I just returned from my very exhausting but incredible trip to New York. First of all: if you'll ever visit NY go up the Empire State Building at night - it's the most beautiful view you can imagine! :)

Well, when we drove to Jon's home it was also dark, so unfortunately I can't tell you how the neighborhood looks like... Anyway, Jon's house really is a mansion, I don't know if I've ever seen one family living in such a big house! It's very beautiful, white stone with a big lawn around it (since it was dark we couldn't see how big, but I guess Jon could easily play golf on there...) The studio is in a separate building (which might have been horse stables once but I'm not sure) and it's upstairs (from the pictures it always looked like it was on the ground...) and the recording room is pretty big, a lot bigger than it had seemed on the web cam... Well, when we arrived (us is me, my friend Julia, the other contest winners and some record company people) Obie came down and told us to follow him upstairs. Obie really is very cool. I asked him if I could have a picture with him and he told me to follow him to the little tea kitchen and I got my photo. 

Suddenly Tico stood next to us and was warming up something in the microwave. I first thought it was soup but later I asked him how the soup was and he looked confused and said it was coffee he had made... Anyway, Julia stared absolutely stunned at Tico, it seemed like he just had popped up from nowhere, and she told him that she was a big fan of his and they both shook hands. Then Obie took Tico´s hand and said 'Hi, I'm Obie, I'm also a big fan' and they both laughed. (I don't know if you wanna know all that stuff but I'll just write everything down that comes to my mind cause due to my excitement I probably have forgotten lots of things...)

Anyway, we went back into the studio and waited for the band to arrive. There was some cool food but I couldn't eat anything... Obie and Mike ran up and down all the time and once Obie tapped on my shoulder and said, pointing at Mike 'That guy over there's Mike. He's gay, but don't tell anyone!' (I know that I can tell you cause you also know the guys ;) Later on, Obie and Mike were standing next to us again and I asked them if actually someone had sent in nude pics like they had asked for in the chats and Mike said some people really did and Obie said that he had sent Mike nude pics of his, too. (Obie is soooo funny! You should see the way he walks! ;)

Anyway, the meet & greet was supposed to start at 7 but the guys came in at a quarter to 8. I first thought I'd collapse or something if Jon came in, but when the guys actually turned up it was like the most normal thing in the world! Jon said sth like 'Welcome to my studio, how are you?' and they all just walked around between the people. I stood next to the instruments so I was like the first one they saw and Richie came right up to me and shook my hand and greeted me! I was really overwhelmed cause I didn't know to whom to go first! Well, then Dave stood next to me and luckily I didn't forget everything (and I forgot LOTS of things!) and I sung Happy (belated) Birthday to him :)

The guys were just sooooo sweet!!! :) Before I met them I always thought of them like sort of superior beings but they are just so human, so normal and so very kind! (I even love them more because of that now!) 

We had luck that there weren't so many fans (Julia and me were the 'craziest' fans there by the way) so we all could get pictures with every band member and also got at least one autograph from each one. They were all so cute! Tico gave Julia a drumstick of his. Dave tried to talk to me in German, it was pretty funny :) And his pronunciation wasn't even bad ;) Hugh was also pretty nice, he even asked if he should take off his sunglasses for the picture :)

Richie was something like the 'niceness' in person! You guys who've met him probably know what I  mean... Maybe you could compare him to uranium, just that he radiates kindness! I asked him to bless  my guitar (he had to write 'I bless this guitar...') and a pic of his from his gig in Hamburg 98. When I told him that I really loved his solo show he got this sparkle in his eyes and gave me a big smile :) When I told him that I think his Ava is absolutely lovely and gave him a teddy bear I made by myself he seemed really happy about it and thanked me.

Well, Jon was great and in a good mood (most of you probably know that he can be really moody). He really isn't that tall but when he stands in front of you you don't care about anything cause he has this incredible charisma that almost knocks you down! I don't know how he does it but every time I see him he looks younger! No wrinkles, no rims of the eyes (I guess he really enjoys working at home...) and with his longer hair he looks better than ever!!! I gave him a demo tape of mine (I'm also a singer/ songwriter) and he put it in the pocket of his jacket. I really hope he'll listen to it (I know that he doesn't have a lot of time but I thought I could at least try...)!

Anyway, before the guys got live in the net they played Love for sale which sounded really great :) Then they again took photos with people and then got ready for the web cast. Saturday Night was the 1st song, and before they started Jon tried to get the lyrics together cause he didn't remember everything. It looked so cute, how he stood there murmuring the text! Of course I was so out of my mind that I also couldn't remember the lyrics properly, but in the end he got them right....

Set list was (how it was written on Hugh's one):

Sat Night
Bad Rx (I can't type it the way they wrote it)
Prayer (in fact Prayer 94, Jon said this is the way the song was originally written)
-
Older (Jon said that this song expressed the main feeling of the album (titled CRASH now))
Say It (this song definitely ROCKS!)
2 Story
Thank you (Jon told this cute story how he was inspired to write the song when he saw Meet Joe Black)
-
Wanted
Bad Name (they didn't play it because of lack of time I guess)
Faith

The band sounded awesome, I guess the quality over the web cam wasn't as good, but there it was just perfect! I stood right in front of Jon, and you know how he sometimes dances at Bad Medicine... Well, I love to dance, so I danced the whole concert, and at Bad Medicine he just looked at me dancing, laughed at me and also danced (you know he always says he can't dance, but on-stage he can move very sexy ;))

When he was asked how he thinks the new album will work with the contemporary music around Jon said BJ were no boy band and he said something about dancing (don't remember exactly what) and made some funny dance steps (sth like 'hit me baby' ... :)

Oh, another thing: they were asked who the boss was. I don't know what you could see on the web cam, but right after the question, Jon pointed at Richie! And I don't know if Richie had seen that, but he then answered the question and said Jon was obviously the boss since he had to sing the stuff and be comfortable with it... (the one who said sth with a Mafia-boss-voice was Jon by the way)

I also asked a question (I guess it was when the web cam was not working - the guys were told about it but decided to go on and see what happens). I wanted to know who came up with the idea to put a web cam in the studio. Richie said it was a friend of his, who said it would be cool to see guys like Aerosmith work in their studio, so Richie liked the idea and brought it to Jon...

Well, to be honest, I can't remember anything else well enough to type it down and say this is what they said... There was so much happening (and I also was so excited), I couldn't remember every word that was said. But Jon and Richie really seemed to enjoy themselves a lot :) It's really cute when they talk about music cause you can really feel that they're very into it by the way they talk and look...

And what happened after the show...the guys left immediately to drink cocktails (at least that's what  Jon said during the concert they'd do afterwards) I first thought  that maybe we also would get to drink  cocktails with the band but it  was only for the record company people and other guests (why ever  they had been invited...) So we contest winner were driven home to  our hotels after the probably best night of our lives :)

Cheers, yours Kat :)