Category: REFLECTIONS
Once a fan – always a fan!
It’s been a busy week, but – in a good way. When you’re working in a different country and have about 4 hours of travel back and forth every day, you just don’t get a whole lot of time left for the stuff you want to do (which in turn of course leads to insomnia or extreme tiredness because you end up staying up all night to finish stuff).
Had a great conversation with David Coverdale the other day for instance. It wasn’t for myself so I can’t reveal much about it until it’s actually been published (you know, all those “business policies” you have to think about nowadays…).
But how that man knows what to say and how to say it to make people smile. :) I can of course only speak for myself, but I think that many who have dealt with David can relate. He remembers names and faces. Sceptic as I am, I’m always thinking that artists get a short decription of who they’re going to speak to before an interview.
But sometimes THAT idea totally flies out the window. With David, I already know that he doesn’t need an introduction of me, he’s been aware of my existence for many years now. But sometimes it surprises me when it comes to other artists!
I always thought that Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, maybe would know me by name cause he’s such an internet-junkie (and during a period I was out there on the Priest/Halford message boards quite a lot). But a few years ago I realized that he knew exactly…
I had been let through the gates of Fort Knox (Sweden Rock Festival backstage area to the main stage – which is like this HOLY place that you need to be escorted to, unless you’ve got one of the very rare guest passes to that area, of course).
Had just finished an interview with K.K Downing and when I stepped out of his trailer after the interview, Rob was packing his suitcase with his back turned to me. I didn’t think there would be any point saying anything, he wouldn’t know who I was anyway (I thought). But I ended up just saying: “Hello Rob!” . He turned around and immediately went: “Well hello Daniela! How lovely to see you! How are you?”
Needless to say, my jaw dropped. He didn’t need as much as a second to ponder, he was very 100% clear on who I was.
Halford is my #1 hero as I’m sure that nobody who’s been following me through the years could possibly have missed, but THAT moment was so memorable.
Coverdale ALWAYS smiles and says something nice, whether it’s at a press conference or from the stage – he can spot me and recognize me in seconds. I can even see the very moment when he notices me, his whole face just brightens up with a big smile. You can’t buy that feeling for money.
[David Coverdale and me after an interview, Sheraton Stockholm 1999]
If you’re a fan of an artist and you’ve followed them since what feels like the beginning of time, those things not only make your day – they make your week, month… Well, you know. :)
But during this conversation with David a few days ago, he was in the middle of explaining something, when I suddenly heard him say “…maybe not suitable for your blog, but….”
Wait, wait, wait a second….! I was doing this interview on behalf of another media. I never mentioned to him or the guy who set up the interview that I have a blog. And even if I had, it would have been completely irrelevant in this case.
Then HOW on earth would David Coverdale know about my blog and speak about it like it was the most natural thing in the world? It was just a “by the way” thing that was sneaked into a sentence when he was explaining something.
Holy crap. I suppose then that David has visited the blog at some point. It’s probably “uncool” to admit it, but I feel honored.
I know that Sebastian Bach has come across my blog as well, because it resulted in a YouTube-dispute last year. Not that I’m surprised, I’ve known the guy for 25 years and his explosive mood is not exactly news to me (or anyone else I’m sure).
[Baz and me after show at Gino’s, Stockholm 1995]
I had written something negative about his performance at the Graspop festival – that he was acting like a primadonna who was afraid to get his hair wet when it rained and he was bitching about it on stage. It was just a review, and the rest of the text just said that this is one of the few times I’ve seen him like that. He always gives everything on a stage.
Anyway, he reported the 30-second video clips on YouTube as “copyright infringement” (which is ridiculous as it was so short and was basically a zoom-in on his unengaged facial expression, not a music video). [The copyright-thing has been taken back though, so things are cool :)]
In an interview recently he pretty much quoted what had been written in this blog about his performance at Graspop. My guess is that he knew that he had had a bad day and was upset that it had been caught on camera and brought to people’s attention that way. There’s nothing on YouTube from that gig now when I made a search… I don’t blame him. I suck at taking negative feedback as well. :)
But as I hadn’t named those clips on YouTube and only linked to them to the post as unlisted videos, you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that he somehow came across this blog. :P
Maybe not a big deal but it is to me, sometimes. We’re all still fans – and there will always be somebody (an artist or a band) that makes us feel like 13 all over again.
I read drummer Brian Tichy’s post the other day, about his jam with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. He was so excited about the whole thing, like a school boy. And you’d think that this guy should be jaded by now – he’s been playing with everybody. Billy Idol, Whitesnake, Foreigner, Ozzy, Glenn Hughes… the list is just way too long! And he can still be “star struck”, I think that’s so lovely and makes me feel a whole lot better, ha ha! :)
[Doug Aldrich and Brian Tichy]
From Brian’s diary:
“In 2011, before the Whitesnake tour, I got the opportunity to track drums on Steven Tyler’s single “Feels So Good.” Steven watched me track them that day. Two takes later, I was done. That’s what led up to him calling me to play this benefit with he and Joe Perry. But nothing prepares you on how to react when you get a a call from Steven Tyler!
He started complimenting my drumming from the day I tracked his song. Then he told me what he wanted me for. He started naming off the songs he wanted to play; “Dream On, Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way, etc..” and I was tripping out that soon in my life would be a day that I get to play songs from one of my favorite bands ever, songs I had been playing since I was 10, songs that I learned how to play drum by playing to, with the guys that wrote them! Come on!”
I don’t think I’ll ever get so jaded that I don’t give a crap about certain bands/artists on a pure “fan level”. If I do, that will be my cue that it’s time to start doing something else. :)
[With Rob Halford outside Royal Albert Hall in London, 2006]
How Do You Afford Your Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle?
Someone asked me “How can you afford to travel so much?” It’s not the first time I got that question. People must think I’m a millionaire. So I figured I might use that as a blog topic today. Doesn’t really fit in an e-mail anyway. :)
I think that many people forget that traveling is not as expensive today as it was maybe ten years ago. And small changes in your everyday life, make all the difference. Gigs and travel – those are my greatest passions in life and I do whatever it takes to make it happen. I think many people can, they just don’t know it. Unless you’re unemployed, a student, or have a low salary, you can travel – even if it’s just shorter trips.
Let’s take a few examples. I’ll have to assume Swedish conditions when listing these examples, but you can of course use it as a sample guide and translate it into you own currency and your country’s prices.
Assume that a roundtrip ticket Copenhagen-London costs around 1500 SEK. It depends of course on when you travel, what airline, and how long you’re going to be away, but just as a basic example.
Then say you’re a smoker and you smoke a pack of Marlboro a day. A pack of Marlboro costs, on average, around 50 SEK.
If you quit smoking, you’ll be saving 1500 SEK a month. Oh, what do you know, That equals a roundtrip ticket to London.
Cut the smoke for two months and you’ve got 3000 SEK in your hand right there. You could be traveling anywhere in the world within a few months, just for quitting smoking. Trade something that you’re blowing straight out in the air, for memories that last forever.
Or say you go out for lunch every day. Depending on the restaurant and where in Sweden you go for lunch, that’s going to cost you at least 50 SEK – each time. That’s 350 SEK a week, take that times four, and in four weeks you will have spent 1400 SEK. That’s pretty much a roundtrip ticket to London or Germany (from Denmark) as well.
Make your own lunchbox and save money!
Lots of people love to have “a few beers”. It’s cheaper in most countries than it is in Sweden, but a beer, if you go to a club, it will cost you around 50 SEK. Most people don’t just have ONE beer. Say you go out “for a beer” every week, and you drink a modest amount of 3 beers, that’s 150 x 4… Equals at least 1800 SEK for something that you just went straight to the toilet and pissed out a few minutes later.
[Change the name of it to “Travel fund” – and you’re all set to go!]
Or – the last example, assume you want to go to a club for a night out. The rock club KB here in Malmo starts charging you 40 SEK for hanging your jacket in the wardrobe (they make you do it, saying it’s for “safety reasons”). Then you go for a few beers or maybe a few glasses of wine. Assume you have 3 or 4 glasses of that – let’s call it the civilized type of night out.
Then, before you go home, you want to go for that “drunk fast food” and get a burger or a kebab, and lastly, you finish the evening by taking a cab home. Well, unless you live within crawling distance.
THAT evening is going to cost you 40x240x50x100=430 SEK and that’s the CHEAP version! The more wine, beer, and hangover-food you add to it, the closer you are to a flight ticket if you party at home or not party at all.
If you go out partying once a week for a month, that’s 1720 SEK, if you go out twice a week, that’s 3440 SEK!
That equals a roundtrip ticket to NEW YORK from Copenhagen!
I measure everything in flight tickets. I’ve been needing a new couch for years actually. But every time I go looking for one, I stop because a couch will cost be maybe 4000 SEK, if it’s a cheap IKEA version- and that is a ticket to the States, pretty much. Next thing you know, some band or artist will announce tour dates and the couch can wait!
Back in 1999 I even SOLD a few pieces of furniture to afford a trip to the UK to see Whitesnake. I don’t care much about “things”. I don’t buy gadgets, I don’t need to impress people with a fancy home or the latest huge movie-theater style flat-smartTV… I don’t buy the latest fashion, I even stopped driving just to save money on gas and car insurance. I take the bus or the train, works just fine.
If I can’t afford a trip and I REALLY want to go, I look around the house for stuff to sell online. There’s always something that you haven’t used for ages that somebody would be willing to pay for. A few sales like that and there you go.
I think a lot of it has to do with priorities. It’s quite common that people buy “stuff”, as we live in a consumption society, and they don’t think much about how much they’re actually spending.
[Do you want to watch that spectacular sunset on TV, or actually go there and experience it for yourself? :-) ]
Everything you save on is a step closer to that flight ticket or that gig. I’ve had a bunch of expenses the past few months, which means that the food budget is down to zero. I grab whatever I can find in the freezer or the pantry and get creative with it.
There are sites online where you can fill out what ingredients you’ve got (or want to use) and it will give you a number of recipes that includes that. Fast, easy, and cheap.
Sometimes I’ve had oatmeal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s cheap, lasts for ages, keeps you full for hours and it’s nutritious. And you can vary it. Milk, cinnamon, jam, berries, fruit… costs pretty much nothing.
Frozen veggies can be used in a creamy soup – just add a stock cube, bring to a boil and use the hand mixer for a soup that you can eat for days.
Basically, I can live on almost nothing, choose not to buy things, or fix things, just to be able to travel.
Plus, there are a million ways to save on travel and hotels as well. After all these years, I know a few tricks that are of great help, and I’ve shared them in this blog before. I’ve already redeemed 3 flight tickets this year for my frequent flyer miles. And that’s only because I use SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) credit card that gives me 20 points for every 100 SEK I shop for.
So, grocery shopping, or getting creative (use the card when buying something for friends, then they can just pay you back in cash) quickly adds up to a ticket. And you’re just doing what you would be doing anyway. A smart way of collecting miles.
If I know that there’s a gig this summer in Italy for instance, I will buy a single ticket this month and the return ticket with my next salary. And the hotel can usually be paid when you arrive, so there’s plenty of time to save up for that. You barely notice the expense when you spread it out over a period of time.
If you have a regular job, not too many necessary expenses (loans to pay back, kids or whatever) you should be able to travel with a bit of planning and effort.
I know, however, that many people are definitely not in a position to do anything other than survive, because of a tough financial situation, so I’m not saying that it’s a piece of cake or that everybody can do this. I’m just saying that if you have the right conditions and you make a few changes here and there, you’re all set.
Over a period of time, those small things will equal a ticket to ride. :)
Emergenza – aspiring talents on their way to…..?
I went to Emergenza yesterday and spent all evening there, dispite my horrible jetlag after the Firewind-gigs over in the US. Emergenza is an annual music-contest that showcases all types of bands and music – and many bands have actually used this as their stepstone towards future careers.
But let’s face it. Watching a talent show makes you realize so clearly why those who HAVE made it, DID make it, and why those who didn’t never will.
What I enjoy is the versatility of the music styles, and I can see the hopes and dreams in the young amateur-bands who are so thrilled to just get a chance to play live on a stage. There are no places for these bands to even GET the experience they need to get better nowadays (it’s even difficult for a semi-professional band to get booked). Contests like these can make a difference.
And although I sometimes either want to laugh or spew out some nasty sarcastic comment, I’m being stopped by an inner voice that reminds me of the fact that I was once exactly where those bands are now.
I was once young, unexperienced, nervous, excited to be on stage eventhough it was smaller than my living room table! I had big dreams and ambitions and my goal was to “make it” someday. Of course I didn’t hear what was bad with what we did back in the day – I thought it sounded great as long as we managed to get through the song!
[A very young me, my very first band-gig ever]
Image and stage show? What’s that? I was just standing there but in my mind I was a big star with a microphone and an audience. That’s all I needed. In reality, it was a crappy, small stage and the “crowd” consisted of a bunch of friends and maybe a couple of family members who felt that they HAD to show up to support us. Pretty much like the performances you had in school when you were a kid. I’m pretty sure that every musician who’s a pro today, once had to go through THAT period as well.
So, remembering all that, and then watching the young guys with their rock star dreams, made me appreciate what they are trying to do. Yeah, they look like their just crawled out of their Spiderman beds and gotten a pat on their heads by mommy before leaving the house… Then they get onstage and try to be/look badass and rock’n’roll and it’s just not working. :)
The first band out yesterday made me roll my eyes at first. School boys with a satanist-wannabe image, it just felt so ridiculous. But once I got passed that initial impression, I listened and they weren’t all that bad. It was tight and the singer mastered the growling dispite his young age. It’s also brave as hell to get up there as the first band of the evening and play to an empty hall. Would have freaked me out for sure. They did a good job considering the circumstances.
After them there was one weird band after another, who in a way were like one big live-tutorial in what NOT to do on a stage. If I had closed my eyes and only LISTENED to them, I’d have to admit that pretty much all of them were good, musically. Might not always have been my personal taste but I know good musicianship when I hear it, whether it’s amateurs or pros.
But it showed why so few bands make it to stardom today. They just don’t understand that in order to get anywhere nowadays, it’s NOT enough with JUST the music. The show is JUST as important, sometimes even MORE important…
Very few artists get rich by selling records, but if you’re a cool live-band, people will come to your gigs and they will buy the merch and spread the word. A good band will be all over YouTube whereas a crappy band won’t.
If you’re standing in front of an audience – acknowledge them. Closing your eyes is ONLY okay if you’re singing a ballad OR if you’re concentrating on a difficult part of the song (high screams or whatever) – but you can’t stand there with your eyes closed as if you’re in your own little world and forget about the people who are there to see you. Rob Halford started doing that, I hated every minute of it.
Eye-contact is number one. Movement is number two – work the stage. You don’t have to do somersaults, but at least walk from one side of the stage to another and meet the eyes of every person in the crowd, make them a part of YOUR experience.
That doesn’t just go for the singer – although it’s the most important rule for the FRONT-man/woman. The rest of the band has to be present as well, enjoy their spotlight for the time they are up there and drop the “I have to look like I know what I’m doing by staring at my pedalboard“-look.
Some bands were just copying their idols. That’s the number one characteristic of an amateur band. If I want something that sound like Metallica, I’d rather listen to Metallica, not a bad version of them.
Do your own thing. If you want to steal bits and pieces, go ahead, but never make it too obvious.
One guy was trying to sound like James Hetfield and that’s never going to take him to the stars. People have already heard James Hetfield, but they haven’t heard THIS guy, so he should work on sounding like HIMSELF and ditch the wannabe-ism.
Some bands were very professional and didn’t belong in a talent-show, they should already be playing real gigs and record albums. One of those bands, Charlie & Fredrik, had a dorky band name (absolutely hopeless, I hope they come up with something better in the future) but they were impressive. Great harmonies, great vocals, great playing… Maybe not much of an actual show, but super band. They didn’t even make it to the finals. :-(
That’s what sucks about talent shows without a jury. It’s ends up just being a popularity contest and about who’s got the most friends. These guys (and a girl) came from out-of-town and didn’t have pals there to vote for them. Well, I gave them MY vote at least.
Grand Slam, the band that I came there for, as I know (most) of these guys, put on a good performance, lots of action on stage, plenty of eye contact, plenty of “get the crowd activated”-stuff which is ALWAYS a winning combination. Get audience to sing along to your songs/choruses, clap their hands, dance, mosh, jump, scream and shout – and they are YOURS!
All in all, it was an interesting evening, although I needed my caffeine-chewing gum half way through because I was so tired to begin with. But this is where music starts – and I’d much rather see REAL bands playing LIVE like this, doing their OWN music and meeting people eye-to-eye, than watching a karaoke-show on national TV with people just singing other artist’s songs and never bringing anything NEW to the table (yes, I’m talking about “Idol” and similar shows).
This is the shit. Take the chance to go and watch some of this if you ever get the chance. :)
[Feb 16, 213]
Bye bye!
[From the Posterous blog]
As previously posted, this blogspace will close down and I will be moving to another location.
April 30th is the official date of the closing and this blog will not be viewable after that. Here is the statement posted by Posterous.com today: http://blog.posterous.com/thanks-from-posterous
If you are following this blog as a subscriber, this is how you can get the blog updates in the future:
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter or the new blog directly http://www.lita77777.com/
I’ll make sure to keep it updated. :)
It’s a shame how good things disappear. Been getting all those “upgrade” notifications lately, and to me that’s usually a BAD thing. What web-developers call an “UPgrade” tends to be the result of bored web-nerds who think that they’ve created something cool, and then it’s just useless. It might LOOK cool but it’s bad from a user’s point of view.
Let’s just start with good old MySpace – if anyone even remembers that place anymore. I used to blog there. You could customise it, easily add photos and videos, you could choose privacy-level and you could search for older posts by date. Perfect.
Then – they “upgraded” it. The result? You couldn’t do ANY of the things above. Customise? No. Search? No. Add media files easily? No. Privacy? No.
What a great “upgrade”. NOT.
That was when I left the site, and I was one of those who held on to Myspace longer than most because I still think that while it worked, it was superior to Facebook. But all the MySpace “upgrades” KILLED the site. It just became this cluttered mess with no functionality whatsoever. But I’m sure that the ones who created it figured it LOOKED cool. I don’t give a rats ass what it LOOKS like if I can’t USE it?!
Recently they “upgraded” Photobucket, another service I’ve been using for many years – and thought was so good that I even paid for the Pro-version. I don’t pay for any online services usually, but Photobucket has provided great features for years.
I logged in the other day and was greeted by some fancy “WELCOME TO THE NEW PHOTOBUCKET“-banner. “Take the tour” it said. Now it’s a cluttery mess. Sighh… Here we go again with some crappy “upgrade”.
I had thousands of photos on there, and I knew exactly how to find them, because I knew approximately when the pics were uploaded, so I could just click directly on the navigation-links on the bottom of the page (just page-links, page 1 to 10000 or whatever). Took a few seconds and I got my pic. Easy.
NOW I get this fucking annoying piece of shit thing that just loads as you scroll! They did the same on the MySpace blog by the way. WHAT is the purpose of THAT!? If I want to find something, I’ll have to take THE DAY OFF and wait while the fancy little wheel keeps spinning…!
Oh yeah. “Upgrade”……
[Keeps spinning like a record….all day long]
Then there’s MSN Messenger that “upgraded” to Skype. Never liked Skype. The phone-function might be very useful if you’ve got friends abroad and it’s also the ONLY option if I want to speak to one of my friends who lives in New York and for some reason has a phone that won’t accept incoming calls from Sweden. But as a chat-tool it sucks. I don’t like the look of it and the customization options are almost none. The call option is sometimes so bad that you’re lucky if you hear every three words.
So anyway, MSN Messenger is being phased out as well. Not that I used it much, just for weekly chats with a friend in Australia. But I still think that as a chat-tool it’s on a different planet than Skype’s downgrade-version.
Hotmail is being “upgraded” to Outlook. I checked it out. Oh my god. I hated it. Absolutely HATED it. I’m sure that 90% of the population loves Facebook so much that they want to “integrate” it with EVERYTHING, but I sure as hell don’t. Every new internet service nowadays just ASSUMES that you want to “share” everything.
I don’t. I want my e-mails private and separate from ANYTHING that has to do with Facebook! I don’t want everybody’s timeline updates in my MAIL (WTF?!?!) I don’t want Facebook and Twitter in my MAIL! Do I have a choice? NO, somebody’s has decided that I’m not allowed to use the service that I want, with the functions that I’m looking for. They have decided that OTHERS want this shit, and so I have to like it too. Gee, thanks.
This new “upgraded” shit thinks that you love to have all that stuff in your face every time you login to read your mail.
There is barely anything online nowadays that is NOT somehow Facebook-connected. It’s like a giant BIG BROTHER SEES YOU…… You can login to anything with your Facebook or Twitter account for instance. Many sites assume that everything you do on there should be shared on Facebook. I’m just getting nervous with that whole thing.
It’s gone from being something that you can kill time with as a bit of entertainment, and maybe say hi to people you couldn’t find any other way – to something that has taken over the internet and people’s lives. That actually worries me.
Upgrades suck. They force you to use something that you don’t want and try to make it sound like it’s better and something you should be grateful for. If you DON’T want the “upgrade”, tough shit, there IS no choice. The decision has been taken FOR you.
Yes I am slightly frustrated but what can you do.
Going back to what I wrote before – Posterous is closing permanently April 30 – so everything will be erased from this site. Any Favorite-links or subscriptions should be changed to lita77777.com instead (and if you’ve also been following the Firewind-blog, the new location is http://firewindtour.blog.com/
And thank you to all of you who’ve been following my scribblings for years, you rock!! :-)))
[Feb 16, 2013]
Twittering David Coverdale
[January, 13, 2013]
David Coverdale of Whitesnake started tweeting away on Twitter and I’ve never before seen such sincere joy among his fans, from all over the world. It’s an opportunity to communicate with him in real-time and many who aren’t typical “twitterers” are now writing on Twitter several times a day, probably feeling like kids in a candystore.
David went out of his way to try to make himself accessible in any way he could when the internet first made its appearance. When I met him back in 2000 in Stockholm, he proudly explained that his first official website was about to launch. Fans like Kino in Japan had held his name alive through their fan-websites, and now they were also a part of the official release.
David has also been active on the message board on the Whitesnake site and participated in video-Q & A-sessions where fans could send in video-questions and hopefully have them answered by David.
It’s just awesome. These are new, different times. I can’t help looking back to when I first discovered Whitesnake. It was just this pop-show on national Swedish radio (there was no commercial radio in Sweden back in the 80’s) that played “Guilty of love” – and it was that simple little drum roll that Cozy did before the last chorus, that made me go and get the “Slide It In”-album. That was 1984.
Back in those days, the only way you could get any info whatsoever about your favorite artists, was through magazines. Hard rock wasn’t exactly endorsed by radio or TV so it was pretty much an underground movement in a way. Huge, but still “underground”.
The point is that rock stars, being as beyond reach as they were, were unreal, likegods almost. You knew they existed but you couldn’t be sure unless you got a chance to see them live in concert. There was no link to them – they were on a different planet and the fans, well, we were like disciples and simply “not worthy”.
Meeting someone like David Coverdale felt just as likely as meeting God. In other words, that idea was just an impossible dream, it just wouldn’t happen.
Maybe that mystery was also what made the rock stars of that era ROCK STARS. They were out of reach, larger than life, moving in circles you would never be invited to, living a life you would never be a part of… Or so I thought when I was sixteen. I wanted it so bad, but I didn’t think it would ever happen. Me, part of the world I loved so much – “for real”?
I wasn’t allowed to go to a Whitesnake concert when I was a teen, cause my parents wouldn’t let me. Without my own money I couldn’t sneak off either.
So the first time I saw Whitesnake live was with the Monsters of Rock package 1990. I was at the Quireboys press conference but I don’t think Whitesnake did any press. Or I just didn’t get the info if they did, I can’t remember. But they were amazing in the Globe, David handled the stage and the crowd like the out-of-this-world performer I always thought of him as.
The first time I met him, was at a press conference at the Midtfyn Festival in Denmark 1993. That, I will never forget. I went there with my friend Lena, also a big fan, and she was supposed to take good photos, whereas I was supposed to record the press conference. When David walked in – I remember that like a slow-motion scene in a movie. It was as if someone pressed a button and the place just went silent, everybody’s eyes were on him. He passed me and I just remember the fresh smell of cologne.
Lena got so shaky that her first pics got all blurry and I, well I was so awestruck that I forgot to turn on the recorder. When I finally did, I just sat there and stared, couldn’t believe that I was there, breathing the same air as my biggest hero. I’ve got only 2 true heroes- Rob Halford and David Coverdale. That’s it. The rest I admire or whatever, but David and Rob are on a totally different level to me.
That whole day feels like a slow-motion dream, including the show later that evening – which was actually why we went to the festival in the first place.
Seven years later, in 2000 – it happened. The impossible. The unthinkable. I was granted an interview with David at Sheraton Hotel in Stockholm, right after the press conference. I cannot explain how nervous I was and how small and insignificant I felt. Once again going back to that whole Wayne’s World “I’m not worthy!”-feeling.
I spent about an hour in that hotel suite, talking with David about everything under the sun – funny things, serious things… anything and everything. To this day I really feel very blessed for getting that opportunity. That was the very last time rock stars were out of reach, so it was a huge deal to me.
Then – with the internet, things changed. You can now get hold of pretty much anyone through Facebook or, in this case, Twitter. Some of that mystery is gone. But people don’t want or need that mystery anymore to appreciate their heroes. They cherish the opportunity to be able to speak to their idols instead – the way they now can follow David on a daily basis as he Tweets out photos from his bedroom window or shares little everyday anecdotes or jokes with us all. He’s among fans and not an unreachable god anymore.
Times they are a’changin’ and the way I see it, it’s definitely for the better…
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