SKILLET SHOW!!!!!...Part 3!!!!!

Yes, I may be an addict. No, I don't care.

This show was in Wichita Falls, TX. Isaac & I drove the 4 hours there & arrived at the venue at about 4:30. No one was out front, so we tried the front doors...locked. Someone opened up for us & I asked if Scottyrock or Judy were around. He let us in & walked us to the back, but neither of them were around so we decided to just wait. After awhile I called Scotty & he said he'd call me right back. He's really bad at returning calls, & it was about 5:30 (doors opened at 6), so I called him again & asked if they needed any help with anything, since we were just sitting around being useless. He goes, "Um...I don't know. I'll meet you in the lobby." So we waited...& waited...& waited. Usually Scotty's pretty prompt, so about 5:45 it's an understatement to say that I was wondering what was going on. Around then Judy showed up & asked if we were part of the meet & greet. I told her I had no idea, & she said she'd radio Scotty if he didn't come up soon. Finally Scotty showed up, chatted with us about random stuff for a second, & then said, "Hang tight I'll be back." He walked across the room & up behind Judy, hiding a roll of Caution tape behind his back. He wrapped her entirely in the tape, then casually walked back over to us & said, "You guys wanna go back?" Like he even has to ask.

He took us back to his "office" while he finished up putting together prescriptions for everyone on the tour who's sick (there were alot of drugs on that desk, haha), & asked if we had eaten. Isaac had been saying he was hungry, so Scotty took us back to the catering room where all the guys of Disciple were having dinner, & said, "You guys go ahead & have whatever you like, relax, enjoy your dinner. I'll be back. Oh, I haven't asked Korey about an interview yet, but I will. And you guys can head back to the auditorium anytime too, there's nothing going on in there now, but you're welcome to go back if you like." And he left. And aside from eating, we really had no idea if we were supposed to stay there & wait for him, or go back up front. Isaac had just finished eating & we were debating what we should do when Korey walked in & said, "So I hear I'm doing an interview!"





She was so great. After the interview we chatted a bit about LLSOW, & then we heard Decyfer Down starting their set in the auditorium. She said she had to go get ready for the show, so we made our way back out to find seats. Between DD & Disciple's sets, I saw Scotty come out on stage & start peering into the crowd. He looked around for a minute or two & then went backstage. My phone started ringing in my pocket...it was Scottyrock. When I answered, he said, "Where are you?? I was looking for you but didn't see you in the auditorium...meet me at the right side of the stage, John wants to see you." John. As in John Cooper. The lead singer. Wanted to see us? As Scotty was taking us backstage for the second time, he said, "John heard you were asking about the new album so he thought you might want to hear some of it." It took just about every ounce of self-control I possess not to completely freak out right then & there. I did my best to stay cool as he opened the door to Skillet's dressing room & John was in there waiting for US. We said our hellos, & John said, "So, I heard you were talking to Korey about the new album...you've obviously heard Hero & Monster already, but I figured maybe you'd want to hear some of the others so you can go back to Panheads & the forums & tell everyone how amazing it sounds!!" And so he let us listen to about 10 of the 13 songs off the new album. The album that doesn't come out until August. The album that NO ONE outside of the band & management has heard. Right after we started listening Disciple started their set. "It's too bad you can't hear it better, hey?" John said, "Hey Scotty, can you tell them to stop the show for a minute? We've got important things going on here." Scotty pretended to pull out his radio & said, "Hey hold the show for about 30 minutes please, you're too loud." Ha. Korey came in about halfway through & said, "Yeeeeaaaaaah, pullin out the new music! We're not allowed to let anyone listen to it. John has to choose who hears it, & he has to be present when it happens." John added, "Yeah, the other bands on this tour haven't even heard it!" After he finished giving us demos, he said, "So...what do you think?" He actually wanted our opinions! Of course we both only had good things to say.

We chatted with John & Korey & Scotty a bit more about the new music & the fall tour before heading back out to our seats. The show was awesome, as always. John seemed in an especially good mood & had a few more jokes than usual. I like to think it was because his new music was so well-received by such dedicated fans. Haha.

After the show we went to the merch table & helped Judy take inventory, tear down & load in. She is just the sweetest. I'm so sad that she won't be on the road after this tour wraps, but I'm going to go visit her in Chicago after she has the baby. It's only like an hour from Kenosha, so that will be fun.

But, I have to say this was probably most definitely the best show of all the ones I've been to so far this year. Listening to your favorite band's unreleased album before anyone else pretty much tops all. Ha.

SKILLET SHOW!!!!!...Part 2!!!!!

Saw Skillet again last night in OKC. SO AMAZING.

I went with Cristen, her brother, & John Dunn. We got to the venue about 4:30, & doors didn't open till 6:30. Cristen & I were sitting against the wall out front & the boys went to walk around, when all of a sudden this huge shadow blocked the sun. We looked up & it was Scottyrock, haha. He was like, "Hi. Wanna come inside?" Of course we did! We waited for the boys to come back & then he took us inside to his "office" to write up our VIP passes. I asked him about interviewing Korey at the show in Wichita Falls next week, & he said, "You know, Korey doesn't do interviews...John does all the press, but you should ask her. Maybe if you ask her instead of me she will do one." On top of that, the Wichita Falls show might not even be happening. Apparently there have been 2 reported cases of swine flu at the University they're supposed to play at, & all public events are cancelled until further notice. "It's ridiculous," Scotty said, "36,000 people have died from the regular flu, but 2 people die of swine flu & the whole country shuts down." Seriously. So hopefully it will all get worked out before then.

We hung out around the merch tables & just waited in the empty venue for the meet & greet at 6:00. Judy, Scotty's wife & Skillet's merchandise manager, came over to me & said, "I know we've met once before, but I thought I'd come over & introduce myself anyway!" I met her once last August for about 5 seconds. I can't believe she remembered that. We chatted a bit about babies, & how she & Scotty can't decide on a name. "If it's a girl, I want to name her Sophia Rose," Judy says, "but Scotty likes Scotty Rose, which I don't think is very feminine at all. And one Scotty is enough!" I said, "I don't know, it could be kind of cute! Like, if you called her Scotti Rose, with an i instead of a y." Her eyes got big & she goes, "You know, that IS cuter! I knew I liked you Cara!" Haha. Jen wandered in for a minute & said hello, & we chatted about the School of Worship for a minute, so that was cool. Korey came in with Xav too & said hello.

When it was time for the meet & greet we got a picture & I told John & Korey I just got back from Wisconsin & that I'm probably going to SOW next year. They were both really excited & asked if it was cold while I was there. "You went to Kenosha?" Ben asked when he heard that. I said yeah & he goes, "You're going to the school of worship aren't you!! That's so cool, you will have such an amazing time. And I help out alot so I'll see you around alot." Maybe Ben doesn't think I'm a creeper. Haha. Scotty called me over then & asked if I had talked to Judy about merchandise. I said no, & he told me to go find her. So I tracked down Judy & told her what Scotty said. "Well, I don't want to ruin your evening," she said, "I know you're with your friends...but we ARE short one person at the merch table..." I told her I would gladly help out if she needed it, & so I worked the table all night. Not quite the front row, but it was a whole other amazing experience. And I could still see the show from the table so that was pretty cool. Judy told me after it was over to take anything I wanted, so I picked up a t-shirt for my cousin & a pair of drum sticks. She also told me they're going to have 3 days off in Tulsa sometime next week, so I gave her my number when I was leaving & told her to call if they need anything at all while they're here. After I helped her do inventory & pack everything up, she said, "Thanks so much again for your help...I'll call you next week!" I hope she does!

This is a much shorter update, but I suppose no one wants to hear about every t-shirt sold all night long. Haha.

Big Changes Coming...

One week from today, I will be in Kenosha, Wisconsin checking out a school that I might be attending in the fall. I'm really excited. And really scared. The idea of doing something I love every single day & drastically improving is awesome. The idea of not being very good because I've only been drumming for 6 months, & being so far away from my family & not knowing anyone, is really really scary. I'm really nervous...it helps to think that it's only for a year, & I'm sure I will meet some people that I will keep in touch with for the rest of my life. It's just weird because I've never been so far away from my family & Isaac before...& it's been about 5 years since I've had an 8-3 school schedule. The whole thing is so exciting & nerve-wracking I'm not sure what to think yet. And that's even assuming I'm good enough to get in. Pray for me.

Nothing much going on lately...just trying to save up some money, & practicing like crazy. I'm seeing Skillet again right after I get back from Kenosha, & I'm really hoping Scottyrock will get us VIP passes again so we can watch from the stage. If not, I'm sure he will hook us up with something equally as cool. I don't know why I worry. Scotty is the best. It will be nice to talk to Jen & Korey again after I've had a chance to take a look at the school too. Looks like it's going to be me, Cristen, John, & Angela from OG going to the show. Which is awesome, because Cristen is the only one that's seen them live. John is a huge fan & Angela hasn't heard them, but I think she will love them too. I love taking people that have never seen Skillet before, it makes me happy.

Okay, I'm off to IHOP with Cristen. Sorry for the short update.

SKILLET SHOW!!!!!

So Cristen & I saw Skillet yesterday! We left for Alma, AR about noon & arrived at 2:30. I called Scottyrock to ask if we should meet him to pick up our tickets, & he told me they were at will call. That kind of bummed me out, because when Joelle went & saw them last he picked her up & took her backstage & then into the venue before anyone else. But I figured it was probably because he was busy & he had gotten us tickets so last minute. Well when we first went to will call they didn't have our tickets yet, so we spent a combined $150 between the two of us at the merch table & then decided to walk around Main Street of Alma ("The Spinach Capitol of the World"). We took some funny pictures & were headed back to the car to drop off our stuff when the will call guy flagged us down. So we went back inside to check it out.

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:

" hey! it was great seeing you..if you end up at the school we'll see you a lot more often:) "

Skillet On Tuesday?!

Technically I am writing this on monday morning, but really it's sunday night. I found out about 9:00 tonight that Skillet spent the day here in town. I flipped. Twitter is a wonderful thing for that reason. After conversing with Joelle, we discovered that they were headed to Ted's for dinner with Fireflight. So I grabbed a new (hopefully clean) shirt & shoved my shoes on as I was running out the door, yelling, "Bye Mom Skillet's in town, going into town!" I picked up my friend Cristen because it would be lame to show up by myself. After much nervous anticipation, we arrived at Ted's to discover it was closed (it IS Easter). I had no clue where they would be instead (when I got home I found out they went to Cheesecake Factory JUST down the street), so we turned back disappointed. Joelle called & I told her what happened...she spent several minutes talking me into sending Scottyrock, their road manager, a text message. I eventually did, to make sure I'll have tickets to the show in the City & the show in Texas. After talking with Scotty I talked to Joelle again, & we discovered that Skillet will be in Arkansas on tuesday, & miraculously I'm off work that day. SO, Joelle thinks I should call Scottyrock tomorrow & ask if it's possible to get tickets (it's a sold out show).

So I may be seeing Skillet on tuesday. Which would be amazing. But I'm scared to call Scotty again tomorrow, because I don't want to be a pest, & I certainly don't want to seem like I'm overstepping my bounds in his offer for free tickets to shows I want to go to. But he DID offer to hook me up with tickets, so I guess I shouldn't feel bad. But I still do. I don't want to lose that privilege. And I mean, he knows I've been to like 30 shows, I doubt he would have offered that if it wasn't possible or something...idk.

It's quite possible that I am entirely too in love with this band. But there is just nothing quite like a Skillet show.

Korey Is At The Mall Today.

Yep. Korey Cooper, my hero, is at the mall in town today. I was there all day yesterday, why couldn't she go yesterday?! I have to work today, so there's no way I can go see her, which is a bummer. Such is life.

Isaac got a plane ticket yesterday!!! He's coming to visit Jan. 30 - Feb. 5!!! A whole week! I cannot wait. I have to think of some cool things we can go do. We might drive to OKC for a couple of days & go to Bricktown, or maybe to Stillwater to visit my cousin. Idk which one yet...but I want him to have alot of fun. Maybe then he'll see that it's not as boring as he thinks here, haha. Aaaahhhh I'm so excited to see him it's ridiculous. And I'm glad he's coming to visit me here, rather than me going there. It will be better that way I think.

I went to the mall yesterday with my parents & sister. I hate shopping with Al because she always talks me into buying those really cute things that I don't really NEED, but that I want to buy anyway. Haha. So I ended up with an adorable pair of green & black checkered flats on clearance from Aldo. They're slightly too big, but nothing some inserts & some tissue paper stuffed in the toes won't fix. Haha. Also, Victoria's Secret is having their semi-annual sale, & I can always do damage in there. And believe me I did.

Nothing much happening today...just work tonight. Closing OG again. What fun.

New Bond = Crap

So I went & saw the new Bond movie with Tanya tonight (she won tickets to the first show at 7:30). Let me say, I have only seen one other Bond movie & I can't even remember the name of it. So clearly I don't really keep up with the series. On the other hand, Tanya has seen every Bond movie ever made, so suffice it to say she's a fan. At the end of the movie, both of us were COMPLETELY confused. Actually, through the whole movie we were both COMPLETELY confused. I kept thinking that at any moment it should all sort of start to come together & the lightbulb would come on & I'd go, "Ohhhhhhhh, it all makes sense now!!!" No. It was kind of like this - Fighting Scene...ten words spoken...EXPLOSION!...another ten or so words...Fighting AND Explosion!...Death!...a few more words...End Credits! Maybe I'm just retarded, but I was sitting there going "Huh?" at the end of it all. The action scenes were pretty cool, & Daniel Craig makes a good Bond, but I was pretty glad I didn't pay for my ticket.

Had my drum lesson today...it went really well, we didn't really cover too much this week because I got stuck on opening the hi-hats. Ergh. Talk about crazy hard coordination. I think by the end of the lesson I had a couple of the beats down, but it will take alot more practice for sure. Next week I get to start learning this really cool beat Emily made up, & I get to start learning Skillet songs ("The Last Night" & "Savior")! Yay!

Speaking of Skillet songs, I added one to my blog. Give it a listen, hopefully it will impact you like it does me...it gives me chills every time I hear it. John wrote it about a dream he had once. If only I were so lucky to see God in such a vivid way through a dream. But I don't have dreams, & the rare times I do I never remember them.

Tomorrow (err, later today, I guess...) I'm going shopping with my Mom to hopefully find a new computer cable. On closer examination, mine is definitely destroyed. Also I'm kind of hoping to find a Christmas present for my sister (she is SO hard to shop for!) & I'd kinda like to go to Guitar Center & pick up another drum key to stick on my keychain. I can just imagine somewhere in the future getting ready to play my very first show someplace & realizing my drums are seriously out of tune, & then realizing I left my drum key at home & having to play the entire thing with out-of-tune drums. So I think spending the $2 on an extra might be handy.

Okay, it's like 2:30am. I'm going to watch "Recess" (call me a dork, I love that show & it's only on at 3am on Disney now) & go to bed.