Mom parties with rockstars?!?!

Summer 2006 in Traverse City, Michigan; it was July and the National Cherry Festival was in full swing. For those that are unsure exactly what that means I will explain further....

Traverse City is the Cherry capital of the world, it produces more cherries then any other location, this may not seem like a big deal but when it comes to festival time, it truly is a BIG DEAL. The festival began years ago to celebrate the harvest and it was a local event filled with everything cherry, a carnival and later as I grew up traffic that would back up for miles along the shoreline roads that led to the downtown location of the festivities. There was even a tongue in cheek song written by a local radio personality Steve Cook, titled "Grandview Parkway Potatoes" that poked fun at sitting in bumper to bumper traffic during those days. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate the song to share it as the personality has not left it open to the public any longer.

The festival has grown exponentially over the years to include concerts for free in an area on the shore of West Grand Traverse Bay that is simply called "Open Space". This music stage over the years has hosted some very well known and some not so well known acts. I personally have seen "1964 The Tribute" almost every time they come and this was one such summer that they were on the list of talent for the stage. However, this blog isn't about just any talent, its about a local man that I grew up with, went to school with and who has more talent in his fingers then most could ever have in their entire bodies! I am referring to Kenny Olson. 

The above picture is Kenny with my then 7 year old daughter and a little bit of my dear husband. She LOVES Kid Rock and Kenny's guitar playing on Kids albums. The picture was taken the night before Kenny was to take the stage with his new band "The Flask". He gave her a guitar pick and told us to come back the next night early for a special surprise and special seating. She was bouncing all the way home, she was so excited she almost cried and couldn't quit hugging me for introducing her to Kenny.

Here I am with Kenny and my best friend Lauri at the concert the following evening. He was messing around and hanging out with all of us being the super great guy that he is and posing for MANY pictures with all my children and friends. He promised that no matter what we would have the time of our lives, but still wouldn't let on what the secret surprise was. So we found our special spot and waited for the concert to begin. It started pouring rain so we all went and huddled under a very small canopy and waited for the storm to pass.

This man found his way to us and waited with us, joking, laughing and talking....

He eventually asked if we were the ones he was sitting with in the "reserved" section and of course we said yes. He looked so familiar but we just couldn't place him. It really didn't matter though, any friend of Kenny's was a welcome addition to our little party.

The storm passed and "The Flask" took to the stage, even though the air was still heavy with the passing storm. We were right up front and could see everything perfectly. When some of the little kids were threatened to be shoved away from their position the above man stood right behind them, put his hands on the fence and told the violators to go back to where they came from and that it was a private section reserved for us. He was so gracious in protecting my kids, he was so personable, sweet and kind. Yet we still had no clue who the guy was!


As the concert ended we finally asked this nice man who he was because he looked so familiar but we just couldn't place where we knew him from. He smiled a funny smile and said "you recognize me?" of course we said "yes, but don't know from where." He looked around to see if any of the other concert goers where still in earshot and they weren't, so he leaned in and said "you know me from my music, I am Brett Michels." His response to our stunned expressions were to hug each of us girls and the kids, shook hands with the men and then asked "Would you hold off telling anyone until I can get out of here?" We didn't tell anyone, but did mention to Kenny at the after party how much we enjoyed our company during the concert, he just smiled at me and said "I knew you would, I remember how much you loved their music in school!"

The ride home with the kids was nearly intolerable. The wouldn't stop talking about how cool their mom was and demanding to know how many other famous people I knew that I hadn't told them about. I would just smile and say, it doesn't matter what famous people I have met over the years, they are just people as you learned tonight.

Since this time Kenny has moved his family out of the area once again to start yet another band and is now in Nashville, Tennessee creating and playing his music every chance he gets. This humble man is destined to be one of the most memorable guitar players ranking up there with Jimmi Hendrix in my opinion, but then again maybe I'm biased since I party with rock stars!