Garth Brooks Backstage Pass From 1992 Is A Blast From The Past

It was a trip down memory lane when I found a 1992 backstage pass to Garth Brooks' concert at the old Bangor Auditorium.

It's funny how a single object can propel us back to another time and place. My coworker, Dan, sent a bunch of old Q-106.5 promotional items up to me yesterday, in hopes that I might want some of them for keepsakes. Mostly, it was just a bunch of keychains and keychains-with-flashlights. But at the bottom of the stack, I found the backstage pass. It's a little discolored with time, but otherwise in really good shape.

The sight of it took me back to that amazing show in Bangor, when Garth was one of the hottest tickets in Country Music. He changed the perception of Country concerts, turning them from quiet shows where people stood on stage and sang, to raucous, rock-type-shows that audiences craved. My then-husband didn't have a ticket, so we ended up in line overnight, sleeping in our car, outside the Bangor Auditorium. The line wrapped around the building and wandered off onto the racetrack. In the morning, we stood in a line that snaked through the auditorium in order to get to the box office.

On the night of the show, the on-air announcers were requested to go backstage and meet the man himself. I'll never forget it. Unlike many meet-and-greets, where you're ushered in and out in lightning speed, Garth greeted each of us by the door with a smile and a handshake, saying "Hi. I'm Garth." He spent over an hour signing everything we brought with us, including my husband's drum head. We posed for pictures with him, and I'll never forget standing with Garth's arm around me. It was one of the most memorable moments in my career.

I was then, and will always be, a huge Garth Brooks fan, who's still in hopes that maybe, someday, he'll come play the Bangor waterfront. But, in the meantime, I have great memories of one of the nicest artists I've ever met. And now, I have a backstage pass to remind me of it.