Hey, sweet cheeks.
Dan had some swell fun last week. He played lead guitar with the fabulous Sean Michael Dargan band, opening for America at the Overture Center. They played their a**es off and made a strong impression on the America guys (I was standing in the stage wings like a dutiful groupie while the SMD boys played and saw the America boys hanging out behind me, listening and watching).
After the opening set was over, Gerry from America (I could go look up his last name, but this moniker is easier…aw, man…now I should probably go look up how to spell “moniker”) chatted up Dan and asked all about his guitar setup–very cool.
So then we stood and watched America play–they were as amazing as ever–and when they came offstage, they saw Dan and Sean and hauled them back onstage with the whole America crew to play and sing on the “Horse With No Name” encore. ‘Twas gorgeous and grand. When America’s lead guitar was grabbing Dan, he said “you can borrow one of my acoustics–oh! unless you want the solo”…to which Dan replied “um, no that’s cool; the acoustic’s fine.” He said later: “there’s no way in hell I was going to risk messing up the encore solo!” : )
Dan and Sean both sounded terrific, and at the last bow, the America duo stuck D & S in between them to join in receiving the applause. So gracious of the big stars. It was awesome.
So next time you see Dan, be forewarned: the first words out of his mouth will probably be “say, did I tell you about the time I played onstage with America?”