Shortly before the doors were set to open, Hudson and Amy from Sparrow come out to start gathering the registration information to ease up the rush on the registration tables. I wish that I had known at the time that he was Hudson. He was a significant part of the team, or possibly the only one, that handled transferring the Golden Tickets for those that couldn’t come. Shortly after six, the doors opened, we were handed an index card and we rushed to the front. We were in the fourth row; the first three have been reserved. At some point before the concert, the restrictions are taken off of the third row and slowly everyone moved up a row. Third row, center stage, you can’t get much better than that.
Brian from Sparrow came out with instructions for the index cards. We were told to write down a question for Steven, and some of them would be asked during the Q&A periods. I wrote a question on both sides of mine. 1. If you could take your ministry in any direction, what would it be and why? 2. Would you want Caleb and Will Franklin to follow your footsteps into the music business? My questions weren’t asked, but that’s okay. Finally Steven came out.
The first song he sung was “All About Love”. He just sung his big heart out; Ruthie and Trish were waving around their AAL signs. Suddenly, he stopped singing, still kept playing and says, (this is not verbatim) “This is really unusual for me, I’ve never had people come to my concerts and think that I will forget the words to my songs. They have brought cue cards for me to read. So, I think they should come up on stage so you can all sing along.” I almost didn’t go up there, but I figured, hey, this was a one in a lifetime chance. We rushed the stage, literally. I hope that no one got hurt in our rush to get up there. We were on stage for possibly three minutes with SCC. Oh, my. My heart still beats rapidly just thinking about it. When he ended the song, we were officially dubbed the “Chapettes.”
The next things are not going to be in order, unfortunately, I didn’t take my own advice and take notes. All you can eat shrimp. What a story, Steven was 2 hours or was it 3, late for his first date with Mary Beth. He was at a place where he was to sing, but when it was time for him to leave he still hadn’t sung. He needed the money he was to be paid to take Mary Beth to Red Lobster for “All you can Eat Shrimp.” Did he win Mary Beth’s heart with a trip to the Red Lobster?
Poor Will Franklin has a broken thumb. Mary Beth was on the phone talking to the doctor about an upcoming test that Shaoey must have Will Franklin came in saying that he hurt his thumb. While Steven was talking to Mary Beth, she informed him of this. She told him, “I can tell you what color the cast is.”
The limo story. While I cannot do it the justice that a master storyteller like Steven Curtis Chapman did, and you cannot see the looks on his face and the hand motions, I will do my best to reiterate the story the best that I can. It was their anniversary, I’m sorry that I can’t tell you the exact one, I want to say it was the ninth. They had tickets to see a show in Nashville and were going out to dinner at a restaurant that they only go to for their anniversary. Steven decided to get a limousine to carry them to the events. He called around, and found that the prices for limousines were not cheap. Finally, J.T.’s Limousine Service quoted him a forty-dollar price for the evening. Steven snapped the deal up. Steven arranged for J.T. to meet him
