Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 14:40:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Kimberly Dimig"
Subject: Met ya at the Asparagas Festival in Stockton
To: nelsons@thenelsonbrothers.com

Hi,

Wanted to let you know that my long forgotten dream of meeting you finally came true. Of course, like most people when meeting their idols, I froze. I had so much that I wanted to tell you, and next thing I know it, I was headed for the gates and hadn't said a word, except, "I'm a huge fan." So I decided to write you this letter, to tell you some of what I really wanted to say.

I wanted to say that I am huge fans of your music and parents are huge fans of your fathers music. When I discovered you guys when I was about 12 or so, I was instantly hooked. I loved your pop rock style and your inspirational lyrics. I convinced my parents to listen to you guys after telling then that you were Rick's sons and got them hooked as well. Back then I was also into other music such as Slaughter, Poison, Warrant, Ozzy, etc. that my dad refered to as "noise" that they would have no part of, but both my parents really liked you guys.

My best friend and I were really crazy about you guys. She used to like Gunnar and I used to like Matthew. We used to come home from school every day and watch Pauly Shore on MTV just so that we can see your videos as well as some of our other favorites by other artists. Later, I got the After The Rain VHS video you came out with and we watched it over and over again until it pretty much wore out. We had all the videos memorized down to every little detail, including the times and ways you flipped your hair, to the little things like how when Matthew approaches the microphone during one part of After The Rain and one little tuft of hair kind of gently floats forward. Half of my bedroom wall was litreally wallpapered from floor to cieling with posters and pinups and articles of you guys and the other half was reserved for everyone else. We even had little fantasies of how we were going to run away from home and lose our virginities to you and even dream about it. I also used to say that I was going to marry a guy 10 years older (I'm 10 years younger then you guys), if I coudn't marry Matthew. I would even celebrate your birthday every year by playing your album on my stereo and eat ice cream. I guess you can say we were sickenly obessed, but I guess that's how teen girls think about celebrities.

Around my 13th birthday, in April of '90 I believe, my parents took me to Great America to see you guys in concert. It was like a dream come true. In the week before, I designed a banner out of an old sheet and painted the "Nelson" logo on it with the dove "N" as the beginning letter. It actually turned out pretty good. I believe we were seated in the middle section at the concert and had to look through binnoculars to really see you guys which kinda sucked, but I really loved the concert. It was so awsome, I wouldn't shut about it for months.

After MTV got rid of Pauly Shore and started to play House of Style shows and the like instead, and everything turned more toward a rapper era. I kind of lost interest in MTV and stopped watching it. When I was about 15, I became a rebel and started running away from home alot, due to problems with my mom drinking and my dad being gone all the time. When I was 17, I stayed gone. I didn't really pay attention to the music era during these times, or maybe even just got into what everyone else was listening to such as Nirvana, Concrete Bonde, Collective Soul, and some others. Nobody wanted to listen to what I liked. Later all of my tapes got stollen, so music just kind of faded away for a while for me.

Since then, I've grown up. When I got back into music, I was introduced to and started listening to Classic Rock stuff like Journey, Styx, Kansas, etc. and other softer stuff such as Tom Petty. As far as I knew, you guys had dropped out of existence. Were one of those one hit wonder type of bands and could never find any of your stuff in record stores. Of course, I was still stuck on tapes at that point and didn't even bother to look in the cd section

After getting married in 1999, to a guy 11 years older then me ;). I was introduced to the wonderful world of CD's. My husband also got me more into computers and other higher tech stuff. I had already learned alot about computers in college, but it was more word processing programs, etc. Bryan (my husband) taught me more about the internet and how to use it effectively, to find information on just about anything. On day, I looked up Nelson and found your website. I discoverd that you guys had came out with like 4 or 5 more albums that I had no clue about. I was fastinated with reading more about you guys and how you had changed, and learning of Matthew's marriage to Yvette. I was just blown away. Of course, then I knew what I wanted for Christmas that year. Not only did I get my replacement album of After The Rain (this time in CD form), after all those years, I got two more of your newer albums, Because They Can, and Imaginator, as well. I loved them all and wanted, and still do want the rest of your albums.

My husband and I talked about going to the asparagas festival, then decided after spending a lot of money on our animals due to a flea and tick problem, that we couldn't afford it. On Easter, just as we got home to Sacramento, from spending the weekend with my family in Stockton, my aunt called me and said "Guess who's playing at the Asparagas Festival?" and she said it in a way that she knew I'd be thrilled with the news, so right away I thought about you guys, and sure enough. I just had to go. How often does your idol musician come to your home town where you were born and raised? It had to be a sign, and I just had to go. I called my dad up and said, "Hey, you want to give me the best birthday present ever?" and he says, "I guess you want to see whatchaamajigger at the whatchamacallit?" My dad has a very unusual way with words. I says, "You mean, Nelson at the Asparagas Festival? yeah!" So he agreed to pay my way in.

The night before the festival, I wanted to think of the perfect item that I can have you autograph. I had an idea of drawing something, but wasn't sure exactly what. Then I remembered the video After The Rain and how you talked about the indian and the feather and the two balls of light, basically the red representing Gunnar, and the blue representing Matthew. And it inspired me to draw the dove "N" logo with the feather behind it and the two balls of light, one red and one blue, but I hadn't seen the video in almost 10 years, so I couldn't remember exactly what the feather looked like. I went digging in my cupboard trying to find the video, but couldn't. I finally gave up, and got online to ask my friend in New York (who is also a huge fan) if she remembered what the feather looked like, and she wasn't sure either. So I went by memory and drew it how I remembered it and I thought it turned out pretty good. But I decided not to put the dove over the N, because I thought it would make the whole picture look too busy. So it was the N with the feather kind of behind the N, with the tip of the feather draped over the top of the N. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for autographing it for me, it meant alot to me.

I loved the concert. I loved the way it was more personal and kick back then your original ones were. I loved the fact that I got there only a few minutes before it started and was able to sit pretty much right up front and be able to watch you guys without binoculars. Even my husband liked the concert and he was pretty much "anti-Nelson" before because of the pin-up image you guys used to have. You guys were a "girly-band" was what I think he said, and wouldn't even give you a chance. So I'm really glad that he went and I'm glad he liked it. He got to see up front what you guys were about. I wanted to thank you for signing everything I had, my drawing, my daughters drawing that she drew to look like mine, my photo of you for my friend in New York, and my cd. And thanks for taking the picture with me and autographic it as well. It's something that I'll always cherish. My husband and I plan to scan it so that we can preserve it. Since it's a polariod, he says it will fade over time.

My dad's frind, Dave, bought me "Like Father, Like Sons" while we were there, and I played it right after the concert, and it was like I was there again. It was really cool. Everytime I play that cd, I can remember this concert.

One more quick thing... I know that this letter is already super long, and I wouldn't blame you for not reading it all. I just wanted to get this all out to ya, since I didn't get the chance when I met you... A couple of hours before you were due to go on, I realized that my camera was low on batteries. Do you know how hard it was to find batteries at the Asparagas Festival? My dad's friend, Dave, who is an Asparags Festival finatic and who has gone every year since they first started, mentioned that the the day before, Bank of America was passing out radios that came with triple A batteries (which was the kind I needed) for filling out a credit card application. I said, "Where? Show me." So we did it, and the batteries were a different type then I had before, and wouldn't work right. So we combined the new ones with the old ones and it worked long enough to get about 8 pictures from the whole festival, 4 were from the concert. Unfortunately, the lighting conditions weren't the greatest, so they didn't turn out very well. But that was a story I wanted to share to show my devotion to ya.

I see that you're going to be playing in Chico. I'm going to try to make it to that. Maybe I can get my camera to work right this time so I can get some better pictures. Maybe I'll get more time to actually talk with you and not spend all the time having you sign a bunch of stuff. Who knows? Anyway, thanks for spending the time that you did with me and thanks again for signing all my stuff. Hopefully, I'll see ya in Chico.

A devoted fan,

Kimberly