Myself and my Husband, and four of our good friends all meet by the front gate at 5:00 pm. We were so excited because we had vip passes. We first went to the vip waiting area and sat around and meet and talked with fuel for a little while and talked with some of the crew with aerosmith, we walked around and meet with brads son, he is such a doll, and looks just like his daddy. We did not want to indrude on anyone's private time.
So we left the dressing room area and waited back outside in the patio area, until slowly the band started comming out to get drinks of water or food. We saw Tom Hamilton, and he was so sweet, he signed our autographs and took pictures with each of us. Then he said he had to leave for an interview so he said goodbye. We then saw Brad, and he also was very sweet, he looked tired though, I'm not sure his heart is in this tour, but it could have just been a bad day for him, but he was sweet, and took pictures with us and signed autographs as well. Joe Perry nor Joey Krammer came out.
We left the area to allow those that had won the food drive "meet and greet" passes to be able to enjoy thier time with the band. After they left we went back in. Fuel had almost finished up and we didn't think that we were ever going to see or meet steven. I talked with someone and told them to tell him I was there, since we had talked on the phone a few time and he said he wanted to meet me, so they went back to his dressing room to tell them I was there. Next thing I know a huge black body guard came out and escorted us to his dressing room, telling us we had 5 min no more, and it was only enough time to get pics, no autographs.
He has the meanest looking security that ever lived. ~lol~ So we all took a few deep breaths and they pointed to a curtained area, and we pulled back the curtain and saw steven, getting the finishing touches by the make up artist. He stood up and walked toward us, he asked which one was me, and I gulped and raised my hand, he walked toward me with open arms, and we hugged for what seemed like forever, I buried my face into his neck and hair and yes ladies he smells so awesome, his body was so warm and soft to the touch, he whisped in my ear how wonderful it was to finally meet me after all this time of only talking to each other on the phone. He thanked me for all the help I had been with the issue about the Fan Club problems.
He looked down at my breast, where my Aerosmith wings tattoo is, and smiled and said "hmmmmm" and kissed my tattoo, with that italian smooch sound, (kinda hard to phrase) and told my husband to get a picture like this, and he pointed to my tattoo and leaned down next to it and smiled.
We took turns hugging him and getting as many pictures as we could in such a short time, and all the while you could hear security saying, thats it lets go, and steven just kinda rolled his eyes at them, and kept telling us how sorry he was that so many of his fans were so upset and disappointed, that he loved all of us so much, and it was killing him that "sfx" the production co had screwed them so badly, and that they would make sure that this did not happen next time. He then told us that this taping was going to be "live" for a special.
We then all got one last hug in, and he kissed me on the lips and said goodbye. I swear if I had, had to leave right there and then, and never see the concert, I would have been the happiest woman alive, I walked out of the dressing room, and that was when the tears started rolling down my face, the emotions of finally being able to meet the man that has been a part of my soul and emotional feelings for over 25 years, was just so over whelming, even writing this now 2 days later, I can still cry.
He is the most gentle kind, warm, compasionate, expressive man I have ever met. He treated us like old pals.
In my eyes he is larger than life, yet I honestly do not think he knows that, yet still he has this over powering self esteem, that makes you feel like you are equal in his eyes no matter what you look like or who you are. It make you really stop and wonder what the hell is wrong with us when we judge someone for looks, or financial status.
If more of us could live the example that Steven has put forth, we would all live more happy productive lives.
So after I dried my tears We all walked to our seats, Me and Hubby had 6th row right seats. Now not that im complaining I am just happy that "fans rule" finally came through for me, which by the way I met a rep from while walking to my seat, and she was just the sweetest gal, she promised that they were working hard on making everyone happy. But Riverport theater if you are on either of the sides sucks, they have all the big curtains and equipment kept on the sides, and unless Steven, or Joe walked over to the side ramps you could not see any of the set at all. I talked to a few of the folks in the center stage front rows, and not a single one of them I talked to were fan club members. Me and the gal right in front of me were both fighting mad about the seats. Yes it was great to be there, and yes it was awesome when Steven or Joe did walk over, but given the fact that was far and few times between, and the fact that they went out onto the lawn to play 3 songs, which do not get me wrong, I was happy because I knew that so many this time around on the lawn were fan club members that could not get seats. But if it were just the fact that they were just fans, and not fan club members, I feel the right to the best songs be done on stage. And they only pulled someone up on stage out on the lawn stage and not on the main stage. Im not sure about how the cafe seats were on stage.
I talked to so many folks while waiting to get into the vip section and then all those that lined up to maybe get a glimps of the band around the vip area, it still makes me happy to know that Aerosmith fans are the greatest fans around. All in all the concert was awesome. They sounded great, they looked great. That Joe Perry I swear looks younger now than when the band was first formed. He is agesless, I would have kinda liked to meet him, but I hear he pretty much sticks to himself and family when touring. I guess Steven is just in my mind a special soul, for anyone who believes in reincarnation, I believe we were close in another time and place. I tried to divide the pictures up in to a few catagories.
I am sorry some of them were fuzzy, and not so good, but I was so afraid that the security was going to see me and take my camera away. Security was about 3 feet from me, so I tried to snap them quick when I saw them watching up on stage and not into the crowd.
Also just to show how far away the seats were from center stage, the pictures that you saw up close of him, was when he came to the side ramp. The ones where you can barely see him are center stage, and we had row 6, so you can see why we were a little upset, seeing we had been members since 1989.
