MY ROCK 'N ROLL MOMENT

Most women of “my age” have a favorite Beatle.  Ask any woman in her 50s, 60s or 70s and I’ll bet she’ll answer without hesitation – mine was Paul. All of us have our favorite rock stars who we swooned over growing up. I was madly in love with Mark Lindsay, lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders, in my teens. All four walls of my room were covered with magazine photos of him – and I was starting on the ceiling (literally) when I moved on.



Mark Lindsay - Then



Mark Lindsay - Now

I have to confess that as a 60 year old, I’m still a hopeless rocker. Sure I like Katy Perry, the Black-Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga but to quote Bob Seger, “Give me that old time rock ‘n roll. That kind of music just soothes my soul.” Cranking up the car radio and singing along (badly) with all the old rocker bands is on my list of life’s little pleasures.

During the early 80s I went through a “country phase” in my music preferences – hey, didn’t most of us?  One of the 80s rocker bands who I discovered  later in life was Aerosmith.  Now their front man, Steven Tyler, is a new judge of American Idol. Most people have someone famous who just floats their boat – often times for no logical reason – mine is Steven Tyler.

Steven Tyler in one of his better pictures!

He is certainly not classically handsome, nor is he particularly attractive. In fact he is a bit strange and quite bizarre, but there is something about that man that just seems undeniably sexy to me. It makes no sense and if I share that with someone the usual response is to twist up their face, raise an eyebrow and say, “Really?”

Anyway, several years ago, Lou and I saw Aerosmith in concert. I bought the tickets and sprung for pretty good seats on an aisle about 10-15 rows from the stage. The venue has a grass area up in the back and they had set up a stage for the band to do a few numbers up in the “cheap seats”.

It became apparent that Aerosmith, and STEVEN TYLER, were going to walk up the aisle right next to where we were seated to reach that stage. I immediately pushed Lou to the side and made him switch seats with me since he was on the aisle. The mob of security guards slowly and dramatically inched their way up the aisle engulfing the band members.

Steven Tyler was surrounded by people with his head down. I thrust my hand out as he came by and somehow touched his hand. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it! I could feel his ring as his cold, somewhat boney hand grasped mine. I screamed and jumped up and down like a 16 year old, “STEVEN TYLER SQUEEZED MY HAND!  STEVEN TYLER SQUEEZED MY HAND!”

Here I was in my mid fifties bouncing off the walls because Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith, squeezed my hand. Lou kept telling me to calm down and I kept saying, "NO!" Hey, how many of you have had your hand squeezed by a celebrity who you thought was unbelievably hot????  I hope he doesn’t disappoint as an American Idol judge…..and those of you who aren’t sure who he is will be able to see him on Idol this season. After reading this, you will no doubt scrunch up your face and think, “Really?”

Yeah, REALLY.