Street Team Stories: When You Met Joe

Meeting Joe was amazing!  Very real, and fully focused on each person.  Horses communicate thru body language and you can tell with Joe he is really glad to me YOU.

Joe and his music took my life by storm and the Beacon show was only my second concert, just a little over a year since I found him.

I wanted to represent myself authentically on this NYC trip, a return to my roots after having moved to Lake Tahoe in 1978 and fulfilling a life long dream to become a cowgirl.

I wore the Nevada styled black hat given to me by my boss Johnny McEwen after I had earned his respect working the horses, when all the other cowboys wanted me gone.

My 4-H T-shirt to represent the club I have founded and kept going for 25 years to give the local kids a chance with horses and saving the last horse property in our area in the process.

The boots were a gift from an important donor who saved the club and supported us thru  real challenging property changes that would have shut down the 4-H club.  They also gave me my horse Sassy, at a time when I hadn't been able to ride for medical reasons for over 15 years.

Those gifts gave me the heart to keep trying until finally finding the answers to return to riding.  Sassy and I rode the hills behind the winter boarding ranch this past early spring, 40 miles in 4 rides in 6 days.

The belt buckle was a gift from a friend whose family homesteaded a ranch in the ElDorado Hill country in the foothills of the Sierras.

It took a bit of trouble to squish into the black dress jeans, since I left no cannoli unexplored during the trip, but what's an Italian girl to do when I hadn't been home in so long!

I needed something special for to represent Street Teaming and what Joe's music meant to me, so while my daughter was at work, I made a Rodeo styled crown for the hat, with arrayed guitars (stickers) over an outline Lake Tahoe.  Outlined with stick on jewels, accented with music notes and said in gold  "Joe Bonamassa Street Team  Tahoe Blues  Northside Chapter"

When my daughter and I stepped up to Joe you could see surprise register on his face, he stood up a little straighter, a half step back to see the total outfit, leaned in to look closer at my hat, and said "I LOVE that Hat !  That is the BEST Hat I have ever seen!" Looked in close again , then turned to someone over his shoulder and said "Get her a hat" and again to to me "THat is a GREAT Hat"

We talked a bit about the boats and my gifts , I thanked him for his music,  he signed a program from the Concours d' Elegance boat show with the "Thunderbird" on the cover ( I gave him a duplicate along with a block of Stamps from the year "Thunderbird" was one of the boats on USPS stamps that year) representing some of my best work and an original technique I had developed for putting images in leather, just for that boat.

No one was on hand at that point to ask for the hat, so we went to meet some folks from the Forum at Blondies, then I came back Street Teamed for the Iridium show, saw the concert.   As we are leaving with 4 people deep at the merchandise booth I waited to the side to ask about my hat.  My daughter was rolling her eyes saying "MOM you aren't going to get the hat now, they won't remember"

As the crowd thinned out, the gentleman in the booth looked up, saw me nodded and reached back for my hat that was waiting there.  Right away everyone still at the booth started to ask for one, and he said "sorry, they are not available.

You could tell, as I have from reading and meeting people in the Forum, that Joe's heart flows to his music, thru his fans, thru his whole organization, without missing a beat.

Welcome again Eric, to a wonderful place!

Tahoe Jo

The gifts I brought related to my upholstery experiences working on world class antique boats.

The first time I met Joe was at the triple JB gig in Bonn, Germany. Jimmy Bowskill, Jeff Beck and Joe B. What a gig that was. I had arranged for a meet with family using the #1 Litho tickets and arranged for Pete the Cabby to come along with the BonaBurst I'd gotten for him and then carried all the way from San Diego to Berlin, then to Bonn where I met him. It was very hot that day, around 95 or better and we were supposed to go around back where the load in gates were and wait for Roy at the appointed hour. We showed up and no Roy. We waited around and finally a roady came out so we asked if Roy was available for the meet. He said that Roy was in a production meeting and wouldn't be coming out. Bummer! We mentioned that we had a guitar for Joe to sign, the first BonaBurst in Europe and the first production one he'd lay eyes on, so he said he'd let Joe know. Soon enough, here he came in shorts a tee and flip flops. He came up and said hi, then checked out Pete's burst, noting some things that weren't right (no top wrap), then posed for snapshots. I dragged out the custom California license plate I have on my car that says JOE B ROX and asked if he would sign it. He did a double take and said, "Tell me that's not real." "Nope Joe, it is the real deal" I said, "but it's the front plate without the stickers." He was stoked and then told us a tale about having a policeman block his car in a parking lot in Santa Monica after he'd just returned from a road trip and took a drive to the beach with his girlfriend.  The car had expired tags. He said the cop made a big scene while treating him like some criminal, and all Joe could do was take the ticket and hope the officer would just go on his way and maybe give him some slack instead of a hard time in front of the girl. It was a funny story told as only Joe can do with his great sense of humor. By that time, the Dutch Harem we'd been hanging out with showed up and then a  few others who had gathered because we were outside the venue where everyone was walking to get in line from the parking garage. He signed a bunch of stuff for everyone of course.
Rick

Just met Joe for the very first time Tuesday November 5, 2013.  We bought the Litho "Guitar Trooper" and used the meet and greet for the Louisville Palace show. Super excited prior to the Meet and Greet does not describe it.  I described it on my review of the Louisville show but will detail it here as well.  Met up with Erin( Erdrago) just before time of the meet and greet.  She and her dad were as excited as we were.  Sweet hubby and I went next door to a small pizza place with Erin and her dad to get a soda and kill the 20 minutes we had to wait.  Went to the box office at 5:15 and Bob from J&R was handing out the wrist bands and giving instructions.  I did not hear a word he said.  He was very nice but I was to amped up.  Off to the designated area to await our few minutes of glory.  At 5:30 no Joe,  he was running late.  There were about 20 or so folks waiting to do the meet and greet.  I would say we were fifth in line.  I saw Joe's tour manager, Clay  strolling up and someone said, There's Joe.  I had totally missed him as I looked at Clay.   Joe was friendly from the get go saying Hi everyone.  he chatted with all the folks and signed the various articles they had.  Guitars and T shirts and DVD liner notes.   Finally it was our turn.  I told my husband prior to the meet and greet to hit me if I said something stupid.  I think he was a star struck as I was .  We shook his hand and introduced our selves.  Gave Clay our camera.  We had brought Joe a gift to thank him for his music. In our goody bag was an Ice Cube tray in the shape of guitars, a limited edition bottle of Kentucky Bourbon from our local Bourbon Society(I know he is a wine drinker but it was a show in Kentucky) and we had bought Joe some socks.  Two were funny( Guitars and Wine Glasses) and one pair of vibrant colored socks.   Joe was gracious and accepted the gifts.  I told him the socks are for all the folks in the front row.   He asked me about my shirt.  I had on the new Street Team Shirt by Tribut.  He said is that one of ours?  I said of course.  He said I need to pay more attention to whats going on over there.  He signed the items we brought.  .  Time for our photo op and Clay can't get the stupid camera to work.  So I was trying to tell him what to do and poof he took our picture. Not a great look on either of our faces but who cares Joe is in it.  So long story short. Joe was very gracious and not in a hurry.  We enjoyed all of it.  By the way, when Joe came out for the acoustic set we could see he had on my guitar socks.  What a cool thing for him to do.

Thanks, Eric for posting these topics..My good friend Kent and I first met Joe when we did promotions on his his 2010 tour in Oregon. We saw him in Eugene and got the backstage meet and greet for promoting the shows in Eugene and Portland. There were only a few people at the m&g ...about 7 or 8 maybe....It was very informal and I got a kick out of Joe when he entered the room and said to all of us...."I'm Joe"....yeah no kidding ..we all laughed...He is such a cool humble guy and such a hard worker. That's why we will always help with his tour promotions and promote him on a daily basis between shows...His hard work ethic has really paid off...without mainstream radio he has managed to get to the point where he can now ask good money for tickets and still sellout a 2000-3000 seat venue easily. It's because of this great respect that I proudly display my Joe B license plate and promote Joe on a daily basis.Judging by his steadily increasing popularity, it looks like his method is working. We are really proud of Joe and his continued success