The Day I Met Garry Tallent

     
May 15^th 2003, Gijon: A 125 mile ride from Santander, our hometown in the northern coast of Spain, and a rockin’ and exciting show that kept us smiling all the way back home (well, I was the only one smiling because everybody else in the car was sleeping after a while). We got home around 3 AM but I could have driven the 450 miles to Barcelona that same night… I was…well…ALIVE.

 May 16^th 2003: We packed and went on the road heading for Barcelona. The music was loud but hey! not too loud, it was a long ride and Sam had to sleep ;^)

May 17^th 2003: The day of the Barcelona show. I’m not the kind of guy that stays the whole day out of the hotel to get an autograph, nothing wrong with that, but I’m too shy and I also think the musicians need their own space and privacy, so that we went for a walk in the morning before having lunch with our friends (thanks to Enrique & Olga for making us feel at home every time we are in Barcelona. By the way, we met them at the top of the Empire Estate Building, Ain’t life weird?).

And this is how my dream begins: We were talking about the Barcelona 2002 show. I had shot a few pics and my friend wanted to check them out, we went to his computer and I showed him the website and the pics. I never, and I mean NEVER, check my email when I’m not at the office but since I was already in front of the computer I did it. There were more than 100 messages and I didn’t feel like reading them so I was going to shut down the computer when I saw 3 messages from the same person with “Garry’s Corner” on the subject and they attracted my attention. I opened one of them and this is what I read: “Hi Fran, Garry Tallent is in Barcelona and would like to get in touch with you. Please call him on his cell phone #------. Regards and hope you enjoy the shows.” I almost fell from the chair. My heart begun to pound out of my chest while I was running from room to room looking for everybody and screaming like crazy. I had to sit for a few minutes before I even could hold the phone in my hands. I finally managed to dial the number and I immediately recognized the voice on the other side. I was so nervous that I could barely speak English: “Hi, Garry? It’s Fran, How are you?” and then the call is over. Oh my god!, d*mn cell phones! Not now pleeease!!! I dial again…the line is busy…ooooh! No! no!!!...well to make it short, after 4 calls Garry told me that we had passes waiting for us at the stadium.

We went to the stadium and once we got the passes (only two, my sister had to stay outside) we looked for the production office. When I was asking how we could find Garry my wife tells me: “Fran, He’s there!!!” With a big smile in his face Garry got to where we were, greeted us and shook our hands. I think that I didn’t sound too polite, but I told him that my sister was outside and if it would be possible to get a pass for her. he said “sure!” and apologized because he misunderstood me on the phone (I’m sure that it was my fault, I’m sure I was speaking like a 2 year old boy LOL).

We started to walk with him until we found one of the crew guys and Garry asked him if he had an extra pass. “A pocket full of them for you” was his answer and then gave us three Access All Areas passes and took our old “restricted” passes. Then Garry told us that he would check his email while we went outside to pick up my sister. No need to say that when she saw us with a pass for her she went crazy.

We went to the hospitality room where we had to meet Garry again. While we were there Nils and Max came in with a few guests and stayed there for a while. We couldn’t believe it, we were at the backstage in a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band show!!!.

Garry arrived a few minutes later and we talked for 40 minutes. I was so impressed that I wouldn’t remember a single word of our conversation if it weren’t because Patricia and MJ were there. We talked about music, the family, Spain, the Rising Tour,…he told us that he hoped that now that the band was back they would keep working together for a long time.

He told me that he appreciated what I had done and that it had to be a hard work. I told him that I enjoyed every minute I spent in front of the computer working on the page or transcribing the basslines. (The truth is that even if working on the website were the worst job on earth the fact of meeting him would have paid off amply).

We took some pictures together and then he led us to one side of the stage and talked to one of the security guys to make sure that we could enjoy the show safely (Garry knew that Patricia is pregnant) then we said good bye and he left to get ready for the show. We spent the rest of the time walking around the backstage and waiting for the show to begin. We saw all the other members of the band, including Patti, who was back on the stage for this show but Bruce didn’t showed up until the whole band appeared to rock the house. Although I had my camera with me I didn’t shoot any photos, we were Garry’s guests and I thought it wasn’t very respectful to break the rules that prohibit the use of cameras.

Last, but not least, the show was great and as Garry had told us before, the band played a few unusual songs (he hadn’t told us which ones to keep the surprise).

May 18^th : We left Barcelona in the morning heading for Madrid. The last show of the tour for us. It was a long ride and it was hot as hell but the worst thing happened when I noticed that I didn’t have the tickets for the show. We were halfway and I didn’t remember picking up the tickets from the drawer where I had kept them when we had arrived to our friend’s house in Barcelona. I stopped the car, took the suitcase off the car, throw it to the ground and opened it. I couldn’t find them… when we were about to do a U-turn and go back to Barcelona I remembered the bag with the newspapers I had bought that same day and there they were! We took a deep breath and went back on the road feeling real lucky.

May 19^th Show day. I wanted to see the photos as soon as possible so I took the film to a studio. When I picked up the photos an hour later I couldn’t believe it. They had spoilt them. I couldn’t even recognize myself in some of the pictures! They were so bad that I kept the negatives and left the copies. I was very disappointed. I knew that the memories of that day would never fade away but losing those photos was a real pain.

The good news: Garry agreed to meet us again backstage in Madrid. I was so happy and so excited again that I wrote a list of the things I wanted to tell him.

We went to the venue and when we arrived to the backstage door nobody knew about our passes. I went running to the box office (and it wasn’t around the corner!) and although other passes were already there, there was none for me. We were getting late to the meeting and when I was about to give up, a guy came riding a bike with an envelope in his pocket. Before he had even stopped I asked him: “is that envelope for Fran Diaz?”, “yeah”, “great! Thanks!” I took it and run to the backstage door (have I told you that it wasn’t around the corner? :^)). When we got in I found a guy I know and he told me that Garry had been around but he had gone back to his room. I really needed to go to the rest room so we looked for one and when I was getting out guess who was getting out before me: You guessed right! Garry! He had been waiting for us. We went to have a drink and I took the list out of my pocket to make sure that I didn’t forget anything (by the way, I forgot again to ask him to sign my ticket). We talked for half an hour and had a few laughs. Garry is a very funny guy and so my wife is. At one point in the conversation, he touched her arm and told her: “You are so funny!”. (In our ride back home she would say like one hundred times: “Fran, Garry Tallent said that I’m funny!!!). Garry is such a nice guy that we had to “push” him to leave us to go and get ready for the show.

The show was great. Once it was over we had a coffee with some of the crew guys and went back home feeling completely happy. When I woke up the morning after I had to ask myself if everything had been a dream, but no, it wasn’t a dream. This time it had been for real. I had met Garry Tallent.