There was an envelope waiting for us that said "Cara Lehr, VIP Comp" on the front. We opened it up to find 2 front row center tickets & VIP badges! We just kind of stared at each other in shock, haha. We asked the will call guy what they got us access to, exactly, but he wasn't sure. I decided to go ask Judy, Scotty's wife at the merch table. Of course with my luck she wasn't there at the mo, & the girl behind the counter pointed out some other guy to ask. He said they were probably for a meet & greet with the band at 6:15, & that after we got to our seats inside there would be an announcement. So we went inside & waited in literally the best seats in the house.
About 6:20, we started to get nervous because no one had said anything about a meet & greet, & I started noticing that people around with the same badges as ours had "Worker" written on them...nobody else had "VIP" written on theirs. So I asked a stage security guy what VIP meant, exactly. He didn't know either, so I called Scotty back & told him that we had gotten our tickets & badges, but no one could tell us what exactly they were. "Oh those get you anywhere," Scotty said. "Where are you now? Meet me up at merch." So we left our incredible seats to go find Scottyrock. He was waiting for us there, & gave me a hug & asked how our trip was & what was going on. I told him congrats on Judy being pregnant, he asked if Cristen had ever seen Skillet before, & I told him that I had seen Flyleaf a couple of weeks before. "That's great that they're doing more christian shows, I'm really happy to hear that," Scotty said. "Let's go backstage."
As we were walking backstage he asked what else I had been up to, & was interested when I said I worked at Olive Garden. I told him to come by if they were ever in town. Once we got to the backstage doors, he told us to hang tight outside for a second with the ten or fifteen other people with orange meet & greet bracelets. He went inside & then came back out & told all the orange bracelet people to line up first. We got behind them & Scotty took us all into a hall & told us to line up on one side & Skillet & Disciple would line up on the other side. He told us all we could get a photo & an autograph & then leave. We were at the end of the line, & he kind of glanced over at me & gave me a look, sort of a "just wait" type of look. As soon as Skillet came out they looked down the line & saw us at the end & they were all like, "WHAT'S UP!! How are you?!" And then they proceeded to have an argument about where I was from as they started signing autographs for other people. "Oklahoma, right?" Korey said. "No, New Mexico!" Ben said. "Wait, I thought Oklahoma City...?" John said. "Used to be New Mexico, now Tulsa," I told them. Haha. As the orange bracelet people were getting stuff signed, this really old couple came in with oooooollllllllllddddddddd Skillet t-shirts on, like from the very first album. John told us later that they were Trey McClurkin's parents (the original drummer from Skillet!), so that was kind of neat!
As Scotty was taking the last picture for the orange bracelet crowd, he goes, "Oh, Cara...those badges allow you to watch the show from the stage, if you want to. I don't know why you would, because you have the best seats in the place, but you can if you want to." After much debating, Cristen & I decided to keep our seats because I wanted to get some good pictures & videos, & Cristen had never seen them before. But if Scotty hooks us up with those passes next time I'm totally watching from the stage!
Finally we got to talk to Skillet. It was kind of overwhelming they all came up to me at once! Korey gave me a hug first & said how great it was to see me, & then Jen gave me this GIANT hug & said, "Oh my gosh I'm so glad to see you! We haven't talked in forever!" I told her I took her advice, & I have a meeting with Kal in Wisconsin next week to check out the School of Worship. She was SO excited! "NO WAY!" she said, giving me another hug, "Wait! Korey, when will we be home?! Will we be there when she is?!" I told them I'll be there the 27th & Korey goes, "Darn, we'll already be back on the road by then, I wish we could be there with you!" Jen got a really excited look & said, "Oh my gosh! If you go to the school I'll get to see you all the time! We can hang out whenever I'm home!" I told her I was going for drums, but that I had only been playing for 6 months & asked if she had any advice. "Oh everyone is so supportive," she said, "And don't worry there was a guy in my year that had been playing guitar like 3 weeks!" I told her I love drumming & I wish I had started so much sooner. "Just do it!" she said, "Now is totally the time, I'm so glad you're playing that is so cool!" We took a scary tiger picture & then I talked with John for a second about his tattoo ("Thanks, it's new!" he said...no kidding John? Haha), & didn't talk much to Ben...I still think he thinks I'm crazy. Oh well. Haha. We didn't get to stay very long--probably like 15 minutes--but it was definitely better than nothing. And Jen said she was going to find me on Facebook, so I'm sure I will be talking to her more soon.
The show was incredible. The entire crowd sang Happy Birthday to Ben because today is his birthday. We really did have the best seats! I got some amazing pictures & AWESOME videos of the new songs that I'm uploading to YouTube right now. Scottyrock is seriously my hero, he is so awesome. He takes such good care of me & Joelle when we go to shows. I seriously can't wait for OKC now.
Oh, & today I woke up & got on Facebook & had this from Korey Cooper on my wall:
1 comment:
Do you realize how cool that is???
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