Right now, Joe is exchanging words with, and signing memorabilia for his Brisbane fans at the city Allans Music store in Brisbane. However, I am not allowed to be one of them.
My objective was to document Joe's meet-n-greet session in its two-hour entirety. In anticipation of his arrival, I positioned myself close to the podium which was crowned with an aura of Ibanez JS guitars.
Joe's San Francisco DVD was playing on a widescreen, and the line of fans was long, but not overwhelmingly so. Chatted with a few folks up at front, including the security guard. Happened to mention Dimebag Darrell and what, how and when it happened.
After a moment, I moved back and out of the way and began to write a list of questions to ask Joe, when one of the guards came up to me and asked me to leave my bag near the entrance. We walked over, where there was another guard standing with a grim face. He was soon joined by a third, who began interrogating me as to why I am here, where I'm from, what do I do, why am I jotting notes and so on. Realising what was going on, I fully complied with their requests and allowed them to go through my bag. Then the manager of the store came up and asked them who they thought I was. They said "he seems to be just a fan", to which he told them to kick me out. All eyes were on me as a guard escorted me out of Allans and down the stairs.
It has been one of my most humiliating experiences ever. While I can understand why they reacted the way they did, I am disappointed they didn't give me a chance to even stand in line after establishing I wasn't a dangerous lunatic out to harm Satch. I have been waiting over 10 years for a moment like this, only to have it stolen from me so callously. Still, I'd rather give that up than see any harm come to Joe.
Lesson to be learnt: do not utter Dimebag's name at a guitarist meet-n-greet event.
My objective was to document Joe's meet-n-greet session in its two-hour entirety. In anticipation of his arrival, I positioned myself close to the podium which was crowned with an aura of Ibanez JS guitars.
Joe's San Francisco DVD was playing on a widescreen, and the line of fans was long, but not overwhelmingly so. Chatted with a few folks up at front, including the security guard. Happened to mention Dimebag Darrell and what, how and when it happened.
After a moment, I moved back and out of the way and began to write a list of questions to ask Joe, when one of the guards came up to me and asked me to leave my bag near the entrance. We walked over, where there was another guard standing with a grim face. He was soon joined by a third, who began interrogating me as to why I am here, where I'm from, what do I do, why am I jotting notes and so on. Realising what was going on, I fully complied with their requests and allowed them to go through my bag. Then the manager of the store came up and asked them who they thought I was. They said "he seems to be just a fan", to which he told them to kick me out. All eyes were on me as a guard escorted me out of Allans and down the stairs.
It has been one of my most humiliating experiences ever. While I can understand why they reacted the way they did, I am disappointed they didn't give me a chance to even stand in line after establishing I wasn't a dangerous lunatic out to harm Satch. I have been waiting over 10 years for a moment like this, only to have it stolen from me so callously. Still, I'd rather give that up than see any harm come to Joe.
Lesson to be learnt: do not utter Dimebag's name at a guitarist meet-n-greet event.
