I've never been the type to really be into autographs or meeting celebrities, but the desire to meet Adam has been growing on me for some time, mainly just to have an opportunity to thank him for the impact his music has had on my life.
When I heard he was going to be in Salt Lake City, I remembered my daughter had an in with a radio station there and called her up to see if she could get tickets; her contact came through, and with all of your encouragement, off I went! I am so glad I did!
I arrived early, so I ended up in the front row, pretty much right in the center, no more than 10 feet away from him.
The radio guy came out and told us that there would probably be no Q and A session, but
that Adam would sing a couple of songs and take pictures and give out signed autograph pictures.
Adam came out and sang a beautiful unmiked version of BTIKM. It sounded unbelievably crazy good live. Our group was told no vids, and so most were just listening, getting swept along in the beauty of those vocals. I do think he likes seeing people's faces and connecting with them when he sings. Of course, he looked right at me several times when he was singing, LOL. Really, though. He did.
The group was maybe 40 people... 6 guys, the rest female, equal parts girls 20-25 and 40-50 with a few younger teenage girls. Age wise, we were very diverse.
There was no DJ interviewing him, yay, and it was all very informal. After BTIKM he surprised us and asked if any of us had any questions. We did, lol. He chatted with us for a LONG time. It is a joy to watch him talk and to see how he genuinely connects with people. Then he sang WWFM and talked to us some more. He ended with Cuckoo. They sounded amazing unmiked. I can't even believe the things he can do with his voice.
When the questions started, I decided to get my time in right away. I told him I really admire the way he always expresses appreciation and thanks in his life and so I wanted to take take the opportunity
to express my thanks to him for taking some questions from us and for his music, and for retweeting the snippets of his new music yesterday. He asked me if I had listened to them all; I said that I had, that I loved them, he said thanks and gave me a big smile and said he wanted to give something to the fans since that was the original release date.
I asked him to tell me more about Shady and he said that he loves it, that it is groovy and funky and joked that the lyrics are "nasty." I asked him a question from Atop ask Adam about if being an international star influences his song choices. He said that different people in different parts of the world respond to different songs, but the songs last tour that everyone everywhere responded to were Strut, Fever and If I Had You, and that made him want to do more of those kind of dance songs for this album, because he felt how well
they worked on tour. He then added that he still wanted to include some more emotional songs to allow people to connect with him emotionally through the music as well.
We asked if anything surprised him this year in making the album and he said that he was surprised how much he liked his studio time this past year and how much he liked writing
songs, and that that is something he would like to get even more involved in, even with other artists. He says he has written a lot of songs and would be interested in giving them to other artists.
Someone asked him how he memorized lyrics. After admitting to a few lyric fails from time to time, he said that he listens to his album every day, that he has been listening to it every day for a while now because he wants to make sure it is perfect and that he can live with these songs and sing them over and over and not get tired of them. He then very quietly, and somehow humbly, said it is a really good album and he is very proud of it.
He said he probably won't tour for a while because he wants to spend the time necessary
to really be able promote each single well and that when he does tour, he wants the tour to be more of a spectacle this time around and more put together than last time.
Someone asked him how it is to pour himself into the really emotional songs. He says sometimes when he is singing them it is almost like a dream state and that it can be exhausting.
Someone asked if he will ever sing Can't Let You Go live. Laughing, he said it is a really hard song to sing.He said some songs are hard to sing live (mentioned pick you up and broken open) because of the arrangement post production or because they just don't play right live. He did say he might bring Broken Open back this tour because he loves it and he wrote it.
When Adam did Cuckoo, he did some great chair dancing, kind of some of the disco rodeo moves. My daughter (likes Adam, but not an avid fan) loved his voice when he sang Cuckoo. The song sounds really great live.
One young girl asked if she could ask Tommy a question. Adam said of course she could. Then she asked Tommy, with a sigh, very seriously, what it was like to get to be around Adam all day, every single day, lol. Tommy was sweet and said that it has literally been life changing, and they had some cute interaction together.
The thing that was surprising and amazing to me, although some have mentioned this before, was how I felt like I was having a genuine conversation with him during the Q and
A, and how I felt heard. Surprisingly, I didn't feel at all nervous. He made me feel he enjoyed talking to me as much as I enjoyed talking to him. No wonder interviewers rave about how nice he is. He is just a beautiful and very humble man.
I never cared about having my picture taken with him, but ended up doing it because I
wanted that proximity, lol. When my daughter and I came up for our turn, he gave us a big smile, opened his arms wide and said, "My girls." That made my year.
All in all, it was so worth it to be spontaneous and fly off to share this day with my daughter! I will always seriously treasure this experience, so thanks again to all who encouraged me to go!
Hope my long recap hasn't been too dull and self absorbed!
Posted on Page 1 now, tinafea
