Indianapolis M&G

For those of you who haven't already seen this on CreedWorld or PBF. :)

First of all, let me say this: Chrystyna (Stapputopia) is my hero. If not for her, I'd never have known that I won the fan club M&G, and I'd never have had the great night I had. THANK YOU, CHRYSTYNA!!!

Last night I was at the Indianapolis show, and on the way there (I had a long drive, as I live in Nashville) discovered that I won the M&G through the fan club. (Chrystyna texted me to congratulate me - I'd been emailed about it but hadn't seen the email before I hit the road, so she was the first to tell me). Obviously, I was stoked about that! So I got myself ready and showed up just a bit early, meeting where I was instructed to.

Daniel, Scott's personal manager (e.g. he handles all the day-to-day stuff), met me and escorted me around. We introduced ourselves and made small talk, I had met him briefly at the Delray show in September, etc. He walked me over into soundcheck and said I could hang with the radio winners for now, and after soundcheck would be the M&G. I said okay, great - and watched soundcheck, which consisted of Faceless Man, Full Circle, Are You Ready, and Overcome. I arrived a bit late for soundcheck, so they were in the middle of Faceless Man when I arrived. Pretty awesome set for soundcheck! Then, I followed the radio winners around to the M&G spot, and hung in the back - I'm a fan of being last in line at a M&G, you typically get more time then.

When my turn comes, I make sure I give love to each of the guys, but of course I get (and give!) a big hug from Scott. He tells the other guys that I run PBF, and I tell everyone how great it is to see them together again. Since it is a M&G, I said I had something for them to sign, and busted out my Blue Collar My Own Prison that had been in the wrapper until about one minute previously. LOL "Oh, old school!" Mark: "I don't think I even have one of these." Scott: "I have a box in my house, I think." *flip it open* Scott to Mark: "Your dad looks great on that motorcycle." *laughter* Mark: "That's not my dad!" "That's..." "That's Piers' friend (or somebody)." "Oh yeah, Piers..." I said something about was he a friend at FSU, Mark said yeah, I said my sister just started at FSU. Mark said "Tell her to stay away from the parties." *laughter* I said I was pretty sure she'd be good.

Meanwhile, they're all signing it; they signed in black on the inside of the insert. As soon as they were done, I said, "I'm an idiot - I brought a silver sharpie so it'd show up better and forgot all about it!" "Well, let's sign it again, then! Somewhere different." Me: "Sign the actual CD!" Mark: "How 'bout two of us sign in silver on the black half, and two sign in black on the white half?" Me: "That sounds great! Let's do that." So they do.



Afterwards, "Want a picture?" "Of course!"



That was it for the M&G, but I also got a chance to talk to Jaclyn, and meet her mother, Hayat. Hayat is every bit as sweet as Jaclyn, and I enjoyed so much chatting with both of them!

We talked about what I did, PBF, big families, Scott - all of us exchanging "We're so grateful to you for sticking with Scott through the tough times." "Even before I was there," Jaclyn said, but I had to laugh - "What YOU guys stuck out was much bigger (read: worse) than what we did!" Hayat talked about how much she loved Scott's family values and spirituality and how he saw the person Jaclyn was behind the pretty face. "You all [PBF] see that too, you see him for how he really is, beyond what the media says." Jaclyn said something about how Scott was shy - and I laughed. "Shy? Not the word I would've picked, but you know him better than I do!" "Well, he'd have no problem performing in front of 50,000 people, but he'd feel self-conscious if he were performing for just his family or close friends."

After that, we parted ways, and I headed towards the pavilion. Show was great. See my show review for more details on that. :)

After the show, I got to talk to Eric and Brian for a bit. Eric said that since August 6, these have been the best days of his life, no doubt about it. :D Sweet kid. Got a picture with him:



Brian came out later, saw me and walked up: "Your name is Julie, right?" We chatted for awhile, though at the moment I'm totally blanking on what we said. Got a pic with him too:



After that, I felt pretty much done; I'd talked to everybody and it was getting COLD and I was tired. So, I bid everyone goodnight and hit the road! Didn't make it very far - I was WIPED. LOL Crashed at a hotel and let it all sink in. :D

A GREAT night, I had a blast and loved every minute of it!