I met up with Erika in Stockholm on Tuesday night and Tomasz (StJohn) joined us a few hours later. We were gonna stay a few hours at a friend of Tomasz' house, but it didn't work out, so we set on towards the TV4 studio shortly after 1 AM on Wednesday morning. It was freezing outside and of course we hadn't bundled up enough, so we froze our butts off for a few hours, but getting a little help from a an all-night hamburger shop with only outdoor seating but hot coffee, a wind-free gas station, some bootlegs and a speaker-Walkman, incense, and a bunch of hopes and expectations.

But from 4 AM on we waited outside the TV building. After about an hour a nice security lady let us sit inside the doors so we wouldn't freeze to death. She also told us that Richie was running late, arriving at about 6 AM, and probably wouldn't have time for pics and autographs and that there was no as in ZERO chance of us being able to watch the show unfortunately. About an hour later some apparently important guests arrived and we were forced out into the cold again. Waiting patiently, watching a cab after cab and a limousine unload its non-Richie contents, until finally a dark blue limo pulled up and the well-known figure stepped out with a girl and his body guard, and maybe someone more.  I said "Hi Richie, you got a moment?" and he said "No problem, let's go", making hand gestures like he was signing something. I got two CD covers signed, but people from the TV station were hurrying him inside.

He asked if we had time to wait and promised to return a little later. We stuck around. 30 minutes later the miracle happened. The nice security lady said that we could go inside to the lobby and someone would soon show us up to the studio to watch Richie play a song and meet him briefly.

A hasty cleanup in the bathroom, getting our stuff together, making each other a bit more nervous, and then we were escorted up the stairs. We were placed standing behind a glass wall. On the other side was the studio, the corner with the couch and the presenters in the background and Richie on a stool in the foreground, illuminated by a soft yellowish light, looking very handsome. He sees us and smiles and makes a funny face (don't think that made it to the screen though!). He plays Hard Times Come Easy acoustically. Beautiful! We're feeling a bit weird behind the glass wall. We can see and hear him perfectly, but we don't know if we would be heard from the other side, so we don't dare to clap our hands, we just smile and make thumbs-up signs.

He then comes out to us, and it turns out he's in a terrific mood. He says hi, shakes hands, smiles all the time, and thanks US for going all the way there to see HIM!! Thank you too Richie!!!! He happily poses for pics, signs everything, even for the friends who couldn't make the trip, answers questions, jokes lot, and is basically just about the nicest guy you could ever wish for. Erika and Tomasz brought photo books, and he looked at all the pics and made funny comments about the hair and clothes of the old days, and how grouchy he looked on that These Days era pic where they're standing on some rocks (he's on the left, crouching down).

Struggling a bit not to get tongue-tied, I ask him a few things - he says he can't quite remember where he got his nickname "Mookie". It could be that he played a lot of basketball as a kid and there was a famous player by that name, so they started calling him that. In It For Love is a possible next single; he says there is a big chance of Sweden getting a show on his tour, but nothing is decided yet. Bon Jovi might make a new album and tour by the summer of '99, but nothing's for sure.

Someone asks if we would like to see him play another song. Not a hard decision. It is a little while before it's time for that, and in the meantime Richie is sitting at the table right next to ours talking to some other media people about everything and nothing. I want to take pictures, but I feel I've asked so much already, so I don't. The next song is In It For Love, also acoustic, and there is a run-through of it before singing it "for real" in front of rolling cameras. Beautiful as well. He walks out and shakes hands with everyone before leaving, saying how nice it was to meet us (likewise I'm sure!!!). I ask for a hug and he agrees with a smile. Then he's off to Norway.

All this time I kept thinking, "This is really happening! It's not a dream!" I can't imagine how the day could have been any better. We were there so early to have two chances of meeting him - on the way in and on the way out of the studio. We would have been very happy with that. And we had been told we couldn't go inside, so we didn't think that much about it. But thanks to some great people at TV4, and to Mr coolest-guy-on-Earth Sambora, this was so much more than a memorable event. I had never met any of the guys before - what a first impression! I will cherish this day forever!