One of the events that our store regularly worked was Rockfest. Rockfest was the yearly summer concert event put on by the local rock radio station. This particular year, they actually put on TWO Rockfests. So this one was called Rockfest 7.5 or something like that. At this time, I actually not only was a clerk at the recordstore but I also basically WAS the art department. So my boss had asked me to make some nice signs for Rockfest for each of the artists playing so when they came over to do signings at our booth, we could have nice clear signs of who was up at any given time. I was given a list of artists and I got to work.
Most of the bands, I didn't know or didn't care much for. But I still put in a great deal of work on each sign. When I got to the Tommy Lee sign... I wasn't quite sure what to do. His album artwork didn't have much in the way of imagery. I mean, it was red and the cover was his face in a bunch of square pieces. Not really something I could recreate. However, the cd it self... It was designed to LOOK as if it was scratched to hell on the top of the disc. So I thought, what if I made a red scratched looking sign, with his name boldly printed on it? So that's what I did.
When Rockfest arrived, I was excited. I was set to essentially work a half day if I recall. That way I could enjoy the show, but still work the event for the store. The bands were all really actually receptive about the signs I made, particularly Papa Roach who took a photo with me and the sign I made. I wish I had gotten a copy, but I digress.
Now, as all of you should well know... I am a total nut for the Crue. Always have been. So meeting Tommy Lee, as you might imagine, had me totally spinning. Had no idea what to say, wasn't sure what I should bring to have him sign (would he get offended signing Crue stuff when he's obviously trying to do his own thing?), would I even be able to speak?
So Tommy Lee steps up to the table to sign autographs. I was to wait for the end of his line and jump in there for a photo. So while he was signing, I watched him interact with people. He was dating Mayte Garcia at the time, and I took a couple minutes to speak to her and took a photo of her and her little dog. The whole time I observed him, I was amazed at how accommodating he was to his fans. After at LEAST an hour of signing autographs, eventually someone from the store had to make an end of the line, which unfortunately cut off some disappointed folks. One person, ran around to the other side of the line and crowd. He shouted "Tommy! Tommy! They cut off the line right in front of me, man. Can you just sign this shirt???" Tommy, still signing for other people, yelled back "Yea man!" and put his hand up in the air. The fan threw the shirt over the line of people, Tommy caught it without barely looking at it, still signing autographs with his other hand. Signed the shirt, threw it back to the fan and kept signing for the folks in line the whole time. It was really sweet and fun to watch. Then I hopped into the end of the line as discretely as possible as to not upset anyone who didn't know what was going on.
When I got up to Tommy, my hand was SHAKING. I have usually been able to keep my cool around the musicians I've met, but this one... I couldn't help it. I placed his solo record before him and started to gush about what a fan I was. Tommy signed the cd, looked up and beamed at me. I asked for a photo, which he said "Of course!"
So I plopped down next to him on our little signing stage and took a photo with him, shaking and happy as could be. Now, I'm not sure exactly how he found out it was me that did the sign, but he mentioned that later in the day, he wanted a photo with me and the sign. I figured he was just being nice but said, "Yea, Ok." Then as he hopped down, Tommy was confronted by a child. Now, let me back up for a moment and explain this. The radio station hosting the event had a contest earlier that week. The winner of the contest was set to play a game of foos ball with Tommy Lee. Someone won and the game was to go down backstage at Rockfest. So, up walks this kid. No more than 12, if I had to guess. And he literally starts shit talking Tommy and saying that he could whoop Tommy's ass in foosball. The kid's friend starts going on about how Tommy wouldn't stand a chance. Tommy is grinning from ear to ear, looks at his handlers and says "Are you hearing this??? I'm being challenged!!" For half a second, I wondered if he was smiling cos he was really laughing at the thought of a child stepping to him. But then Tommy looked back at his handlers again and said "Get these kids a pass, I got a game to play!"
These kids... Their eyes lit up and got SO big. They couldn't believe their challenge was REALLY just accepted by Tommy Lee. It was such a cool thing to watch. Later, I was backstage (which, in a field... where the venue is... backstage is just more field on the other side of a fence...) taking photos with Static-X when Tommy came by and saw me. Reminded me about the photo with the sign and so I ran and grabbed it real fast and we took our other photo together. All in all, I was truly amazed at Tommy's humility and love for his fans. I've seen less popular, less successful musicians act like they are the cock of the walk, and Tommy, while he has more right to behave that way, DOESN'T. He's awesome and it just furthered my feelings about why I'm a Cruehead.
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