You’re the Guy!
Crazy story about my Springsteen concert experience. My introduction to Springsteen was the Darkness album. I immediately loved this album on first listen and was excited to learn that the Darkness tour was coming to St. Petersburg, Fl where I lived. This was back in the day when tickets went on sale only at the venue box office. We went to the box office a couple of hours early and scored front row seats for the hefty price of $7.50 per ticket. When we were in our seats waiting for the show to start, this crazed guy approached us and asked us if we “deserved these seats”. I said that we paid for the tickets, so yes. He asked if we are huge fans, like are you familiar with “The Fever”. I lied and said “yes I am”. I did admit that this was my first time seeing a Springsteen concert. He said he was at the Miami show the previous night and the show was phenomenal and that we were in for a huge treat. He went on to say that he was chatting with a lady in the concession line in Miami that turned out to be a relative of Bruce’s. She gave him a backstage pass for Miami and front row tickets for this show in St. Pete. He got to meet Bruce backstage and was totally star struck. After he left us, we all looked at each other and said what a nut this guy was. Of course once the show was over, we were just as star struck and nuts as that guy!
Fast forward about 10 years later, I learned that the (hot) receptionist at my work was a huge Springsteen fan. She had never seen Bruce live and I told her about my front row experience. I told her all about the crazy front row guy and how he met Bruce’s relative in Miami. When she and I started dating, I promised her that I would find a way to get her in the front row of a Springsteen concert.
When the Human Touch/Lucky Town tour was announced in 1992, I had some friends near Philly who got tickets for the first of two shows at the Spectrum. My now wife (the hot receptionist) was finally going to see Bruce live. But I had promised front row. I found a ticket broker in the classified section of the Rolling Stone magazine and purchased two front tickets for the second show at several hundred dollars each.
We flew to Philly and saw the first show and my wife was blown away. I couldn’t wait to see her experience front row the next night. We went back to the hotel and was waiting by the elevator holding our newly purchased concert shirts when a man approached us and asked us if we needed tickets for night two. I said no and that we had front row tickets for the second show. He said that was fantastic and we parted ways and went up to our room. The next morning we were having breakfast in the hotel restaurant and we saw the man from the previous night. He was with his wife and they came over to talk to us and we invited them to join us for breakfast. They had flown in from Minneapolis to see these shows. He told his wife that we had front row for tonight’s show. He said he had front row seats on the Darkness tour in St Petersburg. He said he was at the Miami show and met a relative of Bruce’s and they gave him front row tickets for the St. Petersburg show. Both my wife and my jaws dropped. I thrust my finger at his face and yelled “YOU’RE THE GUY!!!”. I said I was in the front row of that show and that he had talked to me. He asked what he had said and I told him he asked if I deserved this seat. He said “yep, that was me”. So 14 years later, across the country, we realized we had met at a previous concert.
We all became good friends. They invited us to stay at their house in Minneapolis for the Springsteen concert later that year on Halloween night. My wife and I have seen about a dozen more Springsteen shows since then. We have been married for 36 years and she’s as hot as ever!
(Pictures: “the guy” in Miami with Bruce; pictures I took in the ‘78 show; ticket from ‘78; my wife and I in Philly in ‘92)