Meeting Tony Bennett
Remembering meeting Tony Bennett
I’ve been pretty fortunate, Lisa usually says “you know, you’ve got it pretty good”. OK, I guess.
One of the more fortunate evenings we had in our relationship occurred many years ago. I was the music director for a radio station here in town, and I took a call one morning from one of the record label representatives I knew. The calls happened often. This one came with a last-minute invitation. Tony Bennett was performing, that night, at Chastain Park in Atlanta. There were two tickets available if I wanted them. I was always up for any new experience, so I called Lisa to see if she wanted to go. My schedule at the time was such that going to the show meant leaving town around 4ish, getting to the venue between 6 and 7pm, and then driving home from Atlanta after the show so that I could be back on the radio the next morning. She was game, but in the end, left the decision to me. I said, “let’s go, we may never get another chance to see him”
As we arrived at our seats, the record representative found us to let us know that there wouldn’t be any backstage access. He was flying out that evening and needed to get to the airport. Then at intermission, he came back to us to tell us that there would be a small group going backstage to meet him and did we want to go? Again, she left that decision up to me, because that would mean leaving Atlanta even later, and less sleep before having to get up in the morning. “We’re here” I said, let’s go backstage.
As we were waiting in line to go backstage, we were then told that there would be no photographs…ok, oh well. After a short wait, because he had obviously changed clothes, Tony Bennett appeared. Cordial, warm and delightful. After a minute or so, he asked, “does anyone want a picture?”. We told him that we were told there would be no photos, he then said, “nonsense, who told you that” and looking right at Lisa said “come here sweetheart, let’s take a picture”. That’s the photo you see below. The only other thing I remember from that brief encounter is that he said that he always rode in a black limo, never a white one, white ones were for weddings.
The encounter wasn’t long, they never were in those instances, but it made for a very memorable evening for the two of us. An evening we’ll never forget, made all the more poignant by his passing last week.
