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The magnificiant trio, Chris Botti, Sting, and of course Holly Mollo.
On the night of March 23, 2007, my husband and daughter and I had 6th row tickets at the State Theater in State College, PA for a concert by Chris Botti and his band. The State Theater is a recently renovated movie theater from the days when the major studios had their own theaters throughout the country, and this was one of those old “grande dames”; it only seats 521, so it’s an incredibly intimate venue.
I had been trying for weeks, by asking anyone and everyone connected with the State Theater, to get the chance to meet Chris Botti; aside from the fact that I would love to meet an artist I so admire, I had to tell him that I was the one who asked Sting to sing “What Are You Doing The Rest Of your Life”!
The night of the show, we got there about 45 minutes early. I tracked down my last contact person, and asked if there was any possibility that I could get to meet with him for just a minute or two. My contact told me that Chris would be signing autographs in the lobby following the performance, and if for some reason he didn’t come out, my contact told me he would drag him out, just so I could tell him my story! ;-)
The show was amazing. He is incredibly talented, and his band no less so. A highlight for me was Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, which I adore, and which was completely unexpected. After the show, I elbowed my way through the crowd and finally found myself standing in front of him. He was on a bar stool, with a pile of Sharpies beside him on a table to his left, and his road manager Jeremy on his right, and he smiled at me and said hello.
I said to him, "I had to come tonight to thank you, not only for helping to make my fondest dream come true, but for making it immeasurably better. I am the fan who asked Sting to sing "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life."
His eyes bugged out, his jaw dropped, and he said, “No way! You are kidding me!”
"No, it's true!”, I said. “You can look it up on brushwithfame.com !"
and at that point Jeremy the road manager said," Yeah, it's true, that's my friend from Vancouver Ross's site."
"You know Ross?" I said to Jeremy.
"Ross and I went to school together", Jeremy replied.
At which point, Chris Botti jumped off the barstool to hug and kiss ME.
"How did you find out about the song?" he said.
"I saw it on Sting.com, and I almost broke my daughter's eardrums screaming into the phone when I saw it!", I replied. He laughed out loud!
He said, “But Sting told me someone on Park Avenue stopped him and asked him to sing it.”
I replied, “The road that runs up to the venue where I saw Sting is Park Avenue; it’s just Park Avenue State College, not Park Avenue New York!”
He just goggled at me again and said, “That is too funny. This is just too much! I wish I had known about this before the show," he went on. "I'd have talked about it onstage. Listen, if you're ever at a show again, make sure I know about it, okay?"
I said, "I will! And I hope you come back here again -- this is a great theater, and your show was just wonderful."
And we hugged and kissed AGAIN.
Of course I had brought along the insert of my "To Love Again" CD, and I said, "I think you need to sign right here," pointing to the space next to the track listing for the song.
He signed it, "To Holly, I can't thank you enough for your idea! C.Botti"
So, if it wasn't for the Police concert coming up in July, I would be leaving Earth now, since I have had two of the most incredible brushes with fame ever, and this planet is definitely running out of things to amaze me!!;-)