Let me make this perfectly clear: I am neither a stalker nor a groupie. But I do love me some Kenny Aronoff! I was lucky enough to see him perform a
second time within a month – this time with John Fogerty at the Murat
Theatre. As I wrote in Post No. 399, he
mentioned he would be back in town in July.
I promptly bought tickets to the concert and was even able to get
aftershow passes.
I like John Fogerty/Creedence songs but would never
have gone to a show if Kenny wasn’t playing.
Nothing against John. He’s just
not on my “must-see” list. But I am glad
that I went. John is an amazing musician
and performer, and I knew almost every song.
He told some funny stories about Woodstock and the Grateful Dead, among
others. At 70, he’s still in great shape
and voice. He played for almost 2 ½
hours straight. One thing I noticed,
more toward the end of the show, was that he played the songs really fast. Faster than I remember them being on the
radio. I have no idea how Kenny does
what he does for 2 ½ hours–he was amazing too.
After the show Lori and I put on our aftershow
stickers and stood by the side door.
After a short wait, we walked down a hallway behind the bar area and
made our way into Kenny’s dressing room.
There was a sofa and some chairs, and a table with food and a couple
bottles of wine. He greeted everyone,
and greeted me by name (giving me a big hug), and we all stood/sat around for
the next hour drinking wine and listening to him tell stories. He has a book coming out in September and
some of the stories will be included. And
he did mention that John plays the songs now like he always wanted them to be
played – fast.
Partway through the story-telling he walked over to
me and showed off my skirt to everyone (touching my belly again!) and asked how
I keep in such good shape. (I rattled
off that I play tennis, bike, lift weights, etc.) I checked my watch a time or two, mostly
worried that Lori wanted to get home. We
both had to work the next day. But she
seemed as fascinated as me. I was
wondering how long I would stay when a man appeared at the door and said Kenny's car was ready. This was around 11:30
p.m. I was sad to go – I could have
listened to him all night!
He said goodbye to everyone and then he grabbed me
again and gave me a bear hug. He told me
not to bend over to hug him – he wanted to hug me fully upright. Haha
Then he said, “I love this woman!”
Now, I know he doesn’t really love me.
He is happily married. But I understand
what he means, because I love him too.
He is an amazing artist and I love his energy, passion and work
ethic. He is the real deal.
I had told Lori the story of how I met him (at
Butler and again at the BoDeans show). I
explained how cool he was and about his infectious energy. As we walked back to the car she said, “I get
it now.” You don’t fully understand
until you witness it yourself. It’s like
the energy transfers to you somehow.
I need to make something else clear. In a Post No. 337 I wrote about “dating
down”. I talked about how I prefer to
date tall men but that it’s what inside that really matters, and how someone
makes you feel. Again, I’m not a
groupie, and am fully aware and respectful that Kenny is happily married. I don’t know how tall he is – his head comes
to the bottom of my chin – but I would totally date him if he were single. FO SHO.
I guess now I have to create a Kenny Aronoff “Rule”. Haha (See
Post Nos. 2 and 249.)
Kenny says he’ll be back for another lecture in
October. Come hell or high water, I will
be there. Not as a stalker or a groupie,
but hopefully as a new friend.
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