Friday.....What a Night! 1/3

oh Lawh....Friday was something else. I worked half a day....ran around like a chicken with my head cut off so I could leave at the half way mark and head for Columbus. At 12:00, Frank and I left for the concert. We arrived at the Civic Center at 2:30. The security guys showed us to our dressing room and we checked out the stage set up, the seating, and then settled into the dressing room....it was even labeled...How cool was that! Our sound check was moved to 5....because George Jones wanted his to be first...hey...it did not bother me....my butterflies had become jackhammers by now. We visited the Hospitality Room....and snacked on food, ran a practice once everyone got there, and finally it was time for our sound check. The sound was amazing. I have never performed somewhere with acoustics like we had here...the lights were hot. After the sound check, we went back to the dressing room, piddled around a bit....ate some, dressed, and before we knew it....they were telling us to get ready to go on stage. We walked behind the curtained part of the stage...and stood long enough to hear Bear from Rooster 106.9 introduce us....and then it was on stage, with lights, flashes, and screaming people. The music kicked off and we started our set with Headin' West. This is a cover song by Dan Seals that Amanda and I have sung for years. We followed it up with Dixie Man...my lead....this song we borrowed from the Forester Sisters. Silver Threads was next...done by Rebecca. She really tore the song up and the crowd loved her. Patti's Song...one of our originals was next. The ladies especially seemed to love this one. It is a woman empowerment song for sure. Grandpa's Music was next....we wrote it too....then Rebecca's velvety voice broke into Help Me Make It Through the Night...at that point....Rebecca began talking about celebrations...and I stood there....looking at the crowd...when I realized they were going to sing Happy Birthday to Me...with the audience....I wanted to die....Frank came on stage and gave me a bouquet of flowers. We finished off our set with our rendition of the Gospel Medley. The crowd was most appreciative. I had a ball. When we finished we all went out to sit with our people...and wait for George to come out. I managed to sit through two of his numbers....he kept dropping lines...so after he sang a few songs...we called it a night....ahhhh the life of a celebrity.