It was 5 years ago this morning that I began writing this piece on my cell phone as a means of capturing every fresh detail from the events of the day prior [13 Sept 2014]. Abby and I were sitting in the airport in Raleigh, NC on a Dallas-bound flight back home and I spent the entire return trip jotting down the memory in the palm of my hand. Not ideal, but necessary.
That Saturday the 13th, Abby and I had the experience of a lifetime. We were artist guests' of "Uncle Neil" [Young] at Farm Aid. Changing venues each year; this particular rendition of the philanthropic event took place at the Walnut Creek Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC.
While the perks of the day will never be lost on in this music-lovers memory; the day proved to take on an unforeseen meaning as a life-changing moment. It was here that Abby and I had a more in-depth prospective and education about the earth we tend to take for granted. Focused around the plight of the family farmer, Farm Aid set out (as it does every year) to prove the importance of everything-earthbound and organic; focusing on every issue under the radiant sun; from the benefits of hemp products to the urban food deserts that plague public school systems all over the country. It was eye-opening to say the least, and has had a lasting effect on the way we view the issues in American society.
As irony would dictate; this was a momentous year at Farm Aid for Neil Young as well. It was at this very festival that he laid the foundation to work in lock-step with Lukas Nelson (Willie's electric-guitar-wielding offspring) in creating an album that would champion these same causes. Their work together would culminate in an album entitled "The Monsanto Years", released in June 2015, that would spread the gospel concerning the dangers of the corporate stranglehold on America's agriculture, amongst other earth-conscious themes.
The account that follows walks the reader through the day's events; straight from the Raleigh-Durham airport. 5 years ago this very morning; never-before published via public blog post. Hope you dig it...
As many of you have already heard, earlier in the year I found myself eager to find out as much as I could about Neil Young’s latest endeavor in high-resolution audio with his company called Pono. Long story short; Pono launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise a target goal of $800,000 to start production of these new-age music players. Because there was not a lot of circulating information about the company, and because I was very green in the audiophile community; I started a website called www.ponopeople.org. A forum-based design, the website encouraged more knowledgeable audiophiles to share their knowledge with people like me, who knew nothing about Pono or high-end audio equipment. Pono quickly took notice of this as a grassroots movement that supported their product, giving them inspiration to start their own Pono community and thus, our roller-coaster ride had begun. By mid-April, the Kickstarter campaign closed with a whopping $6.2 million in funding for Pono to get off the ground, and I was asked by the Pono team in San Francisco, working for Neil, to help consult and contribute to the design and management of their new social website design that will play hand-in-hand with the PonoMusic store at ponomusic.force.com.
You can read the detailed transcript of this experience on my blog, as I had announced my affiliation with the upstart company right before the official ‘Pono Community’ site launched in August, and my own PonoPeople site became defunct.
Fast forward to the weekend of September 12-14; when Abby and I would be privy to a host of experiences that we had never dreamed possible when this all began. We had been set up to meet Neil Young himself, at the annual Farm Aid benefit concert, which was to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina. What follows is the story of that day, and an account of the wonderful memories that we will forever cherish, all thanks to a website that took me 30 minutes to set up.
We flew into Raleigh-Durham Airport on Friday night, September 12th and jumped in a cab heading for the local Red Roof we had reserved a room in, just a few miles from the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre. At this point in this whole process, there were still no finalized plans for the next day, and I was becoming quite nervous. Neil’s ‘people’ had yet to contact me via email, phone, or any means of communication. The VP of Technology at Pono in San Francisco (who myself and my team of moderators report directly to) had not been successful in getting Neil’s management team to extend me an official invitation. His email Friday night said simply, “I hope it works out for you Kyle.” Only a plane ride and taxi cab ride in… and it was beginning to present itself as a wasted trip.
Elliot Roberts, Neil’s manager of 40+ years (recently deceased, 21 June 2019), had approved the meeting long ago, it was just a matter of making sure our meeting Neil was still something that they all wanted to remember and honor. The next morning I had to resort to one final option; one last play that I had stashed in my back pocket. Armed with Elliot’s personal cell phone number, I had to bury any last strain of nerves and call the man at 10:30am. I knew that Neil, Elliot and company had all at least HEARD of me, and the efforts I had been making to further Pono’s success, but I didn’t know how much those efforts meant to the team.
Let’s see if he even answers an unknown phone number from an area code that designates an overly conservative part of the country.
Lo and behold… after 5 or 6 rings on my end… he answered.
He sounded very eager to meet Abby and I and “was glad to hear my voice'”, telling us to simply “come backstage and look for me when you get here, no time table on the day.” The gates opened at noon, festival ran all day, and featured acts like Gary Clark Jr, Jack White, Dave Matthews, John Mellancamp, Neil Young, and Willie Nelson. But more importantly, it was all going to benefit local farmers in the area; which is what the overarching theme for every vendor, artist’s setlist, and general money-making venture set out to achieve.
Elliot handed the phone over to Eric Johnson, son of long-time best-friend to Neil, Larry Johnson, who’s soul had left its human form in recent years. Eric was just as much a part of Neil’s team as anyone, and sought out to complete any and all unresolved accomplishments with Neil that were left behind by his father. Eric quickly confirmed the spelling of our names and offered his own welcoming note before hanging up the phone and contacting the box office to inform them that we were to receive all-access passes from Neil Young.
Suddenly… there was a set plan; a sense of comfort in knowing that we were, in fact, expected to meet with Neil at some point throughout the day.
We went to eat lunch, which happened to be at the North Carolina State Farmers Market. This was a complete coincidence, as it housed the closest eating establishment within a cheap cab ride from our hotel. Some things just work out, a foreshadowing of the day’s events to be sure.
We ate a locally sourced, country breakfast, walked through the pumpkin and tomato stands in the market, and headed to the venue around 2:00… We walk across the gravel parking lot and up to the box office: gave them my name... If I’m being honest, there was still a glimmer of doubt in my mind, but the ticket broker pulls out an envelope, and reaches inside to reveal 2 'Artist Guest' passes.
It’s finally official, and yet all too surreal.
We mosey the grounds, find some informative tents set up to display the initiative that Farm Aid supports, dodge a rain shower and each have a tall, local nut brown beer.
Soon enough it was off to test the passes... as it turns out, they could get you just about anywhere you wanted... And I do mean anywhere, so long as you look the part of somebody that ‘belongs’ while still having a badge hang around your neck.
Given a bird's eye view of the amphitheater, with the stage oriented at the bottom, we entered the backstage area from the right side of the stage. A winding route of equipment boxes and rolling crates from the numerous acts of the day. We immediately emerge into the rear dock behind the stage, where road crews were abuzz. Looking left we find the parking area covered in a sea of tour buses, 3 of which were closest to the stage and in a U-shaped pattern backed up to the dock that creates an atrium, of sorts, in between, shut off to most passers-by. The furthest bus the left of us in the U-shaped pattern was the classic Silver Eagle with custom 'LINCVOLT' tags and a Florida license plate that read 'Zuma'... Obviously I had found where I needed to be, as this was quite clearly Neil Young’s personal palace on wheels.
We entered the ‘atrium’ in between the buses, something which we would later discover was frowned upon (but only due to the fact that the authorities in the area didn’t realize we were guests of Neil). The activity surrounding the entire back lot was vast, so I called Elliot once more to let him know that “We have arrived and we're standing outside of Neil's bus.” I told him this just for frame of reference in location, and had no intentions of loitering or disrupting, and explained so accordingly.
“Ok, stay there and I'll be there in 10 minutes. Neil's napping right now.”
Fair enough. We wait... Wait some more...
“Hey look, there's Gary Clark Jr,” I motion to Abby. He was standing about 20 yards away. I could see him through the gap between the other two buses in U-formation. We make our way through the 3-to-4 ft gap and into the open area of the back lot that was bordered by repetitive ‘Prevost’ badging and the giant people-movers that each represented. We slowly make our way over to get a picture with Gary Clark Jr, another young Texan, by way of Austin, that is making waves in the blues-rock scene. This was to be good practice to calm any nerves that might’ve still been present, but we felt mostly comfortable with the whole situation already, as at least I had coached myself to keep my nervous-system in check throughout the day.
We briefly exchanged words with Gary, met his manager, and snapped a picture with him before we let him escape to be with his parents and supermodel girlfriend that were standing by his bus, waiting for him to take the stage in the next 45 minutes.
We return to the ‘atrium’ by Neil’s bus, still no sign of Elliot. So we climb the ramp to the loading dock and walk into the stage's edifice to get the lay of the land. Boom lights, road crew scattered, stage director sitting in a corner with a giant digital clock and a laptop. Straight ahead of us we look to find Neil peering around the curtains behind what seemed to be an 80” HD monitor that was displaying the TV feed of the festival, stage right, with Ben Young (Neil’s youngest son, who has cerebral palsy) and his crew, watching and getting really into the current act that was performing; Lukas Nelson (Willie's son) and his band.
I stopped in my tracks, Abby had no idea. 'There he is, there's Neil, watching the set.'
The song ends, I didn't want to jump the gun and make any kind of move. We watched as Neil passed right by us and returns to his bus alone while Ben stayed waiting for the next act, along with many other badge-bearing type.
Suddenly there was much movement, the stage crew had to change out the set for the next act (I really don't know how they do it at these big festivals... 15 minutes to breakdown/setup. Amazing.).
We wander back to the bus-born atrium, where we find a man named LP, a driver of one the buses (who seemed seasoned and with more say in things than a driver typically would). He asks if he can help us find someone, doing his job, clearing the area of people that shouldn’t be there. I tell him that we're waiting to meet with Elliot Roberts, his response:
“Oh, Elliot. Sure. Well, that's his big gold bus right over there,” pointing to a bus outside of the U, where we had just met Gary Clark Jr. “If I see him I'll flag'm down and tell'm you're here, what was your name?” Very polite and helpful.
At that time Eric Johnson approaches Neil's bus and sets up two fold-out chairs by the door, taking a seat in one and burying his head into his phone with rapid thumb movement. As LP ran along to higher matters of urgency, I extended my hand to Eric and said “Mr. Eric Johnson? My name is Kyle French,” recognizing him from a promotional poster-signing video on Pono’s main website.
“Oh yeah! Good to meet you, how are you two enjoying things so far? Are you finding things ok?” A literal question. He told us to just take things in, enjoy the access, and feel free to hang out backstage all night, pointing us in the direction of a few necessary locales; restrooms, pallets of packaged water bottles, etc.
“Thank you very much, glad to meet you, we don't want to distract from things or be in the way out of respect for Neil, but we'll be around,” still keeping with the hierarchical process and waiting for Elliot.
We muddled around the lot for a bit, constantly on the look-out for any celebrities that needed to be seen… Soon enough I had spotted Tim Reynolds. Tim is a guitar player that Abby and I had met in Dallas at the Granada Theater when we first started dating almost 6 years ago, playing a little gig with his band. Tim is most known for his relationship with Dave Matthews, as his best friend and cohort at acoustic shows. Dave and Tim have been playing acoustic gigs together for almost 20 years.
Lo and behold, we spot Dave Matthews. Yes, the very guy whose songs I’ve grown up listening to as a soundtrack to over half of my life now. This was when I was the most nervous. He was walking to his bus, which I had discovered earlier, was the base of the ‘U’ in the three-bus formation that included Neil’s. He had a few bags slung over each shoulder, and had likely just arrived at the venue. I didn’t want to bother.
“Hi Dave.” I said, trying to act like Abby and I belonged where we were in fact standing, a few feet from his bus. He responded in kind and struck up a conversation as he approached his bus. We followed, from a distance, and hadn’t yet realized that he had stopped in front of his bus. We rounded the corner and got in a brief traffic jam with him.
“Ope.. Sorry, Excuse us,” I said… to Dave Matthews, passing by him and ducking under his buses passenger side mirror.
He chuckled and said “No problem.” Abby was behind me, and was moving to pass him as well, when he grabbed her arm lightly and told her to “Watch out, watch your head.”
I think Abby was more smitten than I was at that point. That was all we had dealt with Dave, for the moment.
Off we went, back to stage-right to take in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from 20-ft away. We were standing where Neil was when watching the previous act, open roll-away boxes chock-full of guitars standing secure in their housings. Guitar technician setups, tele-prompters, things I wasn’t sure of but looked important due to the amount of chords and blinking green lights they possessed.
Soon enough LP worked his way through a goodly crowd of people who's access passes had somehow given them privileges similar to our own (Farmers, FarmAid staffers, and regular pass acquisitions of who knows how). LP grabs my eye and points at me, signaling to come with him.
Elliot must be about.
He led us to the atrium, “I've found Elliot.”
Sure enough, back down the ramp, off the dock, and into the thick of things we went. We met Elliot in front of the door to Neil's bus, which featured a simple brown doormat with a broken arrow. Ours was a similar introduction to that of Eric’s. Again, very nice and eager to hear from us. He actually apologized for falling asleep on his bus earlier and not getting out to meet us when he said he would... Character.
“Well, as soon as Jack White comes outta there we'll get ya in there. He [Neil] knows you're coming.”
We began talking, it was easy and as natural a conversation as you could have. Generic at first - “Glad to be here,” “thank you for having us,” “this is a great day for music and a cause…” - those kinds of things. Time to roll-on with Pono.
A brief pause in the story now, to give you some background and tell you about my intentions when meeting Neil, as they were all premeditated and well-thought out. Myself and my team of moderators had discussed various points of discussion for about a week leading up to this moment. This was to be treated as a de facto business meeting, and I was to represent our stance as a whole. Eventually we would agree that our sentiment for a need in marketing headphones would be our lead topic, assuming it fit naturally into the conversation with Neil… we didn’t want to force things.
Our reasoning for this is simple. Neil’s vision and original promise for Pono stems from the actual meaning of the Hawaiian word, which most closely translates to ‘righteous’ in the English language. The overall picture shows delivery of a product that will change the way a listener hears music, allowing for consumers to reconnect to the emotional aspect of the art form. Rediscovering music’s soul, and thus rediscovering your own soul through the music.
In order to fulfill that promise, the delivery of music from the actual player itself, to the listener’s ears, would be required. Pono’s initial business model surround a music ‘ecosystem,’ as Neil calls it. Think of iTunes to understand this better. An online store, a desktop program to help organize your music, and a device that plays music. It did NOT include, however… that last step… getting the music to the consumers’ ears. This is what we wanted to point out to Neil, in order to help him achieve his goals with Pono.
Therefore, the 4 of us came together and made a few pairs of ‘Pono’ branded headphone prototypes, to present to Neil during my meeting. This was mostly an attempt to give Neil the image of a consumer listening to a player through headphones that matched his product. We presented two pairs of headphones, one of which was made by making Pono decals and applying them to a solid black pair of aviator style over-ear headhphones. The other pair, however, was made by a company in Europe called ACS. They had made a pair of 3D-printed IEMs (in-ear monitors… or earbuds) with the Pono logo on them and had shipped them to me for free in order to present them to Neil. Ok… back to the story.
Still talking with Elliot outside of Neil’s bus, I pulled out the ACS buds as we discussed listening options. He was intrigued and outwardly impressed with the initiative behind it all. He thanked me for our efforts with the community and said they were very well-received and noticed on his and Neil's part, you could tell it was genuine.
The door opened and barreling out of the chute is Jack White, off he went with a few members of his team that were standing a few feet from the three of us. Elliot then climbed the steps of the bus, talked with Neil, and came back to fetch us.
“Come on up,” he stepped out onto the broken arrow welcome mat. We filed into the bus, Abby first, then myself and Elliot. Just the four of us on Neil's bus... And oh my, the woodwork, the woodwork, oh and did I mention the custom woodwork? I had to wrap my mind around the reality of the situation and come back down to earth, and quickly. Surprisingly, it was easy to overcome, as I felt like I had known these men for years.
Neil sat at his table, eating a super-salad. We shook hands and I apologized cordially for having interrupted his early dinner, but it was no problem at all, of course. Elliot sat across from him in the booth-style RV dining table. Abby and I sat across the aisle on the couch that ran length-wise along the driver side. I sat adjacent to Elliot, Abby to Neil. Next to Abby, laying on the couch, was Neil's mouthpiece, harmonica already in place. I halfway expected Neil to pick it up and start giving us a lesson, but what he gave us was much better.
As we sat I noticed a black PonoPlayer resting on the table next to Neil, and I took it as an opportunity to open the conversation.
“Well I tell ya, it's good to see a black PonoPlayer in person, how about we put the two together?” I pulled out my yellow beta testing unit (of which this is 1 of only 10 that is in the hands of people outside of San Francisco’s main office, another perk…) out of my backpack, that sat at my feet.
“How 'bout that?” remarked Neil. Off we go into a discussion about Pono, as organic a conversation could be. It was like I was talking to an old friend, but it was the same Neil that was in all of the Pono testimonial videos with other artists on the website.
Soon Elliot would tell Neil all about our initiative in making prototype Pono headphones. I presented our stance supporting the assertion that Pono-branded headphones, or something of the like, were necessary to complete the promise that Neil had made to music-lovers in the early stages of Pono's development. The ‘ecosystem’ was all there, but the final step would require a vehicle to get the music from the player to the listener's ears, and the need for such an inclusion in the business model has been (to our knowledge) overlooked for some time now.
As I offered our stance, Neil's eyes alternated between meeting mine and inspecting the ACS earbuds that Andy Shiach had made over in England, his fingers constantly working over the intricacies; inspecting the copper and silver wiring, running his index finger over the ear-plug portion. He lodged them in his ears to see how they felt, took them out, nothing further.
After my bit on headphones, Elliot took the opportunity to inform us that they had, in fact, been preparing to make a deal with an earphone company in order to get earbuds made specifically for Pono. The chording would be colored yellow (left ear) and black (right ear), with Pono labeling throughout the kit. Neil took Elliot’s cue and continued on generic headphone talk, and how certain companies are making headphones specifically to make mp3s sound better (see Beats Audio) by adding more bass and volume (i.e. the wrong idea).
My response mentioned 'Loudness Wars' (< google that) and the wrong direction that is making the music industry suffer. Both Neil and Elliot were in agreement. We would all contribute little pieces to the idea that technology has been beneficial to every industry you could think of, save for music.
Neil then admitted that he was not a fan of listening to the Pono through headphones on an individual level. He preferred sharing the new music experience that Pono provides through home audio systems or speakers. After saying this, Neil rose to his feet, picked up the black PonoPlayer, and plugged it in to the Bose surround system that he had in his tour bus, with speakers tucked into corners throughout, hiding in between the custom wood trim. A demonstration from the man himself, just like in all the videos, in person, sharing the Pono experience with my wife and Neil Young. WAS THIS REALLY HAPPENING? Abby and I were directed to stand by the kitchen sink as Neil commented that "if you stand somewhere back there [pointing] you get a better understanding of it," so we were quick to oblige.
As Neil sat to make progress on his salad, we stood behind him at his seat as the London Symphony Orchestra came over the speakers, leading into There's A World. It was easy to get lost in this music, especially when looking up to see the back of Neil's head and the big smile on Elliot's face as he watched us listen. I'd look at Abby and nudge her a few times just to make sure we weren't dreaming.
The song ended, Neil retrieved his player, and we returned to our seats. I steered the conversation of sound quality in the direction of Neil's legacy. I told him that I was reading his book (Waging Heavy Peace). Knowing that he held Ben 'Long Grain' Keith (his slide-guitar player on Harvest, among other things) and Bruce Palmer (fellow Canadian and bassist for Buffalo Springfield) in such high regard, I commented that it wasn't only his legacy that he was preserving with this project, but also those of people like Ben and Bruce. Neil doesn't show too much emotion, but I did see his eyes open a little wider and his head raise a little higher, to see that he appreciated the comment.
Abby was involved in the dialogue as well, I think it was at this point that she shared the story of her first experience listening to Pono.
"I'm a big Stevie Nicks fan. Kyle made me compare Fleetwood Mac's Dreams by listening to it on the iPod first, and then the Pono. The difference was night and day..." she'd go on to describe her sentiments towards Neil's vision.
"I call the iPod the wallpaper player, after the comment you made in the video with Eric [Johnson] signing posters for the backers," I said, gesturing to Neil.
He gave a hint of a smirk and exclaimed "Its true. With mp3s and with what Apple has done to our music, everything is just so flat. With this [Pono] you get all of the highs and the lows, the peaks and the valleys..." he went on using hand-motions as he stated his case for Pono.
From here Neil brought up the idea behind Pono and hi-resolution, and the tricky nature of the beast that lies in wait. As we've already seen in the community, CD-quality (44.1k/16-bit) audio is hard to justify. Neil described the idea that hi-resolution comes at different levels, and 44.1k/16-bit is still considered hi-resolution in Pono's mind, but is the lowest-end of the spectrum that they are prepared to offer. He said that recording CDs still requires compression to get music onto a physical disc, so even the CD masters that they are getting from labels and artists (to populate the PonoMusic store, which launches in October) will have better sound quality than even the CDs themselves.
Elliot took this time to explain the situation with the 'big 3' labels, as his responsibility, of course, is content acquisition and artist relations. He remarked that Sony and Universal don't have as many hi-resolution masters as Warner does, and that success, not only with Pono but with the overall effort to save the music industry, be dependent on the level of awareness among artists’ recording practices.
At this point I brought up Dave Matthews Band as an example of that. I explained that I am expecting a Dave Matthews Band Artists Signature Series LE player (thanks mom and dad), and that the content on it would only be at ‘CD quality’. I didn't bring it up as a gripe, but as an example of certain bands being a casualty of a time period when the only thing that was deemed necessary was recording digitally for CD, nothing higher or in analog form. I noted that, of their entire catalog of studio albums and live releases, the Dave Matthews Band only offered one single release that was at a bitrate higher than CD quality; a live release that was recorded in 96k/24-bit in 2013.
Elliot and Neil understood what I was getting at, and Neil made mention of the fact that the Dave Matthews Band is an act that is “coming back to it.” Meaning that many acts have been ill-informed for many years from their producers and record labels, and are circling the wagons to start bringing high-resolution material to the studio. Neil also made us aware that most of the high-resolution tracks that will be available on the PonoMusic store initially are from older acts, which makes sense, as they were recording for analog vinyl records over digital compact discs or, in more recent cases, digital mp3 downloads (even LESSER quality than that of a CD. Real quick, did you know that an mp3 only contains 5% of the musical information that is put on analog tape in a recording studio? Pretty bad huh? I digress.)
The conversation gave way to my diatribe expressing the passion that the four of us hold for Pono, and more so the idea of being 'pono' with our thought processes and livelihood. ‘Being pono’ applies to all aspects of one’s life. I explained that, even though our role in this is moderating Pono’s community, we communicate daily on all matters that need to be raised in order to see Pono through to success. I mentioned that, at no disrespect to the work that the Pono staff is doing in San Francisco, some of our communication breakdowns can be attributed to the idea that their job requires them to look only at October 2014 (making sure they don’t drop the ball on the initial launch of the product), and not the overall big picture that Neil sees. Taking it further, I made it clear that we four tend to look at things as they affect Neil's overall vision, and not just a product.
Both Neil and Elliot were appreciative of this, and thanked me as a representation of my team of moderators as a whole. However, Neil went on to say that the San Francisco office IS and should be focused on the product's delivery, where it was Elliot and himself that kept the 'big picture' in perspective. Neil said that it is imperative that Pedram, Phil, and the rest of the team in San Francisco “get it right in October”... which we have been concerned about in recent weeks. I felt it comforting to know that the four of us are not the only people thinking about this, and perhaps we underestimated Neil's prowess for seeing things through and understanding this necessary aspect of the product development process before its official launch.
I didn't push any further than this, as I felt that the root of the issues we had seen was put on the table and addressed accordingly. No further detail about burn-in, balanced output and communication breakdowns was necessary in my mind. What it DID do, I believe, was allow for Elliot and Neil to realize that they are not out-manned in the ability to look at things through Neil's original vision, which is to deliver a music experience to reconnect with one's soul; an overall overhaul of a suffering industry at large, and an honest look at the literal state of the art that he has dedicated his life to.
"Well... I think its about time I take you two to get some dinner," Elliot said. Our cue to end our precious 20 minutes with Neil.
"These ACS earbuds; are these something Neil can keep." Of course I obliged, on behalf of Ian and his efforts with Andy Shiach at ACS. I offered Neil the earphones as a compromise of sorts, not that Neil owed me a damn thing.
Picking up my yellow beta tester from the table to leave, I said "I know this is a beta test player, but would you mind signing it for me?"
"That's no problem at all." Neil signed it and we stood to our feet to leave, making one last request of getting a snapshot with the man, which was done so in great spirits with Elliot behind the lens of my iPhone.
Getting off the bus, Elliot escorted us through the back lot and the stage area, showing us the sites and telling us where we could feast on a catered buffet.
"You guys are friends, make yourself at home and come find me if you have any issues."
Off we went to enjoy the rest of the evening I certainly had no idea what kind of a ride there would be in store for Abby and I when I started some little hopeful website many moons ago.
We watched Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds perform as we looked on from behind them, out into the crowd of 20,000 screaming fans sitting on a lawn at dusk. After they performed, it was time to hear John Mellencamp, whom Dave was to introduce to the crowd after performing his own set.
This was our one last request from Elliot, and I have to say, my wife is so good to me. Knowing my long tenure as a diehard fan, Abby approached Elliot, unbeknownst to myself, earlier in the day to request that we be introduced to Dave Matthews and possibly get a picture made with man.
Of course, being deemed “friends of Neil’s” earlier in the day, Elliot accepted the request with no problem at all, very humbling to see. Now was the time for Elliot to make good on this promise. We stood back by the massive HD monitor on the side of the stage, the one we had witnessed Neil standing behind hours before. A bright stage light was on, so Mellencamp could make his way to stage without wiping out on a boom-rig. The light remained illuminated when Dave walked off stage, and there we were, waiting for him. Elliot introduced us, we all shook hands.
Abby, myself, and Dave Matthews. We huddled together for a picture. Knowing Dave was a swooning kind of guy, he set up to take the picture with Abby in between he and I, bending down and nuzzling up to her with a goofy grin that he wears most of the time. He’s just a happy guy, and intense… he looks you right in the eye.
Elliot snapped a few pictures, and we again turned to thank Dave with a hand shake. He had released his clasp of my hand slightly, when Abby said into his ear “HE’s the one that’s the big fan, he’s been listening to you for years.” She’s so good to me.
Hearing this, Dave turned to me again, tightening again his grip on my hand, and pulling me a little closer in an effort to be heard over the roar of the crowd. He brought his free hand up cover our grip, making the words that followed all the more sincere.
“Thank you,” he said. He meant it. He always does, when talking to his fans. With that he turned to exit the staging area and return to his bus.
I had never, in my wildest dreams, believed that I would be sharing an experience like this, with the woman that I love, granted us by a small idea that expressed the larger vision of one of the most important songwriting rock stars of all-time. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Pono, not because I want to experience the rock’n’roll lifestyle, but because I want to be able to say that I’ve done my part in helping save the music that I hold so dear, and consequently, have a hand in the good deeds that are inspired by the ethos Pono represents. The ride continues…
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