One of the most amazing times...

One of the most amazing times of my life happened this week. I attended Ace Young’s Album release party at the Mohegan Sun Casino in CT.

From the beginning…

I arrived on Monday at Hartford Airport in CT. I had prepaid for a shuttle round trip so I didn’t have to worry about renting a car. When the black Lincoln Towncar pulled up for me I was in shock. I had expected a shuttle bus. Put no, here was a limo driver opening the door for me and saying, “Welcome to Hartford Mrs Damico! It wasn’t a stretch limo, just a regular one. But I had great conversation with the driver on the one hour trip to the Mohegan. He was just a little older than me but used to run a night club and book bands. So we talked about music & Ace the whole trip.

Then out in the middle of nowhere we pull into this huge resort. The building is unbelievable. If I remember correctly it is 27 stories high and all glass. My first thought… I hope my room isn’t up too high!

From the moment you walk into the Mohegan and you are transformed into another world. It’s just breathtaking. From the décor to the FIRST CLASS service from every employee it was probably one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed.

Luckily my room was on the 11th floor. I peeked out the window once just to see how high it was. Needless to say the sheers stayed closed on the window for the next two days! The rooms were very spa like and perfect. It looked like no one had ever stayed in that room before. This was one hotel that I wouldn’t have worried about drinking out of the glass and I didn’t lock my toothbrush up in the safe ( I know that made a few people chuckle)

I was sharing a room with a girl from Pittsburgh that I’ve never met. After Ace was at my house I was invited to join two of his fan clubs. I’ve been chatting with these girls for over year and have gotten to know a lot of them really well. But I’ve never met most of them, including my roommate. I was a little nervous about it but it worked out really well.

After I got checked in, I went down to the Casino and walked the floors. It is a huge place and I wanted to figure out where everything was so I didn’t panic if I got lost. I don’t travel by myself often so this was a real adventure for me. But after an hour I had it all figured out and I felt better. I found Spin Street Records were Ace was supposed to perform on Tuesday and they had a great posterboard made for him. The excitement
started.

Then my phone started to ring. Some of my friends were arriving and wanted to meet up. The first to arrive was Sandy, her 16 yr old daughter Candice, friends Simone and Jillian from Virginia Beach. This was our first time to meet and it didn’t matter. We were so happy to see each, there were many hugs. Candice is in love with Ace and Simone is in love with Ryan. Jillian was just along for the ride because she loves music. So we hung out for a couple of hours and had dinner at Lucky’s. Of course everything in the Casino is card related so every time we saw something with Ace’s we had to take a picture!

Next arrivals were Elly and her daughter Cheryl from CA. More hugs and laughter! It was so wonderful to finally meet them. They are from Holland and Elly has the cutest accent.

Then my roommate arrived and I helped her get checked. She was beyond excited! I had to tell her a couple of times to please calm down a little... she was starting to send me over the edge. LOL But as soon as I said something she would be ok for a little while. I told her in advance about my panic attacks so she knew if I said… to calm down a little why I had to say it.

I had expected Ace & Ryan to come in on Monday since they were coming from CA and would have a lot of press, etc to do. So I emailed Ryan in the afternoon to see what their schedule was looking like and told him I was excited to see him again. He wrote back and unfortunately he wasn’t going to be able to make it. He had to leave for Europe on business in a couple of days and had too much to get ready to go. I was sad because I was really looking forward to seeing Ryan again. But then I thought about young Simone and who was pretty much bouncing off the walls knowing she was going to see Ryan soon. Well not really see him because the cutie can’t look at him up close. Everytime she see’s Ryan or Ace she can’t look up at their faces! LOL Man she is really missing the awesome views! So I told Sandy & Candice that Ryan wasn’t coming and they wanted to tell Simone themselves. Poor Simone cried so hard when she found out. When I saw her next she was still sniffiling so I gave her a big hug. I told her I would take a pic of her and send it to Ryan and tell him she is sad and that she was sending a card for him with Ace. So I did that and Ryan wrote back right away saying now he felt horrible for breaking her heart. So I asked him if he could make a comment on her myspace sometime soon, that would brighen her week! It’s amazing how much love and compassion these Young brothers have for their fans.

We decided we needed to keep someone in the lobby area to keep an eye out to see when Ace was arriving. So we did that all evening until someone called that had just checked Ace’s myspace page and he said on it that he had just landed at JFK airport and that he had 2 TV shows in the morning and 1 press interview with a radio station in NY and then they would be heading over to the Mohegan. So we all could relax then knowing he wasn’t coming in. Yes, we were disappointed because we were hoping to be able to spend some time with Ace before all of the crazy women arrived the next day. Now this might have made you chuckle thinking I’m the crazy one, but actually compared to a lot of these ladies, I am the normal one.

I head off to the casino to try to win a million or two. I saved a stack of $1 bills (which makes you look really rich with a big wad on money) from our yard sale a few weeks ago for the slot machines. To my surprise, the smallest bill you can now put in a slot machine is $5! I used to enjoy walking around to different machines and just dropping one or two quarters in to see if I would hit. Well no coins anymore. I lost $10 in two minutes so that was enough me for me! LOL

My friend Sandy decides that we need to make a trip to the 24hr Wal-mart to buy Ace’s new CD at midnight. So off we go at 11:30pm with the local Wal-mart programmed into the her GPS. After two times of getting half way there and having the GPS take us back to the Mohegan I gave up. By this time it’s almost 1am and I had been up since 6am. I told her I’m going to bed and I’ll just buy my copies at Spin Street Records when they open. They dropped me off and then went back to try and find Wal-mart. They were on a mission!

The next day was super exciting… every hour more and more people were arriving and everyone was just on an extreme Ace high! About 2:30 Ace & Marion (his guitar player arrived.) There were about 10 of us outside or in the lobby. Poor guy looked exhausted. But he said high to everyone and gave everyone a hug. I was last and when he hugged me I asked him if I could get 5 minutes of his time when he had a chance. He looked at me with the most concerned face and said, "Joni, why what’s wrong?" I told him nothing was wrong, I had something to give him and I just wanted to do it privately. He said absolutely he would make time but could it be later because he was so tired and needed to rest for a few hours before the show started. So off he went to check in and up to his room he went.

We all just stayed in the lobby (this lobby was huge with several sitting areas, etc and it was nice place to have conversations) for a while and chatted more about Ace and his music, etc. It was nice to hear so many different people telling about their experiences with Ace. And you know what? They were all different stories but the one thing was the same in all of them…. That Ace was a wonderfully talented & compassionate man that everyone loves.

Ok now it’s nap time. The Highrollers (this is what Ace fans are called, funny word in a Casino) rented a suite to have an after party so I knew this was going to be a late one. So I wanted to make sure I was wide awake so I didn’t miss anything!

(I hope you are still with me and reading because the Ace stuff, pics & videos are coming up soon! I just did a word count and I’m already at 1600 words!)

I wasn’t able to sleep but at least I rested. My phone is ringing off the hook, everyone is excited and can’t wait until show time at 7pm. So about 6, I was ready and went to secure my place in front of the stage. When I got down there people were already three rows deep but they were mostly young girls so I was still going to have a good view. Minute by minute got more exciting as we all waited for Ace to appear. Finally at 7pm he walked on stage. OMG he looked fabulous. He had on a dark velvet jacket, red t-shirt, jeans with of course the beanie sticking in his back pocket. He was smiling so much, this was the happiest day of his life and what an honor it was to be there celebrating with him.


When Ace sang “You Redeem Me” my friend Jacqui started to cry. So I put my arm around her and we swayed back and forth to the song. Ace looked at us and choked a little and quickly looked away. For most of the song he just glanced up at people and then quickly closed his eyes. It’s such a beautifully emotional song. When he was done singing, he said “you guys are killing me here crying”. He told the story about last month in Denver. He was given an award for all of the charity work he does at Children’s Hospital. His whole family was there and he said he couldn’t look at any of them while singing it, it’s too emotional for him.

So here are the videos and some pics of his performance. I had Jillian video since she was probably the only one not singing, dancing and shaking during his performance! I’ll be putting more pics up on myspace so check there too. I was taking pics with 2 cameras!

After the show Ace had a meet and greet. He said he would stay until every person met him and got their cd’s signed. The line lasted two and half hours! I couldn’t believe he stayed there that long, never looked tired and smiled and greeted each person like he was their best friend even though most of them had never met him before. I love to just stand and watch him interact with everyone, of course when he sees the little kids it so cool. My friends were all scattered throughout the line so everytime one of the them were getting close they would come back and get me and ask me to take their pics with Ace. That was a blast because I just got more time interacting with him.

When it was my turn I had Jillian on video again and two people on the cameras. I wanted to capture every moment. (and yes I’ve watched it a few dozen times already)

First thing I told him was how awesome his show was! He said again about how we were killing him with the crying because the song makes him choke up too. Then I asked him again if he still had time for my 5 minutes. He said absolutely, he had to finish the line, have dinner and do press with a radio station and then he would call me and let me know where to meet him. I got my CD signed took a few more pics and then it was the next person’s chance to get a hug.

The meet and greet wasn’t over until 10pm. A few of us went to the bar and got a drink and some food. It’s so nice to hang out with everyone… (hi Elly, Cheryl, Bridget and Adriane)

I decided to head up to my room and hook up the video to start uploading it to the internet while I went to the Highrollers after party. There weren’t enough plugs so I “thought” I unplugged the lamp and set everything up to upload. But when I got back from the party I found out I unplugged my laptop & the battery drained and nothing made it to the internet.

The party was crazy. Can you imagine 40-50 people crammed into a hotel room suite that just saw Ace perform, some of them had way too many drinks and his CD was blaring? They were all women except for 5 guys. About 11:30 there is banging at the door… its security yelling that we had to keep it quiet. If he had to come back again everyone was being thrown out. So I stayed by the door to keep it from slamming. People were constantly in and out, and each time the door was SO loud. So I closed it gently to keep the noise down. BUT there is NO way to keep that many women quite!! LOL

They had the room decorated so cute. Thanks Sandy and Sharon for putting so much time and effort into making such an awesome place for us to all celebrate together. They had blown up pics of Ace and taped them over the hotel pictures that were hanging… it was just too cute!!


A little before 12, Marion (Ace’s guitar player came to the party) The crowd was suddenly out of control and LOUD. Poor Marion, he is the sweetest quietest person, not sure what he thinks about all of this Ace craziness.

Marion said Ace was on his way so Sharon made everyone be quiet and said that when Ace walked in we could not have that happen again. We needed to just let him come and mingle with everyone. No more pictures, she said he has worked all day and needs to relax. A few minutes later I answered the door and Ace was there. When he looked in and saw everyone he just laughed and had the biggest smile again! It was so cute, it was like God had just entered the room. Everyone went quiet and the crowd split down the middle, just like the seas parted. When he got to the middle of the room everyone crowded around him, that was the last I saw of him for about 30 minutes. I was still on door duty because there was no way I wanted to be thrown out now! When he was leaving he saw me, winked and gave me a hug with a little growl (aaahhh) and whispered, “Are you ready for your 5 minutes now?” My roommate was standing behind me and she said, Man I didn’t get a growl like that when he hugged me! LOL
I’m not sure what I said to him but I was picking up my stuff and following him out the door. We just started to chat and then I noticed that the whole party also came out of the door and was following us! I didn’t know what would happen now that everyone was there. We went over by the elevators and the crowd continued. One drunk girl had him by the waist and wasn’t letting him leave. I’m not sure how he can stand all of that everywhere he goes. It has to get really old. Jacqui had an elevator saved and wasn’t letting anyone in it. When I went up she wouldn’t let me in, said it was for Ace only. I said I’m going with Ace and she said no, it’s for Ace only. Then he stepped up and said, “She is coming with me”. So in the elevator we went with Jacqui and her mom. They went down to the lobby and got out. The door closed and I was alone in the elevator with Ace. I didn’t know where we were going… a few thoughts were flying through my head. Then Ace put his room card in the slot and pushed 9. So we went up to his floor and when you got off the elevator there was an area with a table there. So we stood there and talked. It was so wonderful. His voice was very soft and sweet and he was talking to me just like a friend. We discussed many things from dreams he has had since he was a child to performances and songs he was writing for other groups, etc. This was really the first time that I’ve been with Ace that he has revealed so much of his life to me. I wish I could have recorded it because I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot of it.

I had a mat made in Brandon to hold his CD case and CD in it to be framed. I asked him if he would sign it and I told him to write anything on it he wants, all I wanted to make sure was that it had the date on it. So he wrote Jo and then said, should I make this out to John & Joni or just Joni. I said, well it’s for in my scrapbooking room for me however he wanted to put John’s name on too that was fine. I said do whatever you want. So he wrote To Joni and put the date. Then he wrote a couple of sentences, did his little heart that he always does and put an arrow through it and then signed it.

We had previously talked in Orlando about him coming back to my house sometime for a cookout/swim party and we also talked about it that night. He said as soon as I get the frame done to send him a picture because he was anxious to see it. I said, “Well you’ll see it when you come over” LOL He said, yes but I want to still see it before I get there. LOL

I then gave him my present. I bought him a necklace that had a very heavy dog tag on it. Etched on the front was a map of the world. On the back I had it engraved, Rockin’ the World 7-15-08 Joni
He LOVED it! Said he would totally wear it and loved the way it had the map of the world instead of just the US. It was the perfect gift and I’m so happy I bought it for him. I told him I really didn’t care for the chain that came with it, it’s one of those beaded things like are on a ceiling fan. He said he didn’t care for it either but he already has the perfect chain for it! So he put it on and I of course took a pic!

It’s REALLY heavy and I said I worried about if he wore it when performing that when he jumped it would knock his teeth out! He said he would just tuck it in his shirt, then he rubbed his fingers over it and said, But I’ll have to trim my chest hairs so it doesn’t catch on the etching of the map. Ok … whew… fanning myself….

I told him that I love him just like he was a member of my family and I couldn’t be more proud of him if he was my own son. He said his mom wouldn’t be happy if he was my son… and I laughed and said my son probably wouldn’t like that either. LOL

I got to spend about 30 wonderful minutes with him and then it was time for him to get some more sleep. By this time it was after 1am and he had to leave at 5am for a drive to Boston for more radio and TV shows and then was flying out to Denver for more there.

We said our goodbyes… more hugs…and I went to my room. I was totally satisfied with my day and my quiet time with Ace. Now how many days until I see him again??? It’s never enough.

The next day I still had a huge grin on my face. (oh wait it’s 4 days later and it’s still there) My friends were calling me while I was with Ace and I just didn’t answer the phone. But I loved the fact that it was ringing and he heard my Addicted ringtone again ;-) He said, who keeps calling you? I said my friends are wondering where we are I’m sure. He said well don’t tell them! Can you imagine if everyone found out what floor he was staying on? Of course because of the great talents of the wonderful Jillian we knew what floor Ace was on the whole time, before he even entered his room. Jillian ~ you are my hero! But we kept it to ourselves for 2 days and never went up there.

Checked out of the hotel, said last goodbyes to my friends and went out to get into the shuttle bus to the airport. AGAIN.. no shuttle bus, but this time a stretch limo!! My roommate and I got to ride the hour back to the hotel in a real limo. That was my first time and it was so cool. I felt like a rockstar getting out of it at the airport!


I’ll be in Pittsburgh until the 24th. I’m leaving here and flying to Atlanta to meet up with John. On the 25th I’m finally meeting my best Ace friend Candace Young! Can you believe her last name is Young? We talk everyday by computer or phone. She is picking me up and we are driving to Greenville SC to see an evening performance with Ace. Then on Saturday John, Tim, Candace and I are going to Wild Bills Bar where Ace is performing there. I was able to talk to a really nice girl there and she got us seats at table #1 and back stage passes. Woo hoo! Now that I know we have that, I’m going to try and get Ace to go to dinner with us. But it will depend on the promotions he has to do that day for his album. Hopefully it will work out.
Then on Sunday Candace & I are heading to Augusta, GA for another all day festival featuring Ace! This is the best month!! 5 Ace shows in one month, what more can one fan ask for?