She DID Have Time

From reading some previous entries in TWIT, you already know how much I like Terri Clark. She was in Louisville this evening at WAMZ, one of our country radio stations, and I guess the above picture is pretty self-explanatory.

This was my second time to get to meet Terri, and I've got to say that out of all of the celebrities I've met, she has to be the kindest and and most gracious. She took five minutes out of her schedule to stop in the parking lot on the way to the radio station to talk with me and pose for some pictures and give an autograph. Five minutes out of our schedules might not seem like much, but for a country star on a deadline, I think it was a great act of kindness. 

The DJ said that she would be stopping by today to promote her new CD, "Life Goes On" and to talk about her new single, "She Didn't Have Time." I knew I had to be there to give her a gift I'd had for her since May - a personalized Louisville Slugger baseball bat.  I took it with me to her concert in May, but security wouldn't let me bring it in because it was a dangerous weapon.  I didn't trust leaving it with someone to give it to her, so I decided to just keep it till I got to see her again. I was able to find out that she would be on the air from 5:00 to 6:00. Unfortunately for me, I had a dentist's appointment at 3:30, and was sitting the big chair getting my crown and abssess examined,  thinking the whole time "I'm jetting out of here at 4:45 even if he's not done."  As my luck would have it, I was out of there in a flash and headed on over to the station's building.  I sat patiently in my car, waiting for Terri to come out of her bus, rehearsing what I was going to say. Then at 4:55, out she came. I calmly and politely got out of the BMW, and asked her if I could get a picture with her either before or after her interview, and she walked right over to the car and started chatting. I gave her the bat (gift wrapped in a box, so she wouldn't see me with a bat and think I was some crazed stalker) and she seemed genuinely touched that I went to the trouble of getting it for her. After I gave her the bat, I told her how she was a bizillion times more gracious than The Female Rock Star That Shall Remain Nameless who dissed me two years ago when I gave her a personalized Louisville Slugger.  She laughed at the story, and gave me a hug, and signed a copy of our picture together that I took at the May concert, and then posed for a picture.  Her assistant took my camera and then dropped it. Pieces of the Fuji camera went all over the parking lot.  I was like "Who cares?" But Terri and her assistant were both apologizing as they bent down and picked up the camera and put it back together.  Her assistant tried to take a couple of pictures but the camera wouldn't work.  Her assistant apologized again, and ran back to the bus and got her own camera and took a picture of Terri and me, and got my email address and said she'd email it to me as soon as she got back to Nashville.  Just then, someone from inside the station called the assistant, and she told them that "Terri was speaking with someone right now, and she'd be in when she was finished." Now that's what I call an assistant.  I didn't want to be a pest, so I thanked her for the picture and autograph, and told her I really enjoyed her new CD, and she got all giddy and thanked me for buying it, and asked what my favorite song was on it.  Well, to be honest, I'd only played it once since it came out last week, and I was speechless.  I said "I like them all" but she wasn't buying it.  She wanted to know which one I liked the most.  So I did some quick thinking and said "Life Goes On", since it was the title, and she got even more giddy and clapped her hands like a little kid and said "Yeahhhh, it's one of my favorites, too."

She went in to do her interview, and I stayed there in the parking lot, listening to her on the radio and fiddling with the camera until I got it working.  At 6:00 when she went off the air, I walked back to the station and waited there in the lobby with three other fans, and when she saw me she yelled across the lobby "Did you get the camera working or am I going to have to buy you another one?"  A star that still has a sense of humor - you gotta love that.  She had her assistant take another picture, and told her "Don't drop it this time."  As you can see above, we got the picture, and the rest is history. 

I joined Terri's fan club two years ago, just so I would be eligible for the annual meet-and-greet pass, but from now on, I will pay my yearly dues and be a proud card carrying member of her Hats Brats fan club. I'll support any artist that treats fans like Terri Clark does.  I doubt if she will ever read this, but thank you very much Terri for taking the time to care about your fans.You rock.