| On July 22, 2001, something very special happened to me, something I could have only dreamed of!!! I went to the Poison concert, and I got to go backstage and meet Bret Michaels and his family, Rikki Rocket and some special people who tour with the band!!! These are my pictures and this is a story I still can't believe!!! |
| My mom is a big fan of the "Big Hair Bands of the 80's" and she always plays 80's songs, but there was one song that became very special to me. That song is called "Something To Believe In" and it is by Poison!! I started listening to that song all of the time, and then I started listening to their "Greatest Hits" CD and I loved every song, but "Something To Believe In" will always be my favorite!! Before I tell my story and show you my pictures, I would like you to read the lyrics to the song first!! |
| Rikki Rockett (front), Bobby Dall, C.C. Deville and Bret Michaels!! POISON!! |
| Well, I see him on the TV Preachin' 'bout the promised land He tells be to belive in Jesus And steals the money from my hand Some say he was a good man But Lord I think he sinned, yeah Twenty-two years of mental tears Cries a suicidal Vietnam Vet Who fought a losing war on a foreign shore To find his country didn't want him back Their bullets took his best friend in Saigon Our lawyers took his wife and kids, not regrets In a time I don't remember, in a war he can't forget He cried "Forgive me for what I've done there Cause I never meant the things I did" And give me something to believe in If there's a Lord above And give me something to belive in Oh, Lord arise My best friend died a lonely man In some Palm Springs hotel room I got the call last Christmas Eve and they told me the news I tried all night not to break down and cry As the tears rolled down my face I felt so cold and emply Like a lost soul out of place And the mirror, mirror on the wall Sees my smile it fades again And give me something to believe in If there's a Lord above And give me something to believe in Oh, Lord arise Sometimes I wish to God I didn't know now The things I didn't know then Road you gotta take me hom I drive by the homeless sleeping on a cold dark street Like bodies in an open grave Underneath the broken old neon sign That used to read JESUS SAVES A mile away live the rich folks And I see how they're living it up While the poor they eat from hand to mouth The rich is drinkin' from a golden cup And it just makes me wonder Why so many lose, so few win And give me something to believe in If there's a Lord above And give me something to believe in Oh, Lord arise You take the high road And I'll take the low road Sometimes I wish to God I didn't know now The things I didn't know then And give me something to believe in |
| That song is very special to me and the story that it tells has given me Something To Believe In. Before I begin the story behind my Poison page, I would like to thank Bret Michaels for writing that song, it will always be an inspiration to me. Thanks Bret!!! |
| Ok, here goes this story that I still can't believe!!! Around March, 2001, I learned that Poison was coming to Pittsburgh and I started begging my mom to take me!! Of course I didn't have to beg too much because she wanted to go too!! When I found out they were coming, I started looking up all of the Poison web sites and I found their official site and also Bret Michaels official site (I have links to both sites at the bottom of the page!!!). I found a "Contact Bret" page and I told my mom that I was going to send him an email and she said "Sure, go ahead", figuring that I would never hear anything and that Bret Michaels would never see it anyway. Boy was she WRONG!!!! The email I sent to Bret Michaels told him who I was, I sent him my web site, told him that I was coming to the concert in Pittsburgh and I told him what the song Something To Believe In means to me. In a day or two, I got an email back from Janna, who works with Bret and I can't tell you how excited I was!!! She told me that Bret saw my letter, that they both would be glad to meet me at the show and that Bret would like me to meet his family too because some of them are Veterans!!! She told me that she comes from a military family too and I could tell that she was very proud of that!!! I still can't believe it, my mom couldn't believe it and I was so excited. Bret has a Meet and Greet after every show for the members of his fan club, so of course I made my mom sign us up right away!!! I have never seen anything like this before and it is great. If you are a member of the Bret Michaels fan club, you can sign up to meet Bret after each show and he stays to meet everyone that is there, which is the best thing I have ever seen!!! Here is the pass that you get, front and back, to go backstage to meet Bret!!! |
| So now it was time to get the tickets!! I had school that day and I told my mom that she had to be online at 10:00 a.m. to be the first to get tickets. I had to wait all day to found out what seats we got!!! My mom picked us up at the bus stop and you know what the first thing I asked her was!!! She told me that I better wait to get home so that I could see what happened!!! My heart sank because I thought that meant we had to be out in the parking lot somewhere!!! I got in the door and we pulled up the ticket order on the Internet and I couldn't believe this either!!! |
| The first thing I did was email Janna and tell her that I got my tickets!!! I was so excited that I had to tell her that Bret will be able to see me from the stage and that he couldn't miss me because I was going to wear my "camo" hat and my Rolling Thunder jacket!!! But the story gets even better!!! Five minutes later, I got an email back from Janna and she told me that she was going to have two backstage passes for me (besides for the Meet and Greet) so that I could meet Bret and his family before the show and explain how I became involved with our Veterans and our POW/MIA's!!! Now I really couldn't believe it and my mom still says that this stuff just doesn't happen (she's WRONG again!!!). Here is my backstage pass that allowed me to come and go from the main area to the backstage area!!!! This was the BEST and I was a VIP!!! |
| We got the Pit, Row C!!! That's the third row from the stage!!!! We got the email from Janna, the Meet and Greet passes and third row, it couldn't get better than this, or could it????? |
| Now, all I had to do was wait for the day of the show and it took FOREVER!!! |
| And the wait was finally over!!! It was the day of the show and I was so excited!! Mom and I left really early so that we could get our backstage passes and I could meet Bret!!! When I got back stage, one of the first people I met was Bret's Dad (he is on the right) and some of his friends!!! As soon as I walked back there a few people said that they knew who I was because they had seen me on TV!! This was pretty exciting!! |
| Bret's Dad was really great and I'm glad that I got to meet him. We sat and talked for a long time and he even showed me what he brought for Bret. It was the book Ghost Soldier and it was autographed by Abie Abraham!!! I know Mr. Abraham too, he is a survivor of the Bataan Death March and he is very special to me!! We have been to a few events together!! Mr. Abraham's story is in the book Ghost Soldier!!! |
| And this is Bret's cousin, Bob and he became really special to me!!! Bob is a Vietnam Veteran!!! He came over to the table I was at and sat and talked to me for a really long time. I was very honored to tell him "Thank You" What I didn't know was that another person who was with the crew came up to my mom while I was talking to Bob and told her that he has known Bob for 12 years and he had never seen him talk to anyone the way that he was talking to me!!! Just hearing that made everything that I do seem so much more important to me. Thank you Cousin Bob and "Welcome Home" |
| Here I am with Janna!!! She is the one who sent me the emails, printed out my email so Bret could see it and helped me meet Bret!!! She told me how she grew up with the stories of WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, so I know that our Veterans mean a lot to her too!!! Janna, I don't think that I could ever thank you enough for what you did for me and for being so great with me!! I never in my life thought I would get an answer to my email, let alone be able to meet so many great people!!! |
| Cousin Bob and Janna, I'm sorry that these pictures didn't turn out that well. They were the last one's on the roll of film that we had and for some reason they came out this way. I still wanted to put these on my Poison page because I wanted everyone to know how great all of you were!! Thank you so much for everything you did for me!! |
| And the big moment finally arrived!!! Janna came over to us and told us that Bret was having some problems with his throat, but that she was going to take us back to meet him anyway so that I could talk to him about our Veterans!! After a very, very long few minutes, she came back and said that I could go back and meet Bret!! I thought that he must be in a dressing room or something like that, but on our way to the back Janna told us that we were going to the tour bus because that's where Bret was!!! I still couldn't believe that I was there!!! I went over exactly what I was going to do a hundred times, but I was so excited that I think I forgot everything that I went over!!! I knew that I had one very important thing that I had to do!!! And I did it too!!! |
| Bret Michaels, Me & Rikki Rockett on the tour bus!!! |
| Now this is the best part of the story!!! I walked on the bus first and there he was, even though I was so excited, I knew that I had something to do!!! Because the song Something To Believe in is so special to me, I wanted to give Bret something that also was very special to me. After the big introduction moment, I presented Bret with a Rolling Thunder XIV patch, a Rolling Thunder XIV pin and two POW/MIA bracelets of Sgt. Arlie Mangus, one for him and one for his baby daughter so that she can grow up and always know the price that has been paid for our freedom. Everyone knows how important Rolling Thunder and my POW/MIA's are to me and I thought that would be the best gift to give to Bret!!! Even though this wasn't one of my usual events that I attend, I was still there representing our country's Veterans and I knew that I wanted to give Bret something that came from my heart, that would make our Veterans proud!!! We talked for a while and he was just as great as you could get!!! Then, to my surprise, we heard someone say "Hey Bret" and I turned around and it was Rikki Rockett, coming on the tour bus too!!! I couldn't and still can't believe that I got to meet Rikki too, this was just too great and I know that it's something that I will never forget!!! |
| Then one of the guys with the band told my mom to get in a picture too and if you know my mom you know that she would never, ever in her life, miss a chance like this!!! I think she was as happy as I was!!! But I got to admit, she was the original Poison fan and she would play their CD's all of the time. That's how I learned about Something To Believe In. Now I know every word to every Poison song!!! |
| Of course I got my t-shirt and bandana signed by both Bret and Rikki!! They are in a frame, never to be worn again!!! |
| There was still one more thing that I had to do before we went to our seats to get ready for the show!! I asked Bret if somehow, someway, he could try to come to Rolling Thunder XV, on May 26, 2002, in Washington D.C.!!! I know that Poison might be on tour then, but because that one song means so much to me and because I could tell that Bret cares about our Veterans and our Troops, I had to ask. I could only imagine how meaningful it would be for the hundreds of thousands of Veterans and supporters who are in D.C. for Rolling Thunder to know that someone like Bret cares about them too. Not too many big hair bands of the 80's wrote about Vietnam Vets, but Bret did and I know he understands!!! Don't know if he can make it or not, but I would love from him to attend, to meet all of you, and to see the Brotherhood of Rolling Thunder!!! Who knows, look what happend with the first email I sent!! |
| Bret, this one is just for you!!! I hope that somehow, someway, you can come and Ride The Wind with us at Rolling Thunder XV.....to meet the real Heroes of our country, the Vietnam Veterans, just like Cousin Bob, and the one's that you wrote about...."in a time I can't remember, in a war he can't forget" they need to know that we care!!! This is Bret on his bike and the lyrics are from Bret's song "Ride The Wind" It is a really great song too!! It's one of my mom's favorites!!! |
| Now, off to our seats and onto the show!!! |
| The show was the best and I was glad, proud and honored to be there!! A few shots of Bret from the third row!!! |
| A great shot of Bret and C.C.!!!! |
| Believe it or not, this is a picture of the confetti at the end of the show!! If you look close enough, you can see Rikki Rockett on the drums back there...trust me, he's there, I saw him!!! There wasn't even this much confetti at the last game at Three Rivers Stadium, it was great!!! |
| This is the last picture I had taken with Bret, on the steps of the tour bus!!!! I heard a rumor that Santa Claus was going to bring me a door poster of this picture for Christmas!!! I hope that he does, it's my favorite!!! |
| Just like I said above, Bret Michaels has a Meet and Greet, after each show for the members of his fan club and that meant me too!!! There were probably about 200 people waiting to meet Bret and even though I got to meet him already, I made my mom stay to see him again!!! One of the guys from the crew came out and told everyone that he had good news and bad news!! The good news was that everyone was going to get to meet Bret, but because of doing the show his throat was really bad and he wouldn't be able to talk very much, if at all!!! Another one of the guys in the crew, who my mom and I had met before, told us to stay in the back behind everyone else (I had no idea why!!), but we did!!! Two hours later, we got to go backstage again and I got to be the last person who was with Bret!!! Just as we got to where he was, one of the crew members yelled over "Hey Bret, here's your buddy." I got to tell him how great the show was and to thank him for everything!!! It was the best!!! |
| And this is the best picture of them ALL!!! |
| Now you have to check this out!!! If you have never seen or heard Something To Believe In, click the Launch Video button and you will be taken to the site where you can watch the video, you can pick your own player too!!! |
| Here is a great picture of Bret from the Something To Believe In video!!! Thanks again Bret for such a wonderful song!!! |
| Make sure you visit Bret's web site!!! Click the BMIFC graphic and send Bret an email, telling him thanks for remembering our Vets!!! I know that he'll see your email!!! |
| And here is the graphic to visit poisonweb.com. I hope you visit their site, it's great!! It's got news, info and some great pictures of the band!!! |
| I would like to end this page with a few more thoughts (and some help from my mom on this one!!). I never, in my life, thought that I would meet the lead singer (and the drummer too) from my favorite band (and they are from Pennsylvania too!!!). This day was so wonderful and I met so many great people. Janna, Cousin Bob and Mr. Sychak, thank you so much for everything that you did for me and for sharing your stories with me, I will always appreciate it more than you will ever know!! When we were driving home, my mom asked if I was pretty happy and she knew that I was!! We talked about how great Bret was and my mom said that she was really impressed (not just because he's cute!!!). Mom said that she thinks Bret still understands what it is like to be a fan and that even though he couldn't talk very well after the show he still stayed until he had met with every last person in his fan club (over two hours!!!). He could have been like every one else and left before anyone knew he was gone, but he didn't, he stayed for his fans!!! Bret, I am so glad that I met you and that I got to present you with something from Rolling Thunder, because I know you understand and care!! You keep on ROCKING and I'll keep the Glam, Slam, Metal, Jam alive for my generation! Thanks Bret for Something To Believe In!!! |
| I made this page in 2001 and have been very good friends with Bret Michaels ever since!! I thought it was important to keep this page first and create a new page with all of my new pics!! Click the "next page" link below to see all of my pics with Bret, Poison, Big John, Cuzn Bob, Doyle, Janna and my guys from Evick cause they ROCK!! |
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