Oh MY God.. first of all i'm sorry if this post is full of typos and tons of other errors, i am still shaking w/ excitment right now! HoLY SHHHHHIIITTTTT~!!!!! ok here's what happened on this beautiful night of 11-16-01. forgive me too if this is really long--i'm gonna try to remember all the details...
PART 1:
ok, so i took the train into Boston around 2pm and got to the Expo Center around 4 o'clock. i called matt and he was stuck in traffic still and didn't think he'd be there for a little while, so i decided to just walk around the building...well after waiting a little bit i decided to go inside to get my ticket even though i knew stefan wasn't supposed to be at the booth til 4:30... so i opened the door, and who is standing there nearly 10 feet from me-- FONZ!
he was with a couple of older business-type guys (i think they might have been from the radio station he was being interviewed on) and there was NO ONE else around him. no one even noticed him! he was wearing a red shirt, black baggy pants with red buttons around the knees and sides of his legs, a thick silver necklace, and a little knit hat. hothothothothot :) so i was listening to him talk to the old guys and they were showing him some sort of newsletter thing, and i heard stefan say, "oh aerosmith is playing?"....then the discussion between them kinda died down-- so i figured it was a perfect time to talk to him!!! i called out "STEFAN" and he turned around and was like, "Hey!" almost acting as if he knew me from somewhere or something. :) I was really shaky and nervous, and I told him that i was nervous and asked if I could give him a hug. he was like, "sure!" so we hugged and then to make conversation i asked him if they were really opening for the olympics. he was like, "yeah, i hope so! i want to so bad!" and i said that was awesome and then asked him how long he has been snowboarding. he said for 4 years and i told him that i've been snowboarding since '95 but that i still wasn't that great.
Then he asked me if I ski too and I said no, but that I used to skateboard. He told me that he skateboards too and that he has a half-pipe in his yard! (and this is where i made a complete ass of myself!) I think snowboarding was somehow brought up again right before he told me about his half-pipe (maybe, i dunno..i was so excited i didn't know what the hell was going on!) and so after he told me about his pipe, i was like, "no way!! thats soo cool! so do you have like a snow maker and stuff" thinking he meant a snowboard half-pipe, and he started chuckling and was like, "noooo! i have a *skateboarding* pipe" so i was like, "ohhh duhhh!! i was gonna say!" and then we both started laughing and all sarcastically he was like "Oh yeah, see I own my own mountain..." and he made this hand motion like a hill.. it was so funny!
After that he asked me my name which made me feel so special & then he was like "Cool so you just came here to hang out, eh?" and I was like "yeah i'm waiting for a friend to get here"..and i asked him where he was gonna be hanging out and he said by the Rossi booth and i was like, "cool, ok! i'll see you later!" and i told him how awesome it was to get to meet him and then he joined up w/ those old guys again and walked inside to the entrance part. oh myyyy godddd.. i could not believe that i had just had a conversation w/ "the baddest bass mutha"!!!!!!!!! so i was all tripped out and high from that hug and waited around in the doorway for matt to get there.
PART 2:
Around 5pm matt gets there and we find the booth he's at right away because of the crowd around it--though it wasn't even a huge crowd, maybe 20 people or so... so we waited in line and as we got closer one of the guys at the booth pointed out to us stefans p-h-a-t snowboard. it was black and had bright orange colors and there were drawings of people on it--thats all i really remember about it. Anyway so we finally work our way up there and the girls getting an autograh in front of us were the ones from the road page and the blond chick gave him a lizzard and he was flattered and told her that he puts up all those on his rigs...(i thought of you court :) and i think one of the girls asked him if he ever visited the road page to tell him that they were the girls in that pic but he didn't really know what they were talking about and said he hadn't been on it in a while. lol
So then it was OUR TURN and Matt had him sign that postcard and told Stefan that he was the reason Matt plays bass and stefan was like, "aw!" and got all flattered. Matt also asked him why they don't play Nancies that much, and he was like, "We played it a couple times this tour--and sometimes we play songs more than others, etc." and was kinda vague about it. So then Stefan sees me and says "Hey again!" which made me feel even more special since he remembered me :) and I hand him the bass player magazine w/him on the cover and he was like, "oh no!" and kinda held the picture to his chest for a minute like hiding it--and was blushing and was all humble about it.. so awesome.
So then I handed my camera to some guy in the crowd and I asked Stefan for a pic and he said sure, so Matt got on one side of him and Stefan got in the middle of us and put his arms around us and we took the pic. I was so damn out of my mind at that point. DAMN!!!!
So then we moved out of the crowd and Matt and the two road page girls and I talked and hung out for a while. We were kinda laughing because one of the girls, Ali, had Stefan sign her Lillywhite Sessions cover art, and they said they heard stefan say on the radio interview he did earlier, that he preffered Everyday to the Lillywhites. Hmm.. maybe he was just saying that? Who knows. So we were talking more and saw that the crowd was all thinned out so we decided to go back up to the booth. Thats when Matt worked his magic for Court and I bothered him for another autograph for my sister. Then someone asked him why DA PIG isn't played (Matt-did you ask him or was that someone else?) and he laughed and was like, "We can't remember it! We don't remember a lot of songs.." And someone asked what about it they couldn't remember and he was like, "Chords, words, everything". He said that they get all confused because it started out as a jam (I think he meant 'Don't Burn the Pig') and then it turned into a song so it was kinda confusing... hehehe funny stuff. :) Someone also asked him if he's seen the twins and he was like, "Oh yeah! yeah, i've seen -all- of them" (probably meaning Carter's new bundle :) And then they asked if the twins were gonna cut back touring at all and he was like, "My kid is 3 and a half and we kept touring, so I hope not!!"
He said everything with a huge smile on his face. He is amazing. So humble and sweet.. & short too! I don't know why I always pictured him tall, but he's not!! So I took another pic of him and Matt and the road page girls took a couple pics and then we decided to leave. What a time. I can't even belive it!!! Oh yeah, and the blond girl also said that she heard Stefan talk about the upcoming tour in the interview. She said Stefan said there isn't going to be a winter tour but that they are going to try to hit the studio to record instead, and then start the tour early spring, and possibly take a break to go to Europe. Definitely sounds like 98 to me..
Oh yeah, and I heard Stefan say that they are going to focus more on ampitheaters and smaller venues--no more stadiums. He said stadiums are "too much work". YAY!! So anyway yall that was my once in a lifetime evening! I feel like I just won a million dollars or something!! I am just so happy and high on life right now, I can't even describe the feeling!!!!! Just a great great time! Take care guys! I'll let everyone know when i get the pics back!
Luv, Joanna
