Today, I Met a Real Cowboy

Heaven was at the Rodeo today! How beautiful is this man???? I'll be playing lottery tomorrow, #134. I'm feeling lucky.

My Top Ten List of Favorite Concert Performers

Do you remember your first concert? Mine was one of those group concerts with about ten performers but I remember the female rap group Sequence (with Angie B, now Angie Stone) being on the line-up and that's who I was excited to see. "Gonna funk you right on up, gonna funk you right on up!" Remember that? Well that was my first concert? It was probably 1982.

Shortly after that, my mom surprised my brother and I with what was our second concert for our 14th and 15th birthdays. My brother's birthday is the day after mine (October 21st and 22nd - he's a year younger) and at our birthday party, we were instructed to open our wrapped gift boxes at the same time. It was a very light box and as teenagers do, we shook our individual boxes and began to guess what it was inside. To our surprise, it was tickets to see Prince's Purple Rain tour which was scheduled for 11/28/84 in Washington, D.C. at The Capitol Center.

I jumped around the house for a good ten minutes as my friends watch on with envy. The Purple Rain tour was the concert ticket to have. Being that the concert was sold-out (within minutes), my brother and I had given up the idea of even going. At the time, there was no internet purchases. Then you had to camp out for the hottest concert tickets or pay someone who camped out a very nice chunk of change, more than what my mom was going to pay. But somehow, as my mom did all of our lives (trip to Canada, my first flight to London, etc.) , mom made sure that her sons were exposed to some of the best that life had to offer a teenager. Thanks Mom!!

Again, at the time, I didn't know that this concert would change my life. I had never seen Prince in concert. And although I loved Sheila E.'s "The Glamous Life" (song only - didn't have the album yet), I initially wanted to see Prince. But the night of the concert, I fell in love.

I wasn't prepared for Sheila E's performance. She was supposed to be the opening act however, after she finished, Prince didn't even have to come on. I fell deep in love. I was amazed at this woman being so sexy yet so damn talented. Up until then, I thought Sheila was just another Prince protege. She proved otherwise, playing the drums and timbales like crazy, picking up a guitar and playing, choosing a man from the audience and singing in his ear, just working the stage with such confidence and talent. I was so upset that I wasn't closer when they chose someone from the audience (the first time I had seen this concert trick done) and died at the thought of it happening to me. (Little did I know that this would happen to me some twenty years later, that Sheila would choose me from one of her audiences and give me the opportunity to sing with her on stage.) Seeing Sheila E. in concert changed my life, reaffirming for me that I wanted to perform and solidifying me to a life of chasing this woman around the planet to see another Sheila E. concert.

I've seen everyone from Aretha Franklin to LL Cool J in concert. But neither of these make my Top Ten List of Favorite Concerts - (this was a later Aretha show and it wasn't as great as I expected). The truth be told, I've seen Sheila E. in concert about thirty times, no exaggeration. The Prince "Lovesexy" tour came to London at least four times in one week and I went to every show because Sheila E. was playing drums. Now I must give it to Prince because Prince is one of the few performers that when you see shows from the same tour, you get a different show each night (unlike Madonna, Janet or even Michael Jackson which takes perfection in itself). Sheila E. has learned this well from her mentor as I've seen her night after night and she gives a different show each time. With all this said, guess who's number 1 on My Top Ten List of Favorite Concert Performers...

1. Sheila E. and Patti Labelle
2. Janet Jackson
3. Luther Vandross
4. Prince
5. Michael Jackson
6. Madonna
7. Chante Moore
8. Rachelle Farrell
9. Jennifer Holiday
10. Jennifer Hudson

The most surprising on this list is Rachell Rarrell, not because of her talent but because I wasn't a fan at the time I first saw her live. I was clueless to the depth of her as an artist but was given her concert ticket at the last minute because a co-worker/friend had just broke up with his boyfriend the same day as the concert and so he didn't want to go. Out of wanting to not waste a concert ticket, I went to check her out. My GOD!! If you've never seen this woman in concert, it's a must-see before you die. She's a ball of underrated energy and her voice is an instrument in and of itself.

Lastly, as an "honorable mention" to this list is surprisingly - Brandy. I went to see her show, taking another friend's extra ticket and so, not to waste a concert ticket, went to see Brandy give a fab performance. I like Brandy's music but would have never guessed that Brandy would probably be listed as number 11 to this list.

The First Time Any Song Made Me Cry

Luther's "A House Is Not A Home!"

I will miss this man and the new music that I'm sure was still to come. He is one of the few artists that has a career over decades and I still care even today. There's many artists that I note to love the earlier releases ONLY of their work - however, Luther's "I'd Rather" or "Dance With My Father" is just as classic as "Forever, For Always, For Love." I would have been all about ten more Luther CDs and let's not forget his concerts...who can touch this man?

We have truly lost one of the greatest in Soul Music today, certainly one of the best, most distinctive male vocalist of our times. No one will come close to what this man has offered to us through his music and spirit.