Meeting my very own Guitar Hero

You know, even as I type this I still can't believe it, but yesterday I met Megadeth. M-E-T met. As in made eye contact with, had a conversation with, exchanged laughs with kinda MET. This was merely my second Personal Rock Star Encounter and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I thought I was going to throw up. No joke. Ask Shawn, he was there (and got some great pictures). The anticipation, the shock because it all came about so suddenly, the fear of possibly not being able to form words (I could only squeak when I met Billy Squire years ago--he had to ask me if was okay), I mean *everything*. I was shaking like a leaf.

As with most things one gets extremely worked up about, it was over at warp speed. When the band took their seats and were ready, Dave Mustaine looked at me like, "Are you going to come over here?" Then he looked into my eyes and said "Hi." I almost went down. I smiled and said "Hi," and somehow goaded my legs into action and walked two steps over to him. My husband Shawn had convinced me it'd be cool/memorable/incredibly geeky to bring along my XBox Guitar Hero II guitar for the band to sign, so I did. Although, I had it in the same carrying case as my real guitar. FYI, I actually received an encore for Hangar 18 at medium difficulty two days after starting to play the game.

:::bows graciously::::

I digress. So I take two steps toward Dave, he's looking at me (obviously he's tired, he seemed a little grumpy which made me even more terrified--and he's just so intense!), and I told him that the band is just amazing, he said thank you, and then I said that I brought my guitar for them to sign. He watches me unzip the case and move the real guitar aside, and haul out the Guitar Hero II. He started laughing, smiled beautifully (see above picture of beautiful smile--I'm responsible for that!) and said he hadn't actually played the game but heard it was a lot of fun. The rest of the band started laughing and smiling and each said it was totally awesome that I played the game and had the guts to bring it. I chatted with Glen Drover (guitar) and we agreed that only a chick could have pulled that off. The bassist, James LoMenzo was especially nice and friendly (he smiled the whole time--he must be new--grin). Shawn Drover, the drummer, definitely wins the award for the Most Brooding Rock Star.

I told them I caught their show in Uncasville, CT earlier in the week, they seemed pleased and asked if I had a good time. I gushed "YES YES YES" and then POOF. It was all over.

I was still shaking two hours later.

What's really weird, is that today I got an email from the Megadeth Fan Club guy, asking if I ever received my club package for 2006 (they were a couple of months late shipping it so I wrote saying I'd never received it). I wrote back and told him that I did, and related the above story and included a link to Shawn's pictures. He writes back saying that he designed the Megadeth MegaFan t-shirt I was wearing and that it was so cool to see his design in the pictures. He also said he was in the process of redesigning Megadeth.com.

:::::gulp--those that know me, know what's coming next::::

I *fired* back an email telling him that I just happened to be chief evangelist for the most fabulous stock imagery company on the planet (iStockphoto) and that if he needed any graphics to let me know. He writes back saying he can't believe I'm with iStock, that he bought a bunch of images for the new site just last week, bla bla.

I'm reading all of this sitting cross-legged in the floor at LAX and I am not believing my eyes. I mean, how weird is this?! Is this The Week of Megadeth, or what? I proceeded to pop some free credits into this guys account in exchange for an iStockphoto logo/link on the Megadeth site. He said he'd let the band know that the "Blonde Guitar Hero Girl" was supplying the band with imagery.

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!

Sometimes, it really does seem like we live on a very, very small planet.

BTW, while I was hanging out at Vintage Vinyl I bought the new Tool CD which absolutely rocks. My favorite song is The Pot. For some reason, Tool isn't on iTMS yet. I also picked up Megadeth's Live from Buenos Aires DVD which I watched on the plane today. Once in my rental car, I plugged in my Griffin iTrip and bright red nano my loving husband bought for me this past Xmas and listened to Megadeth's new album, United Abominations, for about the 20th time. I so love this band.

It's been a very surreal week!