"We were at NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants). The day before (January 18, 2002) I'd met Slash from Guns n Roses, Hugh McDonald from Bon Jovi, Michael Anthony of Van Halen, and Rikki Rockett of Poison. So it's the next day, and I went with my little brother and 2 cousins (we're a band). We'd met Rikki Rockett again on the second day, and Hugh from Bon Jovi, and so we were just walking around. I had a picture of me and Rikki Rockett that I wanted him to sign if I happened to see him again. I was telling my mom "If I could meet one person in music, I'd want to meet Rick Allen". My mom said not to even get my hopes up and that Rick wouldn't be there, because, he just wouldn't.
Well, ten minutes later, we were walking down an aisle and I saw Rikki Rockett, so I got the picture of us and walked over there kind of quickly. I noticed he was talking to someone, so I just stood back and waited for a second...then I realized, "Oh my gosh, that's Rick Allen". We were all whispering and getting really excited and waiting for Rikki and Rick Allen to stop talking. When they looked like they were finished, I walked over there and asked Rick for a picture. I took the picture of Rikki Rockett and I and said to Rikki "Rikki, can you hold this for a minute while I get a picture with Rick Allen?" He laughed and said yes. We all got a picture, then (even though he was in kind of a hurry, and didn't want to draw a crowd) I asked him for an autograph. I started crying cuz I was SO happy. I searched for something for him to autograph, but all I had was like a Bon Jovi CD, and a Van Halen CD, cuz I knew those people were going to be there. Rick saw that I was crying, and knew how much meeting him meant to me, and he said "Oh it's okay" and hugged me (AHHHH!!!). So my mom found this paper in her bag for him to autograph, and he autographed it and my cousin got her autograph, and I said "Thank you SO much!" (crying) and he smiled and laughed and said "No problem."
It was so awesome! We saw him again that day, and I started to run over and say hi, but he was just walking around, and I didn't want to bother him, so I just watched, hehehe!"
Jenny
