Buck Up Lil Camper
(The night I met DaMan)
By Stacey K.
The date...June 4, 1998. My
condition....sick as a dog with the flu...the
problem....Baz is rockin The
Edge in Palo Alto! Do I go?... Duh! of course
I do. My good bud Javier
had gotten us tix to see Baz and I wasn't about
to miss it due to some crappy
flu and 102 fever. Was I a wussy? Hell NO!
Have I not seen Skids 8 times
before front row getting my ass kicked
forward and back? Hell
Ya! I had decided after all my years of steadfast
devotion to present Sebastian
with my Skid Row Blvd. street sign I had
5-fingered in the dead of night
and had hung on my wall for all to see. So armed with the sign and
my 89Skids license plate I headed off to Palo Alto, hooked up with a girlfriend
who had never listened to the Skids determined educate her in the finer
points of kick ass rock-n-roll and to rendezvous with Javier
who was our ticket and camera connection. to make a long story short
Javier never showed cuz his
piece of shit brother
never gave him the message that I was on the way and he stayed home worrying
about me being in a wreck or something (what a sweety) So after waiting
and looking for him I decided to fork out change for a couple more
tix and head on in. I won't waste time describing the opening act
and jump right to the good stuff. After pushing my way to the second row,
naive girlfriend in tow. We waited about 45 min. I was so stoked to be
at the show yet feeling really shitty at the same time but the second Baz
blasted out on stage and took off with "Slave" my
fave Skid song btw. I was pumped,
I went insane, I was screamin, shoving, singing
and lovin every minute of it
my friend was looking at me like I was possessed and not to comfortable
in the pit having never been in one before but I didn't care cuz
Baz was on stage and I was high on my favorite music. He sang all my favorite
songs and maybe it's just me but when he sings "Piece of Me" I get so turned
on!! lolol It's one of the sexiest songs. Whoo is it getting hot in here?
Anyway the show kicked
ass and was intense and awesome
as most of you reading this will know. Baz was
in top form as always and delivered
a monster performance. "Most Powerful Man" took me to another place
entirely. So after the show I had to run out to my car and get the
street sign but then they wouldn't let me back in. So with a bunch
of other pathetic souls I resigned myself to kickin it on the curb. We
waited for 2 hours by this time my fever and flu are hitting me hard but
I refuse to give up the opportunity to meet DaMan. Finally one of the security
guys saw my sign and let me in by
myself. By this time
the meet & greet is over and Baz is doing an interview and
hangin with the band and some
others. I stood patiently feeling like bonehead waiting for him to get
done Richie walked by and I complimented him on the show and he grabbed
my hand and exclaimed over my fingernails he really dug em.
So I'm kickin back feeling
like shit at 2:30 am and finally they motion me over to DaMan. It's really
weird but I felt like it was a dream and I was moving in slow motion. he
turned around and I was introduced I reached out to shake his hand
saying what a pleasure it was and he grabbed me and gave me this
big hug and I
was like...DUH!!....I
made some inane chatter about how I've been a huge fan for 10 years
and he kicks ass yada yada and gave him the sign. He seemed to really
dig it and was posing with
it and waving it around which really got me off. he put his arm around
me and gave me another squeeze and I noticed his hair smelled really good.
lol and for some strange reason I fixated on the fact that he has
nice teeth. lmao. So I'm standing there for a few hanging. Of course
he's being
distracted left and right but
he's got his arm around my shoulder so I just stood
there still doing the
DUH! thing, and anybody who knows me can tell you I am never short
on words lol. Now during the wait and while I was hanging it had
been mentioned that someone had stolen Baz's gym back with all his stuff
in it and he
was PISSED! So after all this
he turns to me with this sad little boy look on his face and says "Dude...someone
stole my bag with all my shit in it!" So I says "Buck up
lil camper there's always
tomorrow" he just looks at me with this weird look while the
guys around him start laughing and then he laughs to and hugs me again
and I'm thinkin "OK I just told Baz to fuckin buck up!!, can the floor
open up and swallow me now" Then he noticed that I was holding something
in my hand and grabs it It's my 89Skids license plate off my first car
that I had taken to every show. He gives me this devilish look and
nods as if to say "do I get this to?" I said "No way man the sign is yours
but the plate is mine, but you can sign it please" So he signs it,
even asks me if my name has
and "e" in it which was cool as all other Stacey's can relate to cuz we
are constantly being misspelled. He then offered me a little mother nature
which I politely refused (flu). I thanked him again and said "Well I better
be going" he hugged me again and that was it. I don't know if
it was because I was so sick or that it didn't seem real but I was so
nonchalant about the whole thing like I meet Baz every day it wasn't until
a week later I was watching Oh Say Can You Scream that it hit me. I started
screaming "OH MY GOD I MET SEBASTIAN AHHHHHH" My girlfriend is now hooked
she wanted to borrow my cd's, videos and scrapbook I said Yeah Right!
Ya know I was never interested in meeting my favorite bands cuz I
always thought "what could I possibly say that they haven't
heard a million times?" Well
with Baz I think I solved that problem cuz the
phrase "buck up lil camper"
will never mean the same thing to me again
LMAO