The Day I Met Chris Carrabba

Yesterday my best friend and I headed to an awesome festival to see my all time(for ten years) favorite band. Or really just the singer. The show was an acoustic show. No band...just Chris Carrabba and his guitar. Now, if you don't know who he is...he's the lead of singer of Dashboard Confessional. A friend introduced to DC back in 7th grade and I have been addicted ever since. I know every word to every song. I have seen them in concert 5 times. Honestly, nothing compares to being front row listening to this man pour his heart out through his music. It's beautiful and inspiring. I literally shed tears at every concert...his music just moves me that much.

After chasing Chris from city to city, concert to concert....I was so determined to meet him even more this time. Right before he took the stage I headed over to the merch tent to chat with the head of merchandising for DC. She was so sweet and awesome. I told her how big of a fan I was and how meeting him and getting a picture would mean the world to me. She said to come find her after the show and she'd see what she could do. So after two hours of pure bliss I headed back to the merch tent. She informed me that there would be no meet and great but that if I could find the production manager I could ask him. I looked around for a while with no luck and decided to head to the VIP tent. Talked to the security guy and he sent me back to the merch tent. At this point I felt like giving up until I saw Chris Carrabba 100 feet away from me...behind a gate. My friend and I waited around a while longer until I saw the production manager in the merch tent. I walked up and kindly asked him if I could meet Chris. Gave him my story and told him how much it would mean to me. He said he'd see what he could do. We waited around for about another half hour until finally he came back out. There were some friends of Chris that were wanting to go back as well and the PM came out to let them know they could come say hi. I walked up and he said "Yeah, you can come too". I grabbed my friend and we followed. The friends of Chris told the PM we weren't with them and he said "No, they're fine". A couple fans tried to follow behind but were told that only friends and family could come back...

We walked behind the gate under a tent and there he was. Sitting down, eating....like a real person. Okay, okay I know he IS a real person. But it's always kind of cool to see somebody famous doing normal things.

He immediately got up as I approached and I introduced myself. I gave him a hug and thanked him for his music. I told him how his music had gotten me through some of the hardest times in my life where he responded "It did that for me too". We went on to chat a little bit about twitter and the cities I had seen him in as well as a little about the military. I probably spent about 10 minutes with Chris..maybe a little less. I got three pictures with him. I have to say it was one of the most surreal moments of my life. He is somebody I have admired and looked up to for so long. I have tried to meet him so many times with no luck. But it finally happened. One more thing checked off of my bucket list.

I honestly can't believe yesterday happened. Chris was sweet and kind and everything I imagined him to be...and I must say he wasn't too hard on the eyes;)