Sep

2009

Fan Story: Brad Paisley’s “American Saturday Night” Tour

Gracie recently took in Brad Paisley’s “American Saturday Night” tour and sent along her review and some pics from the show. Enjoy…

I went to Brad Paisley’s show in Camden, NJ with my parents and sister. First, my mom and I both got the backstage tour and it was awesome! We got to see so much stuff and meet some of the video people and everything. One of my favorite moments was when we were backstage and I saw a flash of blue and yellow and I looked and to see Doug Paisley, Brad’s dad, walking around in his West Virginia gear! My jaw dropped and I just stared and pointed…he smiled and laughed at me! The backstage tour was so cool, though!!! We got to see everything from the buses and trucks to the guitars and we even got to walk on the stage!

We got to our seats and they were the row on the end of the catwalk so I was right there all night. We had great people around us, so that made the experience really great!

Jimmy Wayne came on and did a great show. I touched his hand a couple times which was exciting!! My sister wasn’t too familiar with him before the show but now she loves him- so he was obviously pretty good! His voice is MUCH better than I expected it to be live! It was great!

Dierks Bentley came on and my mom freaked out. She loves him! He spent a lot of time at the end of the catwalk kneeling down and once he sat down and hung his feet over the stage right in front of me! He sang part of a song to Jackie, the nice girl sitting next to me. Her boyfriend got really good pictures, thank goodness! During “Free and Easy” Dierks came up to me and sang a line to me and put the mic in front of me to sing but I was in too much shock and the girl next to me jumped in- oops!! He’s a really good entertainer! I’ve never seen someone run so much around a stage in my life!

BRAD came on and it was incredible!!!!!! He started off the set right in front of me and I had a little sign about the size of half a notebook that had “PICK?” written on one of the sides. This might sound odd but on the sign I glued one of the picks I play with and decided to sign it for good luck.. I don’t know why I just had feeling it would be and it was!! He looked at the sign for a while, smiled, and threw me a pick!! It rolled away into another girl’s arms but she gave it to me – really nice of her! Brad spent so much time in front of me it was almost like I had front row seats! The coolest part was that when he would tap his foot, I could FEEL it and I could hear the actual sound from the guitar before it reached the amps/mics. It was so cool! On the back of that little sign I had another one that said “BRAD: Am I too old to get your hat?” and in the bottom I put “GRACIE515 (Twitter).” Him and I had tweets back and forth about him looking for me at the Camden concert. He said that he would look for my lampshade in the crowd! He also said if I painted my clothes, he’d be able to spot me even better! I decided to write “Gracie515″ as many places as I could! When I painted my shirt I put it on the collar, and when the show started I wrote it on my hand. Anyway, that comes later.

I had my lampshade ready for “Alcohol,” and when he came out for the encore, it was great! At first I was kind of nervous because he stayed on the main stage and didn’t come down the aisl,e but then during the solo he and Dierks both did! Brad played his guitar with the mic and everything right in front of me! I noticed when he was coming down to the end of the catwalk that he was running right to me and all of the sudden I felt the lampshade being lifted out of my hands, and next thing I knew, he was WEARING it!!! My dad got some great pictures! It was incredible! While he was wearing the lampshade I held up the “Hat” sign and he read it and smiled and laughed. I wasn’t really sure what that meant… haha. He gave me back my lampshade and I was officially in heaven!

He came back to sign autographs and when he made it to my part of the stage, I wanted him to sign the sign, thinking nothing of it. He usually doesn’t come that far down to sign stuff so I should have realized what was happening then. When he was signing he looked at me and said, “Just a second” (or something along those lines) and smiled!!! He signed about two more autographs and came back to me and lifted his hat off his head and put it on mine!!!!!!!!!!!! I’M STILL SHAKING! AND THE HAT IS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO ME AS I WRITE THIS! Holy moly! I’ve imagined that moment for 4 years and literally ever wish I’ve made during that time has been to get this hat. Actually, that was my wish for a while until I figured there was no hope. So this summer I spent it wishing for something else… along the same lines.. and just last week I made one wish- to get his hat. It kinda just came out of me.. I didn’t really think about it. I guess it worked!!!!! After the show ended Doug Paisley, his dad, came over and told us to go to the backstage door and that he was gonna take the hat and get it signed for us. He came back about 2 minutes later, found me and gave it to me with a signature right in the back above the paint! it’s perfect! I got a picture with him, too!

On the way home I still couldn’t believe I got it. I got back and hung it on the post of my bed with his signature facing towards me and all night I kept waking up to make sure it was still there…and that it wasn’t a dream! I am still looking for a picture of him putting in on me… I would love to see how it happened! This was my 9th concert of his and it was perfect!

This was the best night I could have possibly imagined! Nothing went wrong and literally everything I wished for to happen, did. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BRAD! I’ve never been disappointed by one of his shows! EVER! This one will always be the most special! I can’t think of anything else to ask for (well, I’d love to meet him someday!) but this will hold me over for a LONG time!!!!

Thanks for sharing your story with us Gracie… you certainly had an amazing evening at the “American Saturday Night” tour and we’re excited for you!