I should begin by saying that Memphis was my friend Amy and I's 4th show this leg of the tour, and 7th Buble show overall. We had the pleasure of being singled out as the ladies in the front row Michael felt it was natural to touch one another before "Me & Mrs. Jones" in Bossier City, then Amy was singled out for rocking to Naturally 7 in Dallas. This was her first big screen appearance, and when Michael said he saw her staring at Jamal, she yelled "It was the gun show!" which Michael repeated to the crowd. It was my joke, but I let her borrow it. Fast forward to this past weekend *March 8* in Little Rock, and once again Amy is singled out for loving Naturally 7. (We actually saw Michael sitting near the sound board, in his camouflage hat, not ten feet from us. ) He came over (and called her a "cutie-pie" TWICE, which she often reminds me) and had her dance while he beatboxed, and this, coupled with the t-shirts we were wearing, got us quite a bit of attention from people after the show. We posed for pictures with strangers, and frankly, it was kind of weird.
So Sunday morning we drove from Little Rock to Memphis, visited a friend when we got there, then my aunt and uncle graciously let us use their spare bedroom to freshen up. (We had to leave for Texas immediately after the show, so we didn't want to waste money on a hotel room we wouldn't even stay the night in. ) We were at the FedEx forum extremely early. I did not want to run the risk of being late on this day! We sidle up to the box office, I pick up our tickets, and then the ticket lady hands me these two beautiful Call Me Irresponsible Tour 2008 Preshow Passes. We stuck them on immediately and just sort of floated around. Were we really going to get to meet Mr. Buble??
We head to our seats and the sound guys are pointing at Amy. Seems they remember her performance from the night before! The minutes sloooowly go by and then it's time. Victoria spots us and asks which of us is Lori (that's me) and then stares at Amy. She says, "I know you!" Seems she rarely gets to see any of Michael's shows since she's busy working, but the one part she DID catch in Little Rock was Amy dancing on the big screen. She says, "Michael is going to crack up!" She leads us into the bowels of the FedEx Forum (which is all shiny, new and gorgeous by the way) and to a very nice room with a kitchen, a big bucket of bottled water, and 12 other radio winners. Everyone was nice and inquisitive as to who us late comers were, and we made sure they knew we were from the fan club, and one gentleman said, "Well, you certainly deserve to be here, then!" (A couple of the winners were two ladies from Scotland!)
We all got wrapped up in talking about Michael, his career, Emily, etc. when Mr. Buble himself walked in with a "Hey everybody!" We didn't expect it, and that was a good thing! I don't think any of us were at all nervous. He heads to me and Amy first, as we're on the far side of the room. We were both waiting for the recognition to dawn on him, and at first he was in "meeting people" mode as I call it. Happy face, hand out to shake - I can imagine meeting strangers day after day can be somewhat daunting, and he can't be expected to remember everyone he meets. As soon as he looked Amy in the face, though, his face lit up and he said, "Oh my god, it's you!" After that, my memory gets fuzzy. How can I be expected to keep my wits about me with Michael right there?? We talked about how great Naturally 7 is and I kind of complained that he was making us miss part of their set, and that they had even changed it up, and we were missing "Broken Wings. " He said, "Well, they did it last night, didn't they?" And I shot back, "No, they didn't!" I was arguing with him!
He went on to greet everyone in the room, then came back to take pictures. We stood against a wall with a photo of Beale Street, since Kim thought that was very artistic. Amy and I were first, and got to kind of stand there for awhile with his arms around us, while he said how that night was very special since his grandfather and Uncle Butch were there. That got a big "Awwwwww" out of the room. And then we took this!
We thanked him, and he told Amy that he wouldn't make fun of her again tonight. Then we were ushered back to the floor, caught the rest of Naturally 7's set (Michael beat us all out there, and he wasn't even wearing his hat this time!) and then the show started. If you've seen it, I won't give a detailed review. He was on, as usual. Come time to talk up Naturally 7, we both figured he'd be true to his word and pick on someone else; instead he came right over to Amy and told the crowd that she was in Little Rock the night before and he needed her to show them all her moves. This is where he got a little dirty. He and she did a lot of "whoo-hoo" back and forth, and he said, "I imagine you in the shower, just all WHOOOO!!! Ooh, Buble's using his imagination!" I was dying. DYING!
We finally got a picture with Naturally 7 after the show, fielded about a million photo requests from Amy's admirers, and then got on the road at 12:30. Didn't roll into *Amy's town* until 4:30 am! It was a whirlwind weekend, and looking back it seems like it lasted forever but was still over too soon.
Quick Amy note: If you watch the Ellen DeGeneres Show, you may have seen/heard these guys. They were on the episode with Mariah Carey. Oh and the short story behind the t-shirts...I came up with the idea during the Reba/Kelly concert that Lori and I went to. At first Lori was reluctant, but then she went with my crazy-ness.
Me with Naturally7
Me with Jamal
