Every few months the Candlelight has a pretty big name come in. They've had Diamond Rio, Maureen McGovern, and the Gatlin Brothers, just to name a few. Yesterday the loaded in Lee Greenwood's show, and he's here until Wednesday evening.
When they do these shows, I usually go in during load in to have lunch with Neal, and to just see him. He's usually there for 12-14 hours on load in days, so if I don't head over there, I usually don't see him until he's passing out in bed that night.
So, I headed to the Candlelight yesterday to eat lunch with Neal. After we ate, Neal headed back to setting things up, and I started looking at the other people who were sitting there eating. When I looked at one of the guys who was sitting there, he looked kind of familiar, but I thought to myself "Nah...that's not Lee Greenwood. There's no way he's here already." I kept looking at the picture on his bio, and back at the man sitting there, but I couldn't make up my mind. See, the stars don't usually show up that early. They usually hang out in their hotels or go see the sights while the techs set everything up, and the band gets their stuff the way they want it. So, to finally convince myself that the guy I was looking at was not Lee Greenwood, I walked over to Colin (Neal's friend and fellow sound engineer) and said "Is that Lee Greenwood?" He chuckled a little and said "Yup." I got pretty excited, not going to lie.
I went back to where my bag of chips was still sitting (over by who I now knew was Lee Greenwood) and as I was finishing eating my chips, he looked at me and asked "When are you due?" I was thrilled - one, because a stranger could actually tell I was pregnant, and two, Lee Greenwood was talking to me! We had a really, really nice conversation for about a half an hour. We talked about kids, he showed me a picture of his beautiful wife, we talked about his son's experiences as a freshman in college, and some other things. It really made my day! He was a very down to earth person, and just very kind and caring.
A little while later, I went back to eat dinner with Neal before the show, and ended up sitting next to him at the sound board for the show. Before the show started, Charlie, the Candlelight's stage manager, walked down from upstairs where Lee and the band were, said "You really must have made an impact," and handed me this:
I was so thrilled! It was so kind of him to think of us, and give us something so personal.
His show was absolutely incredible. He sang some really amazing Christmas songs, some that I had never heard before. He plays the piano and saxophone on top of singing. Before one of the songs, he began talking about his son, and mentioned that his son was born in April. Then he said "One of the technicians here actually has a bundle of joy due in April. Congrats to him." I was pretty excited when he said that!! After intermission, he sang some of his country hits, and ended with three incredible patriotic songs. He sang the last three songs with such enthusiasm and passion, that I literally sat there and bawled my eyes out. You could tell he truly felt what he was singing. He ended with his most famous song, "God Bless the USA," and as he was singing it the whole house stood up. It was incredibly touching to look out over the audience and realize that the majority of the people in that group probably served in the armed forces, and had friends who died fighting for our country's freedom, and the freedom of others. It was an extremely touching moment.
After the show, he went out in the lobby to sign autographs. After he was done visiting with the patrons, I walked up and thanked him for the photo he gave us. He smiled and gave me a little hug, and then asked if the three of us could get a picture together. So we took this:
It really was an incredible experience, and was such a wonderful opportunity to meet him! If you have tonight or tomorrow night free, I highly recommend going to see him in his show. Hurry quick though. There are only something like three tickets a night left.
