Wizard of Pop

12 May 2000 - The Wizard Of Pop
My Christmas present from my sister, Paulette, the year I was 13 was tickets to the Billy Joel concert that year. It was 23 years ago. I can remember the concert was to be December 9th. She gave me the tickets near Thanksgiving. She came over to practice a song we had to sing the next day at church. She had a book in her hands. When we started singing she kept holding the book at a funny angle near my face. She had been there about 15 minutes. And she looked at me exasperated and said; “Don’t you see this?” I said, “Yeah, it’s a book.” She asked me if I didn’t want to know what the pieces of paper were that were sticking out of the book. She said normally I was so nosy I would have taken them and looked at the as soon as she walked in the door. So I looked at them. THEY WERE BILLY JOEL TICKETS!!! We were so in love with Billy Joel. I grew up not listening to secular music. My parents didn’t approve of most of it and to be honest I wasn’t impressed with what I did hear. But when Paulette introduced me to Billy Joel I immediately loved it. And Mom saw that he was talented so she didn’t mind.
To the best of my recollection that was the most excited I had been in my life up to that point. I am silly and excitable, add to that the fact that I was 13. (Whew, nothing much sillier than a 13 year old girl.) Then keep in mind that Paulette is even sillier and excitable. So our family heard little else than Billy Joel chatter for the 2 weeks before the concert.
Finally the day of the concert arrived. It was a school day, wasted day. Paulette was getting off work early. We left as soon as we both got home and got ready. We stopped by the florist and bought him some roses, 3 I think. We sang a song we wrote all the way to Charlotte.
We’re off to see the wizard The wonderful wizard of pop We hear he is a wiz of a wiz If ever a wiz there wop If ever a wizard of wiz there wop The wizard of pop is on becop Becop becop becop becop BECOP Becop of the wonderful things he dop
Told you there was nothing sillier than a 13-year-old girl. LOL. We got to the coliseum and hunted down the “stage entrance”. We saw a “roadie” or bodyguard or something. He was behind the “line” and had on Billy Joel stickers. We asked him if he knew Billy Joel. He said, “Yeah.” We screamed. LOL. My sister, the flirt, talked him into giving the roses to Billy Joel. We of course had no idea if he would.
After that we found our seats. Then, because, we had gotten there so early we had about a 2-hour wait. But it was just fun.
It was almost time and we were really on the edge at this point. Then everything went black, totally black. I thought, “Oh God, please no don’t let me go blind now. Let me see Billy Joel first!” Then we heard the whistle. Billy Joel was whistling the introduction to “The Stranger”. I started screaming, and Paulette started punching me in the arm. With every word she screamed she punched me in the arm. THAT (punch) IS (punch) Billy (punch) JOEL (punch). HE (punch) IS (punch) WHISTLING (punch)! Through that entire song she screamed a commentary in my ear and punched me in the arm.
When the lights came up we could see Billy and he was carrying roses. We had no idea if they were ours or not but it was 3 roses wrapped in paper just like we sent backstage to him. He put them in a beer bottle and put them on his piano. Needless to say this started another pounding screaming session. THOSE (punch) ARE (punch) THE (punch) ROSES (punch) WE (punch) GAVE (punch) HIM!!!
After a couple of songs things quieted down for a minute. I felt my arm. It was puffy and very hot. I told Paulette to feel my arm. She did, and said, “My goodness it’s burning up. What’s wrong with it?” I said, “that’s where you keep hitting me every time Billy sings.” She hadn’t realized she was doing it. LOL.
The concert was great. I enjoyed every moment of it. When it was over we were walking to the car. We saw a little crowd outside of a side door. We walked over to see what was going on. We got the impression that Billy would be coming out that door. So we waited and waited. All of a sudden a garage type door open several feet from where we were all standing. We headed over there. It just so happened that although Paulette and I were on the edge of the first group, we ended up in the very center of this rearranged group. Several cops rushed out of the door pushing us apart. They were saying, ‘Don’t touch the car, don’t touch the car.” It all happened real fast. All of a sudden there was Billy Joel in a limo right in front of me. Don’t touch the car,,,,,,,you’ve got to be kidding me. LOL. I put my hand on the glass right at his face. Two seconds later a cop knocked me down. Paulette stayed with the car for a minute snapping pictures. The pictures are blurred, but basically one is a close up through the glass of Billy then the next one is of Billy cringing in pain from the flash that hit him right in the eyes. Then she also got several of his hands through the glass.
The next morning my voice was gone from the screaming. My ears were ringing from all the noise. My butt was sore from hitting the pavement. And my arm was useless from the beating Paulette gave me. But it was worth it.
That was the first of many Billy Joel concerts. Each one was great. Paulette still goes to the concerts when he comes anywhere nearby. By nearby I mean within 500 miles. I believe the last one she went to was in Georgia, 2 states over.