Some time ago we asked you to tell us your personal Rod story and since then we have received some nice stories. Our heartfelt thanks to all those who sent us their stories. Of course, we are also happy to accept further submissions, so keep sending your stories to storytellerrodstewart@outlook.com and we will publish them in due course. Due to the large number of submissions, we are currently proceeding according to the motto ‘first come, first serve’.
Today we want to start with the first story. Cara Marie Anne Trombino from Garden City on Long Island has reported on her great experiences with Rod and also tells you how she became a fan as a little girl. Have fun reading!
By Cara Marie Anne Trombino
Why Rod you ask? Well, what can I say about him? He's my favourite singer and the person I've looked up to the most in the last 20 years! I didn't realise it at the time, but his music has been part of my life since I was little in the early 80s! When I was at pre-school in 1986, the film Legal Eagles came out and I remember watching parts of it on TV, but I didn't know that Rod was singing Love Touch in the credits.
Then 1987 Innerspace came out and Rod sang Twisting the Night Away (a Sam Cooke cover) in the end credits. Then, in 1988, when I was in kindergarten, his album Out of Order was released and Forever Young became the most played song from the album on the radio. That song really touched me at the time.
At the end of 1988, my aunt's son, Chris, adopted a Labrador and named him Maggie May after the song. I thought, ‘Is there a song called Maggie May?’ Unbeknownst to me, it was Rod's song!!! Then Vagabond Heart came out in 1991 and I remember hearing Rhythm of My Heart, Broken Arrow and Motown Song on the radio a lot that year. This album is still one of my absolute favourites to this day.
In 1993 he released the album Unplugged & Seated, and at the time I didn't realise that many of the songs on that album were from the 1970s. I thought they were all brand new! I always knew who Rod was when I was little, but I didn't get hooked until 2005 😊 And so it came to pass: In December 2004, my mother was watching TV and an advert came on that Rod Stewart was coming to the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island on 10 April 2005.
I had to be there, the Coliseum is only 15 minutes away from my home. I told people in some Rod Stewart groups I was in on Yahoo at the time, ‘I'm going to my first Rod Stewart show. I've heard he's good.’ But honestly, I didn't know what to expect. But when he took the stage, I was hooked!
That summer I collected everything to do with Rod on ebay. Tour books, posters, T-shirts, VH tapes, CDs, magazines, you name it. The only item I didn't have yet that I really wanted was a signed football. The first time I saw it, I was sitting on the floor in row 27. I didn't know how to get to the front yet. So I was a long way from getting that ball that day.
But I made that my next goal and dream. One of the albums I bought that summer was Tonight I'm Yours, and there was something about it that inspires me to this day and has stayed with me for the last 20 years. In the insert of Tonight I'm Yours there was a summary about a young man called Terry Fox who in 1980/81 ran across Canada with a prosthetic leg to raise money to help cancer sufferers. His quote ‘I wish people would realise that anything is possible if they try.... Dreams are made when you try’ inspired me to never give up.
There have been a few stumbling blocks here and there, but today I can say I have realised my dreams!!!
It was 19 May 2007, the last show of his Rockin In The Round Tour, again at Nassau Coliseum, and it took place three days after my birthday! That alone made it a perfect belated present for me.
I had spent the weeks and months leading up to the show looking for ideas, as I wanted to make a sign asking Rod for a ball. I decided to make a sign that said ‘Rod, its my Birthday! Please Give ME A Ball’, even though it was a bit of a fib as my birthday was three days ago.
Whilst singing Hot Legs, he saw my sign, walked around the stage holding a blue and white signed football and threw me the ball!!!!
I have that ball proudly displayed in a glass cabinet in my bedroom to this day. Without my special friend and personal guardian angel, Rita Belcher, none of this would have been possible. She flew in especially for the show. At the time, we got our tickets through the fan club and we didn't know where we would be sitting. When I got my ticket, I was supposed to sit in the box, but it was far too far away from the stage. Rod would never see my poster there. When Rita saw this, she gave me her ticket for the second row in front of the stage. She knew how much I wanted a ball and that I wanted to sit at the front for Rod. I didn't want to accept it at first, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. I will remember that gesture for the rest of my life!
Having achieved my first goal, my next goal was to find out how I could meet the man himself! In 2011, Rod came back to the States and toured with Stevie Nicks. That year he played two shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I went to both shows. They were incredible!!! Also because Rod threw me a ball both nights. He held one up while he sang Maggie May. Everyone around me wanted that ball, they were going crazy. Then Rod signalled me to come to him to get the ball.
A few months later, Rod's residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas was announced and Mom and I were able to get very good tickets for his second show on 27 August 2011. During Downtown Train, Rod was sitting on the steps of the stage and Mom said to me, ‘Go up and take his picture,’ which I did. As I was about to go back to my seat, he signalled me to sit next to him and at that moment I was sitting right next to him and he was singing for me! I felt like I was in a dream! Lots of other people stood up and took photos of us. It was certainly a moment I will never forget!!!
In 2012, I learnt that there was going to be a signing session with Rod in New York, where he was going to sign his newly published autobiography for the fans. Obviously, I had to be there too. On the day in question, I got up very early and went to the bookshop and stood there from 7am until 6pm in the early evening. Think I'm crazy, but I really wanted to be one of the first ones there when it started.
When it was my turn, I gave Rod a copy of the photo from Caesars Palace, and he actually remembered it. I don't think I got much more out of it than that, I was just happy to be close to him again and have a nice moment with him.
I saw Rod in concert from time to time over the following years, but nothing can top the experiences of my first eight years as a Rod fan. I hope I can go to one of his concerts again next year, but regardless of that: being a Rod Stewart fan is certainly NEVER boring.
December 2024
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