, and taking their shot at pointing me out to the crowd again as all
eyes turn on me. Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for! Lights dim
and Steve's band comes on stage. After a moment or two of twiddling around
with their instruments, they launched into the beginning of "Only The Young"
. At this point, much of what happened is blury because the emotion level
was off the scale! Steve comes out, hair longer than I EVER remember it, and
takes the CENTER MICROPHONE! Words cannot describe what it was like at that
moment, seeing your favorite singer singing a song that is ingrained in your
memory live in front of you, within arms reach. I was on another plane of
existence. There were speakers stacked somewhere around 10 feet high on each
side of the mock stage, and the decibal of the music was absolutely defening. They gave us ear plugs when we came in, but I took them out because they
distorted the music too much.
They went on to play many tunes from "For The
Love Of Strange Medicine", a TON of Journey Tunes including "Seperate Ways",
"Dont Stop Believing", Any Way You Want It" and a host of others, and even a
few from "Street Talk". I think the part of this whole evening that stands
out the most was watching Steve Perry, within arms reach directly in front
of me, belting out the last few lines to "Faithfully" ( you know the ones
where he REALLY hits the high notes ) and hitting every note right on! When
the show wrapped up, Steve promptly left the stage. I was hoping we would
get to mingle with him, maybe get an autograph, and most of all say "Thanks,
you've made a difference all these years."
I was told by Mark and Brian that Steve was indeed listening that morning
although they diddent say what he thought. I could only guess that he
thought me and some of the other normally sane people that won tickets that
morning had been without Prozac for the previous 3 weeks. My ears rang for 3
days afterwards. People had to speak loudly the first day to me because I
could not hear them, but I would not trade the whole experience for any
backstage pass.
I'll never forget that evening, ever.