Well to answer the questions: Pete , yes to me it was well worth the money. I had a front row center seat for Dweezil and Zappa plays Zappa who were amazing. What an excellent band of young musicians he had. And I was onstage for the RTF show sitting a few feet away from Chick Corea, like he was in my living room. And backstage after the show with all of them. And Chick did tell me the name of the nutritionist but I'm sorry I forgot the name. My bad.
Rac, the book in my hand is the Walter Kolosky book Follow Your Heart which Chick wrote the forward for. Since I was one of the senior editors on the book, I wanted him to autograph my personal copy. His inscription reads: For Ted, Keep the music fires burning bright, Chick Corea . Words cannot express a gift like that. My advice is find the money to go VIP. This is a once in a lifetime chance to meet Lenny, whom you've said is one of your idols. Do it !!!!
Spanky, the reason I'm holding the Romantic Warior album was because we were discussing some of the music from it - and yes, I had chick , Stanley and Lenny sign my copy. I also had Stanley sign his first solo album, Lenny sign Venusian summer, Jean Luc sign Aurora, and both Jean Luc and Gayle Moran sign Visions of the Emerald Beyond . And I was embarrassed to have forgotten the Frank Gambale CD at home, so I had nothing for him to sign but we both had a good laugh about it and talked a good bit about the history of fusion music. He loved seeing the old albums I had brought along.
And Yes Woody, chick is still a Scientologist as is his manager Bill Rooney and his production team. BUT at no time was that ever brought up. nor was there anything evident about that anywhere backstage. No shrine to L. Ron Hubbard was there ! LOL
Here are some photos taken by my friend who was seated a few rows behind me:
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Peace, TED