John Mellencamp 4/20/16

This is one of those really good successes for me that built up pretty quickly. I knew John Mellencamp would be having a show close by for a while, but did not know if I would be able to make it over. After work I decided that I wanted to go, so I went to the mall to find a record for him to sign, and luckily I got the last one in the store which happened to be a numbered anniversary edition, which was kind of cool.

I also decided to go to the show because I am a fan of his, and even though my time was running short, I decided to try to meet him on his way into the show. When I got to the venue I waited for a few minutes and I was halfway down the sidewalk when I saw his vehicle pulling up. The setup at this venue is one that you can't get right to the door, but you can get close enough for the acts to hear you. Regardless, he went in very quickly so I knew I would have to try my luck later on.

The show was pretty awesome, and I am definitely glad that I decided to go.

Afterwards, I saw him run out into a trailer which i think was acting as a dressing room, and maybe ten or twenty minutes later, someone from his tour came out to collect items from the 3 or 4 of us waiting.

A few minutes later, the guy came back out, and here was the result:

Rodney Atkins 9/7/15

As I said last week, fair season in New England is going strong, which annually leads to a least a few music 'graphing opportunities. This one was a little more planned than the Swon Brothers, since I had seen at least a month ago that Rodney Atkins would be performing at a fair I go to every year in Connecticut. I also saw a post weeks ago that if you join Rodney's fan club for a small fee, that you have a chance to win a meet and greet with him at your show. I knew nearly nobody else would see that post, so it was pretty much a guarantee, (at least I thought so), that I would be meeting him.

There was a long stretch where I hadn't heard anything, but then about 4-5 days before the show I got an e-mail stating that I was in! I love Rodney's music, and he and Jason Aldean literally got me into country music years ago, so I was pretty thrilled that I was going to be meeting him.

I had bought all 5 of his CD's on Amazon/at Wal-Mart for around $5 each which was a pretty good deal, so I was well-prepared for the event.

When fair day came, I went to the merch booth where I was told my pass would be waiting, I picked it up, and inside was the meet and greet pass, along with a note that said only one autograph and one picture was allowed per person. I was a little bummed, just because I had gone through the trouble of buying his entire collection, but I didn't think they would really enforce it because it was so low key. 

After the concert I went to the meeting spot, which was at the merch booth, and after a few minutes, I along with maybe 15-20 others were led to the area where the meet and greet would be taking place. After another 10 minutes or so, Rodney came out of his bus, and the event was underway.

I was probably 6-7 people back, and I noticed that Rodney was signing multiples for people, which was awesome.

When I got up to him, I handed him the CD booklets, and he asked who to make them out to.

I told him that he was one of the guys who really got me interested in the genre, and that his song, "It's America", played at a baseball stadium near me for like 5 years, and was the song that really got me hooked. He told me that he appreciated that. He was VERY nice. Not that I wasn't expecting him to be, but he was just awesome. He really cared about what people were telling him, and he was one of the most genuine celebrities I have ever met.

Rodney signed 5 CD's for me. Here they are in order of their release:

He was also kind enough to take a photo with me after signing all of those.

The Swon Brothers 8/28/15

Fair season is officially underway in New England, and while that means the year is beginning to wind down, a good part of my 'graphing season is just beginning.

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:

Chris Webby III 8/14/15

You may remember around this time a year ago, I met my favorite rapper Chris Webby at a music store in Connecticut while he was promoting his debut album. Now, a year later, Chris was back after 2 HUGE U.S. tours. The first was one in which he was the headliner, and the second was Tech N9ne's Special Effects Tour.

I had been wanting to see him again, because I had to miss his closest tour date on the Special Effects Tour after having gone to two stops on his previous tour.

This event was at a super small venue which was really cool. It had the feel of old Webby shows before he toured. For those who don't know Webby, he has been releasing mixtapes and a few EP's for years now. He has crashed Datpiff's servers multiple times, and his debut album got to the top of iTune's rap charts at one point. He's finally starting to get real national attention, and it's pretty awesome. Oh, and he's from Connecticut.

The show was really quick, and much faster than his tour shows were. Afterwards, I walked to where he was coming out, and he was already outside hanging out. I looked at his manager and he told me that he'd take care of me after he was done with his cigarette. Webby has always been one of the absolute nicest guys out there, so I was excited to meet him again. When he finished, I had him sign 3 of his mixtapes that I hadn't gotten signed yet and he talked about all of them to me which was really cool. He was actually really funny talking about them, because he said he absolutely hated one of them(Bars on Me), and then said, "You can't love all of your kids the same, right?" jokingly which was pretty hilarious. I also found this interesting because, "Bars on Me", is one of my favorite projects that he has released. He also commented on how much he loved, "There Goes the Neighborhood", and "Best in the Burbs", which he said went together really nicely back in the day.

It was really nice to see Webby again, and I can't wait until he comes back around!

Here are links to my other two blog entries about meeting Webby:
Chris Webby I
Chris Webby II

50 Cent Round II 7/26/15

After successfully meeting 50 Cent last month on the shortest of notices, he continued to tour the U.S. promoting EFFEN Vodka, and made his way back to Connecticut for the last weekend of July. This time I was prepared.

When I saw that he would be holding another signing that I could make it to, I ordered some new things to add to what was at my house all along(for the last signing I found out as I was leaving work, so I had no time to grab any items besides the one CD that was luckily in my car). Also, 50 has been in the news a lot, and is in the new movie, "South Paw", so I was able to find a few things in stores that I planned to get signed. All together, I ended up with 4 CD's, a 16x20, and a magazine to get signed. Luckily, my girlfriend wanted to meet him and was willing to help me get all of this signed which was pretty cool.

We arrived to the store about 1.5 hours before he was scheduled to be there, and there were roughly 30 people already lined up. I went to the last signing at the very tail end, so I can't really compare the two events, but I can say he is drawing A LOT of people at every event especially considering the advertising for them is terrible.

I should mention at this point that I found out about this signing because a co-worker told me that his girlfriend heard somewhere that 50 Cent was doing another signing in Connecticut. After 2 hours of research I finally found the location. If anyone from EFFEN ends up reading this, keep that in mind.

50 showed up about 5 minutes late which was fine, and the line didn't move for a while because he pre-signs the bottles, and you basically trade in your receipt for your respective bottles when you move up to the staging area. It was run very smoothly, and once the line started to go we made it through in no time.

I decided to buy a case because a number of my friends + family( all 21+ ) wanted some, and it allowed me more time with 50 Cent, and the ability to take a picture with my own phone.

My girlfriend went up first(she had a single bottle) and the workers were commenting on how organized the stuff to get signed was. We had a good laugh about that later because I am meticulous about setting up boards to get signed. I noticed that for a lot of items 50 was using a really bad silver Sharpie, and it should have clicked with me to ask him to sign everything in black when I got up to him, but I think I just was holding too much and probably was a bit starstruck, and just didn't think of it at the time. I was also holding my phone and getting it ready as I was having him sign things.

One thing I learned at this signing was that he truly takes care of the people who buy the cases. He took like 6 pictures with me, including about 3 different poses, and was just all around awesome. I actually got to talk to him unlike last time, and it was just a really fun experience. 50 is one of my favorite entertainers in the world, and I've followed him since 5th grade, so it's just really cool to get to interact with him.

Here are the items we got signed. The bottles all came out so beautifully:

Here's a photo with everything that also shows the 16x20:

Curtis also took photos with everyone, and actually a few with me.

Like I said, I came very prepared, and it definitely paid off!

2015 Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am

One of my favorite events in CT all year. Unfortunately last year I had to skip it because I had just switched jobs, but this year I was good to go and hoped rack up on some celebrities, as well as some of the best golfers in the world.

For those who don't know, the Celebrity Pro-Am is a charitable event in which a PGA Tour Professional is paired with 3 other people. These people can be celebrities, dignitaries, and just other local people of interest. Of course, I only go to meet the celebrities and PGA guys, and usually I am very successful.

Here are links to the other two times I have 'graphed this event:
 2013
 2012

This year, I'll start by talking about how I met each celebrity and what they were like.

George Lopez was my big target for the day. I knew his signing habits were very good, so I wasn't too worried about missing out on him although there were a lot of people.

I first met him when he was coming up from the practice facility. He was rushing because he had to tee off and kept saying,"Last one, last one." but he kept signing and  did two 8x10s for me:

Later in the day, I still had photos for him so I went to the 8th green, and I was super happy with what transpired.

I called him over after he finished the hole, and I had 2 photos showing(with some more peeking out under them) on top of my book. He signed the first two, and without me even asking, grabbed the others and signed them for me. This was incredibly nice of him, and not something someone of his level of celebrity do very often, if at all.

The marker he had by this point was God awful, but luckily I was able to get him to use mine on the previous photos.

To top it off, he was more than happy to take a picture with me.

Bridget Moynahan, the star of Blue Bloods on CBS, was another big target. Some may remember her from her role in Coyote Ugly as well.

She was actually hosting/playing in the charity mini golf tournament that takes place the same day as the Celebrity Pro-Am. When she arrived, she had a cart bring her right up to the mini golf course so I wasn't expecting the best. She had a brace on her ankle, so I'm guessing that was the reasoning for her being driven directly up. Other people were reassuring me that she would sign at the end, because that's what she did last year.

They were right, and at the end she signed away and took a photo with me as well:

She was very sweet to the fans, and thanked us for coming out. She even commented on how much she liked the photo I chose.

Matt Lauer of the Today Show was also at this event, and I had never met him before so he was also near the top of my list. I was able to get him coming up from the practice green area. He was rushing much more than the others, but still stopped and signed and took a photo with me:

Stephen Gostkowski of the New England Patriots was another name I was excited to see on the list because he is one of the Patriots that I haven't met yet. He was VERY nice. I told him I loved the photo of him making the tackle and he laughed and said," Me too, but my knees still hurt from doing that." He was half kidding...

Tim Wakefield needs no introduction, and while I had met him before, I am always excited to see him because I grew up watching him. He signed 2 photos for me(I had to dip him) but he was very nice.

He had his own(blue) sharpie to my surprise. Usually no famous person voluntarily carries a blue with them.

The Connecticut legend Jim Calhoun signed up a storm at the event, and I caught him coming down from the clubhouse. I've never had a bad experience with him!

It was a bit of a surprise to see that NASCAR phenom Bubba Wallace Jr. would be attending this event, but as a fan of his, I was pretty happy. I saw him multiple times throughout the day, and he was always very nice as most NASCAR drivers are.

Skateboarding legend, Ryan Sheckler was also there, and he was truly one of the nicest people in attendance. His handler kept trying to drag him away from signing, and he just kept going and going. He wouldn't stop, and his handler was getting visibly frustrated. It's always so funny when power hungry people try to ruin the fun, but Ryan hooked everyone up!

Season 1 winner of NBC's ,"The Voice", Javier Colon was there as always. I've gotten a bunch of things signed by him over the years, so I just went with one photo this time.

Coach/ Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma is always a great signer, and I was able to get him to sign 3 of the AWESOME new Womens' Championship Sports Illustrateds.

Overall, I had a great day 'graphing the celebrities who attended and now I will talk about the golfers.

Two-time Masters Champion, Bubba Watson, is always one of the top golfers at this event. He usually signs a lot coming off of his last hole, and that was true again this year:

I was able to meet another two-time major champion, Ernie Els, for the first time around the practice area. He probably has the worst autograph of any golfer out there, but it was still cool to meet him.

Another first-timer for me was former Masters Champion, Angel Cabrera. Angel is a STRICT one-per and glares into your soul like a dementor straight out of Harry Potter to make sure that he doesn't sign for you again.

I got the rest of the golfers that I had either met a number of times before or that I didn't care as much about on pairing sheet books.

Keegan Bradley:

Hunter Mahan:

Gary Woodland:

Brandt Snedeker:

Luke Donald & Stuart Appleby:

Mark Leishman:

Jason Gore, Kevin Na, & One Unknown:

I'm really happy with how this year's tournament worked out for me, and I'm already looking forward to next year.

50 Cent 6/18/15

As I have often said, some of the last minute events I find out about are the best ones.

Last week, one day after my James Patterson event, I was finishing up at work later than usual. I was packing up my things to go home and decided to scroll though my facebook feed. When I saw the post I was pretty shocked. 50 Cent was doing a bottle signing at a package store literally 5 minutes from my house. He was there from 5-8, and I only found out about it because a news station posted a story at like 6:40. 50 Cent has been going all around the country doing these signings, and I knew he was going to be in Massachusetts soon, but I had no idea about his Connecticut stops.

Believe it or not, I had his, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" album in my car, along with the album artwork booklet and everything.

When I got to the store it looked pretty packed, but certainly not unreasonable. After asking a store worker, I found out that they had the event set up where you would go about 5 at a time into the store, pick the bottle(s) you want, cash out, then get into the signing line. The process was slow, but at the same time worked for this particular store, and kept things in order.

I think I got to the front of the line by about 7:30, and noticed that they were taking your unsigned bottle, giving you a pre-signed bottle of the same variety, and letting you take a picture with 50. After I got my picture taken with him, I pulled out my CD booklet, and he took it and signed it with no problem. He didn't say much to anyone at all during the whole experience, but all I really cared about was getting one of my oldest CD's signed. I have had this album since 6th grade, which is 10 years ago now, and it was just crazy that I happened to have it in my car. It was also just awesome that a rap icon who I've listened to for so long was so close to my house. I love last minute signings(well, when I'm prepared).

An Atypical Day of 'graphing 2/6/15

Yesterday was an interesting day to say the least. I had been planning to go to Mohegan Sun for Mike Francesa's annual charity broadcast with many former Yankees greats. This year's lineup included Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi, David Cone, Bernie Williams, Buck Showalter, and a few other minor names. I had never done this event before, but my friends had luck in the past with it, and it was on a Friday which was nice and allowed me to go.

ALSO going on at Mohegan was 80's week, which was to culminate with a huge concert at night featuring Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Terri Nunn of Berlin, and other 80's pop stars. Being a general fan and follower of pop culture, I was excited to possibly see a few of these people since I have been hearing their music on pop radio since I was a little kid.

ALSO in the building was Rev Run, of Run DMC fame, who would be DJ'ing an event at a club at night.

Finally, Fleetwood Mac would probably be showing up at some point for their show on the following day.

I'll start with the baseball guys since that was my main focus of the day.

David Cone:

David, known as a pretty nice guy, came walking down to head to the radio show and said he would sign for us on the way back. He ended up signing a ton inside the radio show, and I got word of this, but when my friend and I went over, the room was at capacity so we couldn't go in. He went another way on his way back, and I never saw him again.

Joe Girardi:

Joe came walking down to the show, and I stepped up and asked him to sign. His security seemed to be more of the problem, and they said he was late and might sign later.

I was able to get inside the show while he was on the air, and he signed after he got off the set for 10 people or so, but I just couldn't get close enough.

Buck Showalter:

Word was circulating that Buck wasn't feeling well, and when we was walking to the show this was apparent. He looked really bad, and didn't seem to want any part in interacting with fans.

By this point you may be thinking, "Well, who DID you meet?"

Luckily for me, when Yankees General Manager, Brian Cashman came down, he was in the signing mood and helped me not go home empty handed.

I also was able to meet former MLB player, and local guy, John Ellis:

(Thanks to my friend Geoff for the card!)

I didn't try for Bernie Williams, because he is one of the toughest autographs in baseball and I had to get going.

Throughout the day I walked around a bit because I was getting a little bored, and I ended up running into 2 80's pop stars.

The first was Terri Nunn, known from her time in the band Berlin, who is best known for the song,"Take My Breath Away", from the hit Tom Cruise movie, "Top Gun".

Terri was really sweet. She talked to the few of us that ran into her. I have to give the assist to my older buddies who pointed her out for me. I was happy to get a nice photo with her.

Later on in the day I was walking to another prime spot, and when I arrived, people were taking photos with 80's pop icon, Tiffany! She was also very nice, which was cool and I was happy to get a photo with her. I remember Saved By the Bell making multiple references to her over the years, and it was really cool to meet her.

Debbie Gibson and Rev Run both took pictures and signed for people during the day, but I just wasn't lucky enough to see them. I would have loved to meet Gibson, but I couldn't complain after meeting a few cool people.

Fleetwood Mac hadn't shown up by the time I left.

Overall, I had an interesting day. The Yankees were very tough, but the music successes definitely helped the day move along!

Train 12/12/14

Friday night was 96.5 TIC's annual All Star Christmas concert in Connecticut, which meant some of the biggest names in popular/lighter rock music such as Train,Daughtry, Ingrid Michaelson, Matt Nathanson + more would be around. The event was being held at a venue I have had success with in the past, so I thought it would definitely be a good idea to try to meet some of the bands.

I got to the venue really early, and after about 2 minutes of standing where I usually stand, the security guy kicked me out and said, "Since the parking lot isn't open yet, you can't come back until 5." I thought this was a load of bull $h!t because the parking lot was open, but I didn't argue in hopes of saving any chance I had of spending time there later. Anyway, I left and got some food and came back around 5 but it was clear that all of the bands were inside and the buses weren't even running, which made it even more clear that I would have to wait until later, so I just went inside and waited until the doors opened at 6.

Fast forward to after the show. I went straight outside, and Daughtry's buses were already gone, as were many of the others. The headliner was Train, so I knew I would at least have a shot at them.

After maybe a half hour, Pat Monahan walked out, and before anyone(there were like ten of us) even said anything, he waved and said he would be right back out. His manager told us he was just grabbing him another jacket, and as he said, 2 minutes later he emerged from the bus and came right over to me.

I should mention that the same security guy that kicked me out earlier, ended up telling everyone to line up behind me since I had been there all day. I thought that was pretty nice, and it made me kind of glad that I didn't go off on him earlier.

Pat was very nice. Looking back, I wish I had the "Drops of Jupiter" or even "California 37" albums, but I had made a last minute decision to go, and only had Train's newest album. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to meet Pat, and he was great to everyone, signing and taking pictures.

Jimmy was obviously the other guy I wanted to meet, but the band's manager said he had ran out right after the show since he had his baby with him.

Overall, I couldn't complain about my results because I had left the venue having met one of the most popular and consistent bands of the last twenty years.

Chris Webby Round II 11/7/14

You may recall that a few weeks back, I met my favorite rapper, Chris Webby, who just happens to be from Connecticut. A few days later, my roommate and I drove over to Providence for his show, and hoped to meet him afterwards.

As I said last time, Webby is about as nice as they come. He's a very chill human being, especially considering that he's really making it big now. His album sales have been very impressive, and from his posts on social media one can see that he loves interacting with his fans.

After the show, we headed out back, and it was really cold. I'm talking ~25 degrees. I can recall that my thumb cracked and was bleeding at one point, so yeah, it was bad. We waited for AN HOUR after the show(Webby has been doing really long meet and greets after his shows), and then we saw him come out of the door. We approached him, and he was like last time, amazingly nice. He is super environmentally conscious, so before he took care of us, he actually picked up a plastic six pack holder that was on the street and ripped it up.

He then signed two of my photos and took a picture with each of us. We talked about how we came up from Connecticut, and that we would be seeing him again soon and he told us about what he had been up to, and about staying in the city. I had more photos, but it seemed that he wanted to get going, so we said our goodbyes and went on our way.

Overall, it was another great experience with someone in which I really enjoy listening to.