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