by Bill

I thought the dream was over, but it only just got started...

After seeing them 12 times on the Vertigo tour, it was to my elation that they were playing at the Grammy's. Even better that they were doing the duet with MJB.

I was calm and collected throughout the night as the band kept sweeping up the floor with trophies and tried my best to not go wild in the corporate suite, but that couldn't last any longer.

I will preface the rest of the story by stating that in the corporate suite I was in, there were a number of backstage passes that were available for anyone who wanted to use them. I had resisted using them all night. Who really wants to see Mariah or Kanye?... but when the Album of Year was announced, I lost it. I ran around the suite looking for those passes, I got one and I was off.

Darting from the top level of sky boxes, through the bowels of the Staples Center, and into the backstage corridor, I "fast-walked", all the while hearing the boys on stage with their thank you remarks. This is where the story gets good...

The backstage dynamic is very reserved, mostly because it is filled with management of acts that didn't win, or acts that are getting ready to perform. As I walked about 20 yards, I could here the audience clapping at the completion of U2's speech. I quickly spotted the stage steps and who starts walking down but Adam! I ran to position myself as the first person to glad-hand the band as they come off stage and give them congrats! Adam and I chatted for a brief moment... then came Larry and Daniel Lanois... then Edge... then Bono himself... with the freshly minted Grammy in his hand. (those trophies are bigger than you think.. or maybe it's that Bono is small?) It was like my own little meet and greet... then they were off.

As I turned to walk back down the hall, I run into the the tuxedo clad, Paul McG. Looking very dapper, with a smile from ear to ear, I give him a big handshake and an affirming "you did it!"

I am a lifelong fan. One might say, the hardest of the hard-core (Front Row at Slane Castle, traveled the globe to see them.... first musical moment of meaning was hearing the Unforgettable fire in '85 at the age of 12, etc., you get the point.) This was a crowning acheivement for fandom. In the industry crowd backstage at the Grammy's, the golf-claps and jealous smiles were broken by a fan/industry suite who was the first to give congrats to our band.

When shaking hands with Adam, what almost came out of my mouth was "We did it!"... Although it didn't, I know he would have stared back at me confused... but the "we" means, the fans.

and that's my Grammy Moment

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