Every year there is a small fair near where I used to live, and I found out a few weeks ago that the Swon Brothers, who since their long stint on NBC's , "The Voice", have begun to really succeed in the country scene were going to be performing at it. The concert was on a Friday night which was pretty perfect as far as my schedule goes, so my girlfriend and I decided to head over to the show, and hoped to get an autograph or two.
When we got to the fair, the tour bus was fenced in next to the stage as usual, but there wasn't much action at all so we just decided to walk around for a while and come back closer to showtime. We went back to get a seat about 70-90 minutes before the show. While we were waiting, a sign was put up at the merchandise booth that said that the guys would be signing after their show. I had bought a CD, so I was happy to have this safety net, and it's always nice to have pretty much a guarantee that I will meet who I am trying for.
Maybe 30 minutes before showtime, I noticed a really nice SUV pulling up near the fence, and I could see that Colton Swon was in the front seat. I went over and positioned myself near where he would be walking over. He got out of the vehicle and I asked him to sign the CD. He went to grab my pen, and a cheap fair security guy told me to go away or something along those lines. Obviously I didn't think much of it because the artist was literally grabbing my CD and pen. The guy then got in front of him and tried to block me from handing off the CD. Colton looked at me and was just like, "Sorry man." I could tell he really wanted to sign it, probably because it kind of pays his salary when fans buy his music, but the guy was just being obnoxious. Eventually, and by that I mean within the next 10 seconds, he was able to finally sign the CD. After that, I saw his brother Zach getting out of the back of the SUV, and walking behind the merch table. Another security guy said, "You can't be here." Zach didn't care though, and grabbed my CD and signed it with no hesitation at all. The security guys all seemed so pissed, and nobody else had even been trying to get anything signed because it all happened so quickly.
Let's recap.
-I was literally in an open area at a SMALLLL local fair.
-Both guys wanted to sign my CD with no hesitation at all. I'm pretty confident Colton would have had a full conversation with me if he had the chance.
-Security guys who had no affiliation with the artists were trying to control their actions.
This is becoming a more and more frequent occurrence in the hobby, and it obviously isn't good for it. "Security guys" just need to learn their place and not go above what their job calls for. I see this happen at concerts, basketball games, you name it.
Yes, I realize that I could have just gotten my CD signed after the concert, but, "I waited until the show ended and waited in line." isn't the most exciting blog entry for you guys.
With that said, they were selling photos for $5, so I did wait after the show and have them sign that, but that's besides the point :) .
I had gotten the booklet signed by them before the show, and when I went up to the line after the show, my girlfriend got the actual CD done for me.
Notice how the CD cover that I got signed before the show has much nicer autographs than during their signing:
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