Award Shows, Firsts and Thanks

April 8, 2017 — They are not my thing, awards shows, none of them, not even music ones. That means all I can really take is what I hear on the news. I heard a really heart-felt bit about how David Letterman, who I see from my 20 seconds of viewing what I can find on YouTube looks like Santa Claus now, introduced Pearl Jam. Letterman read a letter from Eddie Vedder to Letterman’s son, a letter that accompanied the gift of an acoustic guitar to Letterman’s son, something about how if the son learned to play, Vedder would give the son an electric guitar. Somehow, what that left with me was my growing feeling I want a new bunny, but then again, most everything is making me feel like that. Bunny, guitar… sort of the same, right?

And seeing as my station’s news bit included nothing about Journey, I looked up Steve Perry’s speech on Rolling Stone and read it. It was really a list of names, simple thanks. Then, I watched a video of his speech. What I took out of that was the transcribed speech I read on Rolling Stone omitted mention of the Starwood Club. Starwood Club… bunny, guitar…bunny? Yep, only distractions. So there you go; my story that Pearl Jam and Journey are now inductees to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. If there’s somebody else, sorry, I can’t even take it long enough to look. And yes, that leaves me needing a topic. Journey? An old story? Okay, might as well.

I can’t tell you when the last time was that I actually listened to Journey, but when I was in high school, we ALL (that means all the students in my enormous school, aka the then-existing Universe) loved, and I mean loved, Journey. Hush, y’all, it was the 80’s, okay barely, but it was.

Journey was my second concert, after Heart where my bestie’s boyfriend and his bestie decided we would all go. Our seats for Heart were way up in the middle of the place. I remember liking the Zeppelin covers the most. Heart covers Zeppelin so well I can still tell you that they closed the show with the song Rock ‘n’ Roll. I remember by the end of that thinking how much more fun it would be to actually see it, to get right up front. So for the next concert of my life, Journey, I talked my bestie into going, just the two of us, and found one of those slimy people — a bit older than high school age but still totally immersed in high school happenings — to sell me tickets. Front Row tickets. I think I paid $50 for mine, which was saying something because I was saving for my car and no money could be easily diverted from that big-ticket saving’s goal. But for Journey, sure, and we needed to make it special.

My bestie and I took a sheet and painted the words “We Love Journey” on it: my family’s back driveway, Krylon. Yes, the driveway said “We Love Journey” for about the next five years, but I was convinced that if we had that big sign, it would get us attention. Now for what I wanted that attention I did not know, still I thought it would be a good plan for attention.

Attention, I don’t if it was our sign, or just how much fun we had on the front row, but the very first person of the male persuasion who ever paid any real attention to me, a girl who had spent her entire life thus-far with her horses and her baton twirling, … was Steve Perry. Sure, his act included singing a song to some girl on the front row, but that night, that girl was me. I can’t remember what song it was, and about 20 seconds in I was so embarrassed and nervous I thought I was going to die, but I bravely stood there with a spotlight on just the two of us for the entire song. Eek, the thought of it now makes me wonder how the very shyest girl in the world ever survived it. Still, it was so fun. Oh, and after that, for the remainder of my high school life, which was only, at most, about five or six weeks, my Steve Perry moment, which I learned by walking the halls the next day everybody in high school seemed to have seen, turned me into the it-girl of the moment.

So while Steve Perry, in his speech, gave thanks to legions of adoring Journey fans who rightfully think Journey isn’t Journey without him, I just have to say, thank you, Steve Perry.

And hey Steve?Any chance you might return to Journey for one of these ever-increasingly done nostalgia tours? If so, you better believe I’m going to be there. Front Row tickets, for old-time’s sake, please, which is saying something as it now takes everything I have to pay for that other big-ticket thing, my house. And perhaps I’ll find some Krylon and a sheet; I mean, if it worked once …?

Edit on April 9, 2017. I just had to, and isn’t YouTube amazing?! I found the concert, not mine, but the one I saw. Apparently, this is Japan. I was in … Fort Worth, according to the listing of shows, about ten thousand years ago tomorrow. I clicked through this video and found the bit. The song was Stay Awhile. Okay, seriously, how did I make it through that as a teen? I don’t think I could even now! This girl gets a few seconds, and she loses her  mind. (See 41:35) Me? The entire song, and starting from the lyric about stretching out a hand; me standing, with everyone around me sitting. Is it okay to remember these things or does that make me stuck in the past? I think I need a Journey poster! Hey thanks YouTube! And like I said, thanks Steve!