Ok as many of you know, I am in love with the singer Darren Hayes, formaly of Savage Garden. He is my all time favorite singer and I just love him. He’s my teenage obsession! Look at my photo!!
From the last post you know as well that I got selected to be a part of a 40 person audiance for his taping at XM Radio flight 26. So here’s what happened!
My mom and I took the metro into DC. (I love the metro!). We got there WAY early. We were, in fact, the first to arrive at like 2:30. We didn’t have to be there until 3:30 for the taping at 4. So we are waiting, and out comes Ron Ross-a Flight 26 DJ and our host for the afternoon, and he takes us and a few more people who have shown up and gives us a small tour of the building. Let me just say that the XM building is WAY COOL!!
So then we just sit in another loby for another hour or so, while more people pile in. Watching those who work at XM was fun too because it was an eclectic group of people. Every type of music you could imagine was embodied in these people. It was way cool. So, about 3:45 they bring Darren Hayes out to the studio-and of course he passes us and says “Hello!” in a VERY cute Aussie accent!! I was just so dumbfounded! So then I get up from my seat because my ass was falling asleep, and stand near the hallway to the studio. Everyone follows suite after that, and we’re all crammed in this corner.
Finaly the DJ comes out and says we can come down. These two girls run down the hall, and I out walk these two shorter girls (Thank you Dad for Long legs!!) and I end up gettinga front row seat 5 feet away from Darren!!! Then he comes in, and he is just so freaking cute. He sits down, makes some cute comments about his tea, and gets settled. I was just in awe. I have been musically in love with this man for 10 years. His voice just always seems to calm my soul no matter what’s going on.
So then they start the taping, and I did my best to stay still and quiet (which you all know how hard that is for me too do!!) He first starts out with the song “The Only One” from his latest cd “This Delicate Thing We have Made” Then they chatted a bit about the new cd, his inspriations, making his own record label (which is called Powdered Sugar), etc. He than sang “Unlovable” from his second solo cd “The Tension and the Spark“. When he sings in a studio, he said, he closes his eyes and just goes to a place deep inside. When he performs on stage he is obviously more lively and vibrant-but since we were in an XM studio, he closed his eyes when he sang.
Now the song “Unlovable” is the post-breakup letter he never sent his ex. Its a really powerful song, that obviously means a lot to him, because when he opened his eyes after the song they were teary. They next chated some more, and then he sang -in my opinion- the world’s best love song “Truly, Madly, Deeply” from his first cd with Savage Garden. My mom like hit me on the leg because that is one of her all time favorite songs! Finally he ended with what was his favorite song from his most recent CD (and what also turned out to be my favorite song from that CD too) “Casey”. It is about him and his sister just driving and listening to the radio to escape from life. They were poor as kids so they couldn’t afford a radio or the records, so all they had was that beat up yellow car. It was just amazing. Now during this song I was was lip syncing along and quietly rocking out. Darren actually opened his eyes, and looked at me. He saw me singing along and smiled at me. We had a moment. **Sigh** hehe.
After they wrapped up, someone in the audiance asked if we could take pictures and he said “Oh! Of Course!!” So my mom was like the first one up there with my camera! So he came up to me (because we were first in line) and went to shake my hand and I said “Can I hug you?” and he was like “Of course!” SO I GOT TO HUG DARREN HAYES!!!
So I said “I absolutly love you! You are my favorite artist of all time! I saw you 7 years ago in NC” (which was thelast time he toured the US)
He said “And you haven’t seen me perform since?”
I said “No!”
He said “I am so glad you could be here then!”
Then he looked at my mom and said “I’m sorry, I don’t think Ive met you”
My mom said “OH, I’m Kat’s mom!”
He said “You defintely don’t look old enough to be her mom!” So my mom loves him now. lol
Then I asked for a photo and his autograph (see pictures! OMG isn’t he cute?!?). Then he went to shake our hand good bye and I said “I have to have another hug!” he laughed and hugged me. SO I HUGGED DARREN HAYES TWICE!!! Oh that made my life! He is just so sweet, real, and personable! I was like shaking afterwards. I thought I had more composure than that but I guess not!!! lol So now I have this amazing photo and his autograph and this incredable memory!! And he will be touring in the US this March and April. I am so gonna be there!!!!
Yesterday made this year worth it.
I think I surprised a few people. lol
