I had the pleasure of working with Peter on his “Us” album, after his major artistic break thru record “So”, His album “So” not only catapulted him for it’s commercial success but it’s respectable achievement here and across the pond. He collaborated with Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson and Youssou N’Dour on his hit ‘In your eyes” which went on to push the album to the top of the Billboard singles, album and Radio charts. It even won him multiple Grammy’s and MTV Music Video awards. Transport forward a few years later and Peter releases a new album and embarks on a World Tour called “Secret World”. It too had all the trappings of success. The tour with Youssou N’Dour opening the show and even walking on as a guest during ‘In your Eyes” was a sold out tour. Peter is a very humble man, I took my wife with me for this show and had passes for a backstage meet and greet. We found the green room which was decked out with Couches, Pool Table, Ping Pong, Bar, Food bites and even a Video screen showing Peter Gabriel videos.. No one was certain that Peter would even make an appearance, but that did not deter everyone backstage from chatting it up and eating and drinking for what seemed like an hour. With time pressing and no Peter Gabriel, people started to slowly leave. The back stage crowd thinned, it thinned even more when Youssou took the stage. I think everyone figured Peter would be a no show. There I was with a few of us in the room and with my wife sitting on the couch talking about making our way to our seats when literally out of nowhere Peter pops in and introduces himself. We had a wonderful discussion about the tour and how he enjoyed the art museums in San Francisco. I told him I had seen him with Genesis on the” Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” Tour years hence in Berkeley, so he got to reminiscing about that time in his life. He talked about melding music and theater to come up with an evocative nuance on stage. The band at the time worked to make the show larger than life, for all to experience. It was a fascinating conversation. He was smart, funny and down to earth…very approachable. It made the whole back stage experience one that I will not soon forget.

I was invited to a Thin Lizzie show at The Warfield theater. It was early in my career and a friend asked me to go with her. I was a huge fan and could not refuse. She said she had backstage passes and wanted to get there early. The Warfield backstage is under the stage. We hung out for a while and realized the band was doing a sound check. Charlotte had obviously been here before and knew the way, she grabbed my hand and said follow me as she led me to a private stage door and up this tiny metal spiral staircase onto stage right. It popped us right up onto the stage. After a blistering sound check Phil Lynott came right over to us, kissed Charlotte who then introduced me. She had met him before, and he knew she was coming. Clearly he was interested in hanging with her. I made my way back to the backstage area where I chatted with Neal Schon of Journey who was hanging… Neal later joined Thin Lizzie for a few songs during their amazing set. It was a brief and simple meet, but little did we know that a few years later, Phil would pass from complications from pneumonia at age 36...