‘With Love to Mandi & Eric, Love Rules- Eddie’
I never in my life thought id get to meet any members from pearl jam,
much less EV. Not that I’m anywhere close to being one of those ‘vedder
obssesers’ I’ve just always had a huge appreciate for things he did,
things he said, and the music that I fell in love with.
Between my husband and I, we have attended about 22 shows. It would have
been more if I was older than I was (was very young when they first
started, so my mother wouldn’t dare let me go to a rock concert. There’s
really no way to describe how much I enjoy shows. The shows I’ve been
to, ive met some of the coolest people and always have such a blast with
them before the show even starts and after the show is over, its just
unreal. I even met my husband at a pearl jam show so I owe a lot of my
world honestly, to Pearl Jam. So when I got the chance to meet Eddie
Vedder, lets just say it was like going to church and then meeting god.
Well a year prior to the show in E. Rutherford (night one) I had
attended the show at the Wachovia center in Philadelphia. Not to get too
personal with this story, but me and the love of my life had gone
through hell the year prior to that show. That show was what kept us
going, because we knew, soon we would be able to be together, and go to
another show. Everything seemed to work out perfectly that night, not
only did I get to hear songs that I wanted to so bad, I also caught Ed’s
harmonica at the beginning of the night (and I was standing in between
two really tall guys so I thought it was funny that I caught it instead
of them lol) So any who, now that I’ve cleared these things up, ill move
on with my actual point.
So we went to church that night, haha, and had such a blast. We had
decent seats got a ton of great songs (ie footsteps, indifference
closer, ect) and met some people that we had been wanting to for a very
long time and realized they were just as cool as they were via phone and
internet. After the show sadly, we really had no place to be other than
to go sleep on the floor Eric’s (my husband) parents house. So we
decided to hang out for a little while after the show. We were waiting
for a friend, and just chatting when we realized it was an hour later
and the entire parking lot had cleared. Eric had mentioned “wouldn’t it
be so cool if one of the guys came out?” I pretty much shook it off
because ‘yeah right, like we’d ever be that lucky.’ So then as we were
about the leave, we saw a set of black vans come out of the venue. We
both remembered hearing that the guys traveled in black vans, so I ran
to the car and got my good luck pearl jam charm, our harmonica. I gave
it to Eric and he put it in his pocket. Again I was completely positive
that we wouldn’t meet anyone, so I just stayed standing to let Eric be
more excited than I’ve ever seen him be.
A few minutes later another van came out of the underground part of the
venue. Eric took out his harmonica, and waved it in a “thanks for this”
kind of way. The van suddenly stopped, and who else, but eddie vedder,
jumped out of the van, walked right up to me, and stood as if saying
“hi, im here” lol So yeah I was completely in shock. Never thought in a
million years id get to shake the mans hand. Much less have him treat me
so well, and refuse my handshake for a hug. I was completely cool the
entire time for those who were wondering only because my legs were
shaking so bad! Eric of course was rambling at him about how we met,
ect, so I didn’t get time to tell him much. I also figured he wouldn’t
appreciate some random chick attacking him with all these words of
thanks. So I kept quiet mostly, and noticed that ed was fidgeting with
his new hat, trying to take the cardboard out. I said something like,
“new hat or what?” I was about to go on a long rant about baseball(im a
huge fan and knew he was too) but then eric wanted to take a picture, so
Ed’s body guard Pete, took the cam, and told us all to get ready. They
were both completely cool about everything. Ed seemed almost happy to
sign our harmonica and take a picture. I always saw Ed as being someone
who that would probably annoy and I could understand that. I was
completely wrong of course, and ed was one of the nicest people ive ever
met. He was very ed, yet had this completely loving, sweet ‘aura’ around
him. Ed then put his arms out for both of us to give him a hug, and we
said our goodbyes and all left the venue.
So ed, if you ever read this, sorry that I was so quiet and didn’t give
you the thanks you and all the things that should have been said that
you deserve. It’s a little bit intimidating to meet someone you thought
you never would in a million years. So with that said, I should have
kissed YOUR hand and said so much more, but hopefully you heard some of
what I had to say some how.
That’s our Ed story and was one of the greatest moments of my life and
we will always hold it dear in our hearts.
Mandi & Eric