A friend of mine recently asked what my all-time favorite concert was.  I struggled with the answer.

Growing up in a small town, I had zero access to any concerts, aside from the few annual Mule Days (yes, you read that correctly), Inyo County Fair and Bishop Rodeo concert acts that would come through town.  My family and I once saw Juice Newton at the fair.  You’ll need to Google her.  My point being – I didn’t see many concerts until I went off to college.  And, I’ve been making up for lost time ever since, seeing more concerts than I can count.

I finally gave my friend a rough list of my top 10 favorites.  I mentioned them all in no particular order. U2, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Nickelback, (suck it, haters – yes, I’m a big fan, they’re really, really fun:)), Foo Fighters, Boys II Men, Maroon 5 and then I smiled as I remembered my first time seeing Stone Temple Pilots.

For a few years they were the headlining act for the Family Values Tour, a really great rock fest that typically featured three to four acts.

I think it was 2001 or 2002.  Chris and I got tickets to see them and then a good friend of mine that had many radio connections here in town got us backstage passes.  STP was playing with Staind and Linkin Park and set-up shop at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.  Both Staind and Linkin Park were newer to the music scene but already very popular.  STP of course had been around for years and was a household name. All I could think about was getting to see frontman Scott Weiland.

Years and years of scandalous stories shrouded this man’s talent.  He was always in trouble for this and that, with the majority drug-related.  I remember reading about the time he and his then wife fought in the penthouse of the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas and he never made it downstairs to the concert he was to perform that night at The Joint.  He was just a hot mess. But man was he a brilliant performer. Aren’t some of the best rock stars hot messes?  I mean, it seems to come with the territory so likely was inevitable for him.  He just could never get it together. He was in and out of rehab and some jail time for years. His craft rarely suffered though.  It likely got even better, sadly.

We made our way down to the depths of the old arena.  If you’re not familiar, this arena used to be where the Phoenix Suns played, prior to getting their fancy new facility in downtown Phoenix.  The years had not been kind to this place. I doubt it had had many renovations. I didn’t care though.  I hadn’t been backstage many times in my life so I was going to embrace it. I could see a man standing near a door and he waved. It was someone with the tour, that was there for fan meet and greets.  We appeared to be the only ones there other than him so no other fans. And we waited.

“A few of the guys from Staind and Linkin Park will be here in just a minute,” he said.  We smiled and said thanks. And sure enough, here they came. Frontman Aaron Lewis and one of the band members from Staind emerged from the door, along with Chester Bennington and another band member from Linkin Park. I have the photos somewhere to prove it. It was really fun and they were very nice, as you can imagine, embracing their fans with open arms. They told us to enjoy the show and disappeared back through the door. We stood there for what felt like five minutes and then I finally said, “So what about STP?  When will they be showing up?”

The man smiled and shook his head.

“Well, it’s hit or miss if Scott and the boys show for these things.  We never count on them.”

And in true rock star fashion, they never emerged from that door.  He apologized and sent us on our way back up to the concert.  It was going to start in a few minutes.  I felt defeated but I wasn’t going to let it ruin my good time.  I knew the concert would be awesome. And besides, we got to meet and take photos with a couple of really great bands.

Our tickets were right down in the pit, standing-room only.  When I say pit, it truly was a pit, complete with crazy moshers.  Even as “cut-a-bitch” as I was, even back then, I was never a mosher.  Chris and I stood way back against the wall of the area, safe and sound and away from the battle zone.

The concert kicked off with Staind, then Linkin Park and lastly STP.  None of them disappointed, especially Scott and the crew. He was every bit as good as his CDs, which is hard to come by.  Most musicians when they perform live aren’t quite as good as the studios can make them appear to sound on CD. But he was solid. At one point, he came down into the pit and literally was right above us, as a bunch of guys raised him up in the air, crowd-surfing style. And it was while he was singing what I feel is their all-time best song, Plush. I was smiling from ear to ear, singing along like the crazed fan that I was.  It was great.  And it didn’t matter that he blew us off for the meet and greet.  He gave us our money’s worth, all the way up to the very end of the show, when he came out on stage, wrapped up in a large American flag and one of the other band members ripped it away from him, like a towel, leaving him to stand there, naked in a fig leaf pose. The whole place cheered and screamed in shock and then he waved good-bye and ran off stage.

I saw him perform three more times, twice more with STP and once with Velvet Revolver.  He always put on a good show and sometimes was weirder than usual but again, I knew what I was getting into every time. The news outlets made sure to remind me of his recent antics. He always finished the show with the American flag bit. As a fan, I was trained to expect it and I know I would have been disappointed if he didn’t pull the repeated stunt.

I thank Scott for the great memories and entertaining me for years. Rock ‘n’ roll lost a legend this week and at 48 he was much too young and too talented to leave us so early. I hope he found peace and a new crowd to wear a flag for because he surely will be playing to sold-out shows in the afterlife.