WOW! Is the best way to say it...
We got to the Cotton Bowl at about 10 am, wondered around just a bit, and had a spot on the field by 11. At noon the show started with Neal Schon who did the national anthem followed by another Hindrix tune...and kicked ass with both! Then Steve Vai came on and killed, with a wind machine blowing his hair!
These performances were on the second stage about 100 yards away. We were right in front of the main stage by this point. There was only one person against the gate in front of me, and she was as short as I was, so it wasn't a big deal.
The next few hours was filled with great music by a bunch of guys I didn't really know, but really enjoyed...Larry Carlton, Sonny Landreth, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Robert Cray Band...then Jimmy Vaughan's band came out, and Jimmy rocked! He made quite a few appearances this day. After Jimmy was Hubert Sumlin, who played guitar for one of the mega legendary old blues men (who I can't think of's name, and hubby just left), with David Johansen of the NYDolls on vocals, and Jimmy Vaughan backing him up! While they were playing on the second stage we were able to watch Booker T & the MG's setting up their stuff! Then they performed then Bo Diddley, David Hidalgo, and then Joe Walsh!! Then Vince Gill (bathroom break), then James Taylor came out.
Right before Taylor came out a girl squeezed her way to the front right next to us and promised she'd get out of the way after the show. She was such a mega fan!! During a quite moment while Taylor was about to start a song she yelled "I love you James Taylor" And Taylor was about to blush, it was so funny, the look on his face!!
Up next was BB King, back on the other stage, unfortunately. Although we could see it was harder for me being only about 5' 3"...hubby could see fine at 6' 2", It was still amazing!! After awhile Jimmy Vaughan showed back up and jammed with BB King, the Eric Clapton made his first appearance, and they jammed for a while, then Buddy Guy realized they were taking up all of his time, so he went out and jammed with them, and then a little later John Mayer showed up! This was the coolest thing, you couldn't imagine how much fun those guys were having, they jammed for well over an hour. BB kept keeping it going, and making funny jokes at the same time, he was great! At this point the show was already about 30 minutes behind schedule, and Santana's stuff was set up on the main stage. After a while I spotted Carlos Santana walking around backstage. The jam session on the other stage was so long Santana was standing there watching them jam and really getting into it! At one point Carlos Santana had his red guitar on and was thinking he was about to finally go on (an hour after schedule) when Buddy Guy started one more song! Carlos threw his hands up, and took his guitar off, sat down and watched them finish.
Once Santana did start they were great! Carlos came over to our part of the stage and walked down the stairs that were right in front of us and did a little solo before going back up! This was great because he didn't do it on the other side! After some great Santana music they cleared the stage and set up for Eric Clapton! Clapton was so great!! I can't remember all of the songs he did, but at first they sat down and did some slow ones...Wonderful Tonight was among them, and it was so beautiful, words can't even describe how that made me feel! The whole stadium was singing along!! After a while they got up and jammed, they did I shot the Sheriff, Cocaine, Layla...I know there was more, I just can't think of it now! Then Jeff Beck came out for one song, and then they set up for ZZ Top!!
I have been waiting years to get to see ZZ Top, those Texas boys kicked ass! They were so sharp! The beards, the suits!! God I could have listened to them for hours!! They didn't have much time because there was a thunderstorm coming with reports of tornadoes...they did La Grange, Tush, Sharp Dressed Man, I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide, Legs, with signature white fuzzy guitars, and I think I'm missing one...Before their last song some guy came out and told them they had to quit because of the rain, but they came out and said that rain don't hurt nothin, and kept going for a bit. The set ended early, someone came out and said thanks for coming, show's over...and they left! They didn't do the finale...Clapton was suppose to come back out with Jeff Beck and perform with ZZ Top! They sucked for not coming out!
It was 11:30 pm when we left the stadium. We had spent more than twelve hours on our feet (I sat when I wasn't interested, which wasn't too often). We were burnt and hungry. We got a cab with a bunch of other fans and went to Denny's and had some mushroom burgers and fries and cheesecake, then got another cab to the Hyatt Regency (I had to go fancy smancy for once!) and got into the shower and was asleep by 1:30.
The next morning came way too fast, but I awoke to memories of Eric Clapton playing Wonderful Tonight! My new favorite song!!
I have photos! We took a cheap camera (didn't figure we'd make it in with it) and got the kind of pictures one might expect from a cheap camera...these were done professionally.