The day I met The Who

[Jay]

About a year or so ago when I added AGD as a friend on Facebook, I let him check out my pictures of myself and The Who backstage at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. I met them through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. At the time I told him that I would tell my story on here. Well, I've decided to do just that. This is the "short version". I only included the part about The Who. My stay in Pittsburgh was actually a few days, but here's the "important" part.   Here it goes:

I arrived in Pittsburgh, by way of a limo, the day before the show. We stayed at the Weston William Penn Hotel(I hope I got the name right). All accommodations were made courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We were there three or four days. Maybe a week, I can't remember exactly. Anyway, both my parents and I met Pete, John, and Roger before the show. During the backstage meeting, they all invited us to meet them after the show as well (not the original plan ). Pete offered me anything I wanted from the food plate. I was VERY nervous, so I politely declined the offer. Pete then walked over to me, opened my hand, and gave me a few Hershey chocolate candy bars. They melted in my hand, but that's another story.  My mother asked if she could take a few pictures of everybody with me. Roger said "Of course you can", right away. He actually acted surprised that somebody actually asked permission first. Not in a rude way, but shocked that somebody was being polite about it. I got a picture of all three of them with me, and a picture of me with each member seperately. John pulled up a chair and sat right next to me, at my level(I'm in a wheelchair). He and I had a good conversation, and he acted like I was an old friend. I will never forget how great he was. I asked him about his spider necklaces. When I got their autographs, John drew a little cartoon of a spider under his name.  After the show I wanted to get a t-shirt. As a result of searching for one, we got slightly lost.  When we finally made it backstage, they wanted to know what took so long. My mom told them that I wanted a shirt. Roger then walked out to the hall and told somebody to get one of every single t-shirt left! They all autographed each one for me. I have a total of 5 t-shirts with their autographs on every one. After the show, Pete walked up to the microphone and said "We dedicate this show tonight to Jason..a kid whose come to see us". I have a cassette audience tape of the show, and you can clearly hear Pete dedicate the show to me. You can also see and hear him dedicate the show to me on the circulating audience video(which I have, but only on vhs).

[Alex]

Nice story. That`s pretty damn awesome that you got to meet Entwistle before he passed.

[Jay]

Of all the pictures of myself with them, the one of John and I is the only one not "posed". I actually didn't know a picture was being taken. That's how "into" the conversation we were.  It is my most prized possession.

[Jay]

I left one detail out. When we were all backstage, Pete kissed my mom on the cheek. I started picking on her about it, so Pete(playfully) leaned down to kiss ME on the cheek. I, rather stupidly, decided to kind of fight Pete off. It was in a joking way, but kind of dumb on my part now that I look back on it. Anyway, as a result of my fighting him off, Pete banged his head into my "halo" neck brace. Not that long after we got home(a month, possibly), I convinced my mom into writing a letter to Pete, asking if he was alright. Fast forward a month or two. I was getting up that morning and I heard my mom talking on the phone. All of a sudden I heard her say something like "I've got ot call you back, Jason just got a letter from Pete Townshend!". Pete had sent me a HAND WRITTEN letter, assuring me that his head was fine.  I have the letter framed on the wall today.

[MBE]

I figured them for cool guys! I love their pre Tommy work and everything through Face Dances has a lot going for it. Fantastic band. The first three albums and dozen singles rank among my favorite records ever. Got to see them in 1996 and it was hands down the best show I ever saw. Funny I don't really like playing the post seventies live stuff at home, but being there it was so fantastic.

[MyGlove]

wow man that is really cool i would have loved to meet john before he passed away. he was always my favorite member cuz of how reserved he was. but he was a beast at the bass.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

I always imagined the Who this way, thanks for making my day a little brighter!

Also: imagine if Keith was there he would've probably blown up a toilet for you

[Jay]

Oh man, the idea of Keith pushing me around in my wheelchair at a million miles an hour...we could have caused thousands of dollars in damages. It would have been AWSOME!! 

[GuyO]

What a great story! Thank you very much for sharing it with us.