CD That's Me

This weekend was pretty much like all others on the Cape, with the exception that there were not five little monkeys under foot. Although I did spend yesterday at the beach with 10 kids, ages ranged 2 – 16. They did their thing and the adults did theirs, the common denominator of the day, something we all talked about, was music.

The ten year olds listened to Hannah Montana, the two teenage girls played their iPod for a while and then Mike put on his top 40 songs of all time playlist. He found this on an old iPod (I think he now has 5) and we decided to bring it along. We listened to some of this playlist on our trip down. Friday’s journey was brutal. It took us just under 3 hours to get to the bridge, so having some classic and pop hits to sing along to made our ride seem to go faster. One song in particular, made me remember some very special musical moments I have been lucky enough to experience. So instead of writing about latest my fun in the sun or give you another CD recipe, I thought I would write about what connects all generations. I reached into the Cookie Jar to document some favorite memories and to share them with you. Read and dream on.

MIDNIGHT RIDER

This is one of our best stories. We actually told this one again yesterday on the beach. Mike regularly attended the Montgomery Securities conference in San Francisco. He did this many years and I used to love to accompany him on this business trip. The Ritz in Nob Hill, the shopping, the restaurants and our friends made the annual trip to the West Coast that much more appealing. One night we decided to surprise our friend at his bar. His name is Johnny Love and his bar/restaurant is self named. It was an awesome place; formerly on the corner of Broadway and Polk Streets. It just so happened that there were a few other celebrities in the room that night (besides the legendary Johnny of course). I met Ricky Waters, Harry Denton, Roger Craig and Greg Allman. That old expression “courage from a bottle” really came into play with me. I marched right up to the Allman table and asked Greg to perform for me. “Mr. Allman. Mr Allman. Will you please play Midnight Rider?” I repeated this over and over again. He politely refused me many times, but my third march over to his table brought the rocker to his feet. The third time is always a charm and he walked directly to the stage. The bar features local performers all the time. That night it was Napata and the Chocolate Kisses. This band could rock. Greg jammed with them on stage and they brought the entire house down. He played Midnight Rider, Mustang Sally and one other. All for me.

AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK

A few years back, Denis and his Foundation were invited to attend a special breakfast and product launch with Bill Gates in NYC. Swatch and Microsoft were introducing a new watch, The Paparazzi. That day I got to meet and eat breakfast with Bill, Denis and Mischa Barton. The OC was the hottest show at the time. The watch was pretty hot too. Everyone at the breakfast (including the media) was given one as we left. If you paid attention at the demonstration, you would have learned how it operated. And if you were smart enough to wear and use it that day, you would have received a special message later that same day. The message beeped and appeared on all the pre-programmed watch faces throughout the day at various times, but they all said the same thing: 8 PM tonight and an address. We knew it was an exclusive invitation. But what could it be? I rallied a few friends and showed up at 8 PM sharp. At approximately 8:15 PM, Sting walked into the room and played a private concert for about 200 lucky, and most importantly, Paprazzi savy people. We sang and swayed with this Englishman for over an hour in New York.

DREAM ON

This story is truly one of my favorites and this now famous Boston event was definitely one of my most memorable as the event producer. The First Annual “Betting On a Cause and a Cure” hosted by Denis, Cam Neely and Michael J. Fox proved to be a huge success for the three different foundations and for all its lucky attendees. They were treated to an exclusive live concert by Boston’s own Aerosmith. In January 2003, approximately 250 Bostonians enjoyed an intimate show at the stroke of midnight by the town’s original bad boys. There were hints, rumors and a lot of buzz that these guys would be there and would be performing, but until they actually appeared in the room and started to play, no one could truly believe what they were about to witness. Tyler dressed in skin tight black and white striped pants was in rare form. And then the small crowd and the press went absolutely wild when Michael J was called to stage to jam in and play lead guitar on his Back to the Future anthem “Johnny B. Good.” I had tears in my eyes.

I am not sure if I will ever be fortunate enough to enjoy a show quite like that again or if one of my events will ever produce that same wow factor, but I am certainly going to try and dream on.