10/7/2010: Show In Phoenix

Last week was pretty cool. I was able to spend the week in one of my favorite places in the country… Phoenix! I was contacted by a lady who was putting on a Charity event to raise money for a 12 year old loved one she lost to Leukemia Lymphoma. It just seems like cancer claims the lives of so many people, and I too have been affected by it, having lost relatives to cancer. My grandma is doing very well by the way, her last test result came back and everything looked pretty good. Thank you all for keeping her in your prayers, it means a lot. Anyways, getting back to the Charity event, it was myself, Matt Farris and a three sister trio called Firefly who performed that night at AZ Country USA. We had a great time and the evening brought in about $1,400 for the Charity. I’d like to thank Rita again for putting on that event, and for asking me to be part of it. It certainly puts the importance of life into perspective for me especially when I do such charities. During my stay, Matt and his family accommodated me by letting me stay at their house. They have this sweet movie room upstairs in their house that has a big projector screen, so you can guess that I was up there watching a few movies! Not to forget to mention they had custom reclining chairs that with a push of a button would electronically recline. They were awesome!! Thank you guys for letting me stay the week. It just happened to be that during my time there, the Rascal Flatts show was rolling through town. Matt had worked out with KMLE to get some comp tickets to the show, so a group of us were able to attend that show as well. Chris Young and Kellie Pickler were the openers for Rascal Flatts and they all did an awesome job. Kellie Pickler had mentioned onstage that she was battling some sort of bronchitis infection, but she still was able to deliver her songs and the crowd wouldn’t of even noticed a difference. In preparing for the Rascal Flatts show, there was a big guitar opposite the stage where the announcers stood to introduce the band, and at first I thought that Rascal Flatts would start the show off by appearing at this guitar, but they didn’t. This guitar was a crowd noise meter, and the crowd was directed by the announcers to scream Rascal Flatts over and over, and the more we yelled the name, the more the guitar would light up. As soon as it lit up all the way to the top of the guitar, the backdrop on stage showed some backdrop patterns on it for a minute or so, and then out of no where, there was an explosion of flames which lit up the whole front of the stage, and the backdrop opened up and out walked Rascal Flatts. They had an amazing light show, several different themes in the backdrop, made it very eye catching. Almost forgot to mention, prior to the show, over at the KMLE booth, there was karaoke going on. Matt Farris and I decided to go check it out. When we got over there Matt disappeared for a few minutes, and when he got back he asked me if I’d like to sing Crazy Days Karaoke style. Now I’ve sung karaoke in the past, and that was all fine and dandy, but never before have I sung my own song Crazy Days to karaoke, so I was a little nervous as to what to expect. To my surprise the background music sounded dead on and was in the right key even, so that was a pleasant surprise. I went up on the KMLE stage there and mentioned to the audience that I had never sung karaoke to my own song before and they all cheered at the fact that I got up there to do it. Once I started into it, I could see people singing along with me, which was cool to see. So that was pretty much that evening in a nutshell. I was able to meet up with some other friends as well while I was in town this time, which I’m glad I was able to. The last few days of the week, Matt, his family, myself and some other friends of his, stayed at the Wild Horse Pass Resort Casino. This was where the Colgate show took place on the 2nd of October. Matt did a great job competing and although he didn’t win, I believe that with the passion he has for the music he does, that he’ll stand just as good of a chance as anyone at pursuing his dream. Way to go bud, you did a great job!! Anyways, that basically was my week, again in a nutshell. I hope that you’re all doing well. Until next time, bye for now.

God Bless

ag)