Friday, February 6, 2009

My Brush With Fame (ok - Tom Jones)


I've been asked to recount for all three of my faithful readers my meeting international music sensation, Tom Jones.

Remember him? "She's a Lady (woh, woh, woh.") "What's Up Pussycat." "Delilah."

It's 1982 - well past Tom's prime. Someone hears that Tom will be performing in a small theater in Denver. For some unknown reason, my mother, her friend, my sisters and I decide to go even though this will mean that we have to drive from Boulder to Denver (which for us was a big deal).

We arrive at the theater to learn that the show has been cancelled. The reason given was that Tom was sick. Ok. Now what. We're in Denver - we have to do something. Someone suggests the bar at the Fairmont Hotel (I'm 19 years old, but what the hell do I care).

We enter the lobby and head for the bar. Imagine our surprise when we see Tom with a small entourage walk right by us and into the restaurant. WTF! Not only did we drive from Boulder, but we didn't get our money back for the tickets.

So we go in the bar and have a couple drinks. My mother's friend, Trish, and I take a short walk to, um, powder our noses, me still bitching because Tom wasn't fricking sick. She comes up with an idea whereby we go into the restaurant and ask him why he cancelled the show. I say ok. Then she says, "You go first. You're younger."
The entrance to the restaurant is guarded by what appears to be tuxedo-wearing Gestapo. My thinking is that if you behave like you belong somewhere, people will often let you go there. I was nervous, but I stood up straight, looked straight past the Gestapo, and walked through the entrance quickly scanning for Tom's table. Score!

Curved booth on the right. Tom directly in the middle facing the aisle. Two people on each side. We stopped at the table. I looked directly at Tom and they all looked at me. I said, "I was just wondering why you cancelled your show tonight?" I knew he was expecting me to ask for his autograph, but I was waaaay to cool for that. I just wanted a fricking answer.
He said something about the theater cancelling it due to not enough ticket sales (boy, I wonder how that happened). I told him that we had driven all the way from Boulder and never got our money back. He said that they were going on to Texas and we should go there. I said, "Yeah, I don't think so."
He may have apologized. I don't really remember. So we walk out of the restaurant and my mother's pathological liar friend tells me that when we tell this story to our group, we need to add that Tom asked us to sit down for a glass of champagne. I personally thought that the story was good enough as it was, but I went along with her story. (Remember, she didn't say squat during this whole thing and now she not only wants to share the glory, but the glory isn't even good enough).

That's my brush with fame. (I never said it was impressive)!
In a wacky twist, we met a few "Argentine political leaders" who were in the US for something. My mother invited them to our house. They came. I don't know why. It was a weird night!

I can only dream that I saw this in person! Enjoy!

7 comments:

bernthis said...

I saw Tom in concert in Vegas. I had a total blast. I did hear he is a bit of an asshole in real life, sounds like the rumor is true

Irish Gumbo said...

Tom Jones and Argentine political leaders: that's a combination you don't often see! Say, was that pre-or post-Galtieri?

Kudos to you for your "cojones" (applause)


And thank you for your kind comment on my post today. I needed that :)

Briana said...

I should've written about the Jerry Ford Golf Invitational in Vail. I was older and, thus, had more cojones and I asked for autographs from a bunch of celebrities, including Jerry Ford (although the page of the booklet that I handed to him to sign was a beer advertisement).

And thank you, Irish, for all of the reading pleasure that you provide us with!

2 Brits, 2 Yanks, 2 Dogs said...

Briana - thank you for making me feel I am not the only one - who has a crazy 2 year old. My son does try and get out of his car seat every now and then and I tell him the policeman is going to take mummy to jail. Sorry about your ticket though good job he didn't notice.

Thanks for the comment about him being cute like yours - he is one heck of a charmer.

I agree about the dad thing I am so , so sad that he never got to meet my kids and the milestones.

As I am from Wales I had always liked Tom Jones but now he sounds like an arse.

So finally I have another McDreamy story which I literally just posted.

Charmaine said...

WHAT?????? I thought he asked you to fly with him to Texas.

That's what I have been telling people for 27 years.

Ahhhhhrg.

I remember telling those Argentinians the phrase Olga taught me in Puerto Rico. They told me that they had never heard such vulgarity from a woman.

Briana said...

Char, that was sort of true. The only blatantly false thing was the champagne thing.

SSP said...

OH MY GOD, I completely remember you talking about this! If you were 19 when you did this, AND it was 1982. I figure it had to be between October and December, when we lived together right? I don't remember the Tom Jones brush so much, but I DO recall the Argentine Political Leaders!!