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Okay, it was only for about 30 seconds, as long as it took him to sign the tour shirt I was wearing, but still, I met him!!!!
I got to Royal Oak at about five-thirty and ended up parking my car in the lot right across the street from Taylor's bus. How did I know it was Taylor's bus? The "US Soul Patrol" sign in the window near the driver's seat was pretty much a dead giveaway. I went around to the front of the building and watched a bunch of contest winners go in to meet Taylor. I peered through one of the glass doors and got to watch Taylor for a couple of minutes, until an evil security guard closed the wooden doors inside so I couldn't see anything.
I talked with some of the ladies who came out from meeting him, and then decided to wander around since I had plenty of time to kill until the 7pm opening of the doors. I walked around back by Taylor's bus, and there I met two ladies from the TaylorMadeSoul board, Nancy (deeppurple) and Lisa (ohiotayfan). Let me tell you, I am so happy I met them because they were so much fun to hang out with! I'm mostly a lurker on that board - post a few comments here and there - and I don't think I had ever talked to them before, but by the end of the evening we were instant friends.
They had seen Taylor get on the bus just before I showed up, so we knew he was on there. All we had to do was wait until he came out. Time went by...band members came and went (and everyone in his band is very sweet and friendly, along with his backup singer, Melanie)...more people gathered, some of whom began staking out spots close to the bus. This kind of pissed us off, as some of us had been waiting there for quite some time, and we didn't want Taylor to get mobbed when he came out. We figured if he got mobbed, he'd just get rushed through the crowd, and we didn't want that to happen.
Finally at 8 pm the tour bus door opened, and out came Taylor. And predictably enough, he got rushed by the people waiting right near the bus. I swear to God my heart stopped. His hair was all mussed up, he hadn't shaved yet because he had some seriously sexy scruff (say that 5 times fast!), and he had a dark suit jacket on. I was waiting for him to get near me, but people kept cutting in front of me. He was hurriedly signing autographs as he went, saying hello to people, and finally I got frustrated with people pushing me back and pretty much planted myself right in front of him. I asked him to sign my t-shirt, and the guy with him said "He'll only sign the back." Which I figured, so I turned around. Taylor planted one hand on my left shoulder and then signed my other shoulder with the infamous silver Sharpie.
My response?
I turned around and said, "Thank you so much, sweetheart."
SWEETHEART?
Do not ask me where that came from because I do not know. He didn't say anything, just smiled at me and then kept working his way through the crowd, stopping to wave at us before he went through the door. And in the meantime, I had twenty heart attacks because not only had Taylor touched me, but he had given me that deadly smile.
Yes, I am a fangirl. Deal with it and read on.
The concert, of course, was fantastic. Much better than the Cleveland show. First of all, even though I was right by the speakers, I could still make out most of what he was singing/saying, because the acoustics in this place were much better. Second of all, it was assigned seating so I didn't have a bunch of half-drunk Taylor crazies pushing and shoving me all night. And third of all, for the crazies that did try to sneak their way up front, security was much stricter and escorted them back to their seats. Funniest part of the night was watching three drunk girls try to shove their way up front near me and flirt with the security guard to get him to let them stay there - and him just giving them a death glare. Hee!
Only rotten part was that we were not allowed to use flash on our cameras, and my camera is essentially useless without the flash. So I only got a picture of the marquee, and about three pictures of Taylor outside. No pictures of the concert. But that's ok, it was kind of nice to just enjoy the show without watching it through my camera lens.
He did a lot of songs from the new album, plus a couple from his previous two - also did "Another Brick in the Wall," part of "Crazy Love" by Poco, "Main Street" by Bob Seger, and he did the "uh ah" part from "What'd I Say" with his background singer...which I think sent every redblooded female through the roof. ;)
And for any Who fans....you will be happy to know that he did a 5-10 minute version of "Going Mobile." He said he had always wanted to do a cover of that song, and he felt it was appropriate for him to sing it. And he did an awesome job on it too. So Taylor is a Who fan, too!
Afterwards, I walked out by the bus, but there were so many people out there that I knew he wouldn't do more than wave as he went by. I just went to my car and headed home. Yet another great night thanks to Taylor, and I hope that the next time I meet him, it's longer than the time it takes him to sign an autograph! ;)
I'm going to download the couple of pics I took later - maybe I will try to post them here if I can. I will also add that man is twenty different kinds of hot - and he should go with the scruff look more often! Whew!
cross-posted to my personal LJ
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