On this date in 1999, my husband experienced the real extent of my Rick Springfield obsession. After seeing Rick at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, four or five years in a row in the 1980’s, I still remember calling home from senior week and my mom telling me that the concert scheduled for the summer of 1988 had been cancelled. In a time before the internet there wasn’t the 24/7 celebrity gossip that there is today and I had no idea why he cancelled–and stopped recording new music.

In April 1999 he released “Karma” and in June he performed at Hersheypark–not in the stadium, in the amphitheater inside the park. We arrived around noon to find people already lined up for the 5 PM show so I sat down on the asphalt with the rest of the groupies, baking in the sun and listening to sound check while the Great Bear roller coaster zipped by overhead. (Wait! Is that the intro to “Souls?” Yes!)

And then the show started–and I burst into tears the minute Rick appeared on stage during the intro to “Affair of the Heart.” Before that moment, I never understood why all those girls got hysterical at the sight of the Beatles. Steve asked me several times if I was OK then he took the camera from my hands and started taking photos because I couldn’t cry, sing, and take photos at the same time.

There were two shows that day and Steve insisted we stay. There were no tears during that concert and I joined a small group of ladies near the stage. It was the first time a bouncer shooed me away and the only time one succeeded.

“We all need the human touch…”

Fast forward 14 years and 364 days–

Two cruises and more shows than I can count later–last night I went to the sound check at Rams’ Head Center Stage. The first of three shows (so far) I’ll be going to this year.

My father said, “If the boy wants to play guitar, I say we let him.”