My NKOTBSB journey began in January when I purchased incredible floor tickets section B row 4 for the Phoenix concert 6/30/11. It I was so happy that I was FINALLY going to be seeing the guys perform live. I had waited 22 years for this and kicked myself every time I had missed a concert in the past. No way I was missing out on the opportunity to see the Ultimate Boy-band NKOTBSB. My best friend Jessica was going with me and she had always been a BSB girl. I decided to share some NKOTB videos with her and she quickly converted to a DDUB girl for life. Jump forward almost 6 months to 6/29/11 the day before the concert. My best friend Jessica (@DDUBS_Covergirl) and I decided to drive to downtown Phoenix in search for our guys, hoping to possibly bump into them at one of the venues downtown. We parked near The Hard Rock in Phoenix and walked around for a bit but didn’t see any sign of the fabulous 9. Then I received a Tweet that they were staying at the Ritz Carlton in the Biltmore area. So Jessica and I hopped back in the car are drove over to the Ritz. When we pulled up we saw the 4 buses. We totally freaked out like 16 year old girls and parked to go see if we could get a closer look. After taking a few pics of the buses we decided to walk around, as we turned the corner we saw none other than the man himself, Donnie Wahlberg! I screamed, Jessica screamed but we did not want to bother him so we kept our distance. About 20 mins later we saw AJ Mclean come out for a smoke. This time we approached him and asked if he would take a pic with us. He was so very sweet and said “Sure girls.” He has such a quiet voice and was so polite to us. We talked to him for a few more mins and decided to call it a night; we wanted to be rested for the next day. 6/30/11 I woke up nice and early. I could hardly sleep the night before, as the anticipation was killing me. Jessica and I watched NKOTB concert videos pretty much all morning; we were truly getting our selves prepped for the evening. 2:00PM, we switched the radio station at work to Hot97.5 they were giving away 4 backstage passes to meet both NKOTB and BSB, sound check, Q and A and 4 tickets. 2:10 PM they announce that caller 97 was going to be the lucky winner of this AMAZING prize package. After 6 attempts with a busy signal, my 7th attempt I finally got a ring. At this moment I was wondering what caller I would be if they answered… when they answered… about 2 mins later, someone finally answered. Robert and Nina, the D.J’s asked me what was name was, my heart started pounding, I told them my name is Erin and they said “Congratulations, you are caller 97!!!” All I could say was NO WAY!!! They told me I was going to meet all 9 guys, and I had won 4 backstage passes to meet the bands (Both of them) I was so completely shocked I started crying and felt a wave of emotions flowing through me. I had exactly 1 hour to get downtown, we weren’t planning on leaving work for the concert for another 2 hours. Thankfully the Doctors we work for are wonderful and they let Jessica and I leave early. With no time to primp and fix our hair (Thankfully I got to change my clothes) we quickly drove downtown, NKOTB playlist blasting in the car. We arrived at US Airways Center at 3:15PM. I tweeted whoever can find me first gets my other 2 available Meet and Greet passes. 2 girls who follow me on Twitter found me quickly and I gave them my 2 extra meet and greet passes. I also decided to use the floor tickets we previously purchased so I gave away all four of the tickets I had won from the radio station. We waited around for at least a good hour before we were finally ushered backstage. While we were waiting by the dressing rooms, Lumpy, Donnie’s dog came over to us and was roaming around backstage. He was the cutest thing and like a mini-celeb himself! A few mins later Jonathan Knight walked by, he was holding Lumpy and playing with him. I called out “JONNNN” and he looked at us, smiled, waved and said “Hey girls!” We were grinning ear to ear. Then Brian Littrell walked by with his wife Leighanne. He told us that he and Donnie were working on a new thing called “Team Bronnie” ha-ha… he was super nice and he talked with us for a few more minutes. Finally we saw Donnie, Jordan, Jon, Danny and Joe and it was our chance to meet them! My stomach had butterflies and I can’t remember a time in my life that I had ever been more excited and nervous at the same time. We had 7 other people in our backstage group so Jessica and I, both Donnie girls, bolted to Donnie immediately. As we walked up to him he noticed the T-shirts we made, her’s DDUB and mine NKOTB. He was like wow and rubbed the letters on our chest’s J This was AMAZING, oh my goodness! Nothing could have ever prepared me for DDUB, he was smoking hot, had the best damn smile and I love his accent. Donnie gave the little boy in our group money to buy a T-shirt and that was the thing that amazed me the most! His generosity shines and I love him so much. I can’t believe I was standing right next to my favorite NK, talk about heart palpitations!! We gave Donnie hugs and posed for our pics. I told Donnie he followed me on Twitter finally on 6/26/11 (#3046) just in time for our concert and he smiled at me. Then I walked over to Jordan, gave him a high 5 and shouted STINGY baby!!! I gave Jordan a soft hug and told him he should follow me, and then I got nervous and never told him my Twitter name. (He eventually followed me 7/8/11 #1380) Next was Joe, he was so incredibly gorgeous and his eyes just mesmerized me. I gave him a giant hug and he said it was nice to meet me. He’s simply stunning! I grew up a Joey girl so this moment made me weak in the knees. I briefly gave Danny a hug as we were being shooed away by security, then I moved on to Jon. Jon gives amazing hugs and he has the cutest smile I’ve ever seen. As we were walking away Jessica asked Donnie if we could have 1 more hug, security said no but Donnie chased us saying “Yes, yes, yes!” I gave him another incredible hug and kissed him on the cheek! He smelled so good by the way. That moment will forever be etched into my memories among the best nights of my life. Now it was time for BSB sound check, Q and A and meet and greets. When it was our turn for pics with BSB they were not behind the barricade (Yay) I walked up to Nick first and hugged him, then I went over to Howie and asked if he had any chapstick. He told me he only had his chapstick and asked if I wanted it, of course I said yes and took it LOL. Since we met AJ the night before I told him we saw him at the Ritz and he said “Yeah, I remember you guys.” Swoon! We took our pics then headed out to meet our friends in the lobby. The concert was amazing and I will never forget this night thanks to the 543 pics and 20 videos Jessica and I recorded. We sat in floor section B row 4 (The shaft section) and the seats were incredible. Many thanks to the 9 most amazing guys in the world! I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given, this moment was truly “Once in a Lifetime.”
No comments:
Post a Comment