On august 30, 1999, one of my lifelong dreams came true. I got to meet Def Leppard. My experience was both stressful and upsetting but it ended up being a dream come true. Unbelievably, they were staying at the same hotel we were in Allentown. When we got there we saw one of their buses parked in front. We could see it clearly from our room. I kept looking out the window to see if I could catch any of them coming or going. I was SOOO nervous.I never visited the bathroom so frequently before!
Finally, I spotted Phil & Malvin walking into the hotel. I decided to go downstairs and check things out. I wasn't going to approach them or anything. In fact I acted like I didn't know who they were and was looking up a phone # in the phone book. I saw Malvin at the front desk in the lobby. I decided to go back upstairs. One of the elevators was open and I was going to walk into that one but hesitated because it looked like someone was going to push a cartload of luggage in there.
Had I have gone in there I would have been in for the surprise of my life. About 10 seconds later when I was waiting for the other elevator, I heard a familiar voice coming out of the other elevator asking a person who worked there if he was waiting for someone. It was Rick Allen!!! I don't know what I would have done if I had walked into that elevator. I probably would have had a coronary!I'm sure the look on my face would have been hilarious.
Some girl came in the elevator with me and then Malvin stuck his head in and said, "We're coming in here ladies whether you like it or not." So I was in the elevator with Malvin and the luggage. A couple of hours later, we went to the soccer game. After the game, we decided to beat them back to the hotel. That was when things got bad...When they came in my two friends and I went over to get pics and autograghs. I was so nervous I was shaking and could barely talk. I was taking pics of everybody with the band but somehow I got left out and nobody took pics for me. Then, somebody ran off with my pen. I wanted my picture taken with Rick Allen SOOOOO bad. (He has always been my favorite band member.) I kept trying to get my friends attention but it did no good. I had even taken someone else's picture with him! It was totally unfair and I was on the verge of crying.
Finally, I had my picture taken with Joe. I wasn't too thrilled about that because by that point Rick had gone upstairs. I couldn't take it anymore so I got in the elevator with Joe and went back to my room (Not with Joe of course). About 5 min later the phone rang. I picked it up and it was one of my friends. She said "Get down here really fast! Rick Allen is in the lobby!" I later found out that my friend was standing 3 feet away from him when she made that call so he must have heard. Meanwhile, my other friend who wasn't sure where I disappeared to, thought I might have gone to the bathroom in the lobby. So burst in there and screamed, "Rick Allen is in the lobby!!!" The only person in there was this one girl who must have thought my friend was completely nuts.
I guess Rick was having some problem with his room. He couldn't get into it or something so he went back to the front desk. I ran back downstairs and my friends got me to go over to Rick. I again took someone's picture with him and before I could give my camera to someone to take a pic he started to walk away towards the elevator. Now I was REALLY upset. He was about to get on the elevator when he noticed me and said come over. I got my picture taken with him and autogragh on my Euphoria CD. He was very hurried though and seemed stressed.
By that time, Phil had come back down and was sitting on a couch in the lobby. My friends told me to go over to him and get my picture taken with him. The Leppard guys have this really weird effect on my body. Whenever one was near, my body would completely freeze and my heart would start to race. I'm a shy person by nature but this was rediculous. I guess I felt like that because music is such an important part of my life and I have always admired them. I also really didn't want to bother them or come off as an obnoxious fan.Anyways,I wanted to approach Phil but my body wouldn't move. I was so scared. My two friends were literally trying to push/pull me over there. I wouldn't budge though. He saw what was going on and laughed. Then he patted his knees and said, "Come on over here!" So I sat down next to him and got my picture taken. I finally relaxed enough to be able to have a very interesting conversation with him about soccer. We ended up talking quite a while. He was the biggest sweetheart and very easy to talk to! I was very content just listening to his amazing accent. I was still a bit nervous though. I kept using hockey terms instead of soccer. I think he understood me though.
Some time during the conversation Viv sat down on the other side of me. When I got up to go back to my friends (who were in complete disbelief that I had carried on such a long conversation with him.)they asked me if I wanted my pic taken with Viv. I said yes. When they told me to go over there I said no. (I got nervous again) One of them went over to Viv and said, "My friend is a little bit scared, could she have her picture taken with you?" He then leaned towards me and yelled, "BOO!" and motioned for me to come over. He was a total sweetie too. I also got Sav (who was wearing a very interesting gold shirt)when he came back down. Something seemed to be wrong with him. He acted very strange the whole time he was in Allentown. He just seemed like his mind was somewhere else. He was very quiet. He was very nice to me though. (My friend had also told him that I was really shy.)
The next day at the concert, I brought a banner that said, THUNDERGOD. I was in the 2nd row. When Rick came out to the front of the stage before the encore I held it up. He saw it, got a huge smile on his face, winked at me and said thanks. I almost died!!!
My friend was determined to get me a better picture with Rick cause she felt really bad about what had happened the day before. When they came back to the hotel and he walked in, I froze again. I felt like I was cemented to the hotel lobby floor. My limbs literally wouldn't move. My heart was racing and my body was shaking. My friend was yelling things at me like, "Get over here right now! This could be your only chance!" I managed to move a little bit(about 3 feet). She went over to Rick and said, "Rick, can you take a pic with the girl who had the banner at the concert?" He said, "The banner? Cool!" ( I was still frozen in place at this point.) She pointed to me and he walked over with this huge smile on his face. I wanted to melt into the carpet. He told me thanks and it was nice.(Or something like that. I can't remember cause I was so out of it.)
Then he put his arm around me. (He didn't do that in the other pic cause I was on the wrong side of him.) My mouth dropped open and I was in pure heaven. My friend had to yell at my to hold the banner up. I couldn't think straight. I thought the picture would come out really bad cause of my mouth hanging open but it actually was the best picture of me with one of the band members. I have a look of pure happiness on my face. I felt especially special cause I was the only one Rick stopped to talk to that night. It was an experience I will never forget.
