Surprise Occurs Thanks to Random Act of Kindness |
Sadie Aseere comes face to face with her idol, Billy Jo Armstrong (provided) |
When you’re eleven, getting to see your favorite band play live
is a pretty huge deal. Having great tickets and being right in front of the
stage would be even bigger. But getting to meet them on stage and play with
them live? That’s bigger than a solar eclipse, it's a one in a million event. Sadie
Aseere from Fort Thomas, a sixth grader at Highlands Middle School,
had just that once in a lifetime experience this past weekend when she played
guitar live on stage with her idols, rock megastars Green Day, in front of around 20,000 music fans
at Riverbend Music Center.
Sadie and Jenni, her Mom, are both big Green Day fans. “I grew up listening to them, Sadie
surprised me two or three years ago by saying “There’s this band that I like,”
and I already knew all the songs and most of the words.” Jenni and her
husband Dan had bought Sadie tickets to see Green Day at Riverbend as a reward
for getting straight As last year at Woodfill Elementary.
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Once they got to Riverbend they got even luckier, thanks to
a random act of kindness from another concert-goer. “A random gentleman came up to Sadie and Kate Jamie and said “I’ve got
two tickets right at the front that you can have if you want.” They turned to
their Dad’s and said “Can we go?” We said yes and they made their way right up
to the front of the stage, which was why Billy Joe was able to catch a glimpse
of her later on.”
Sadie’s performance has been uploaded to youtube by another
concert-goer and you can watch the whole thing here. [WARNING: BILLY JOE ARMSTRONG USES SOME PRETTY ROCK AND ROLL LANGUAGE IN THIS CLIP, PLEASE DON’T CLICK IF THAT’S LIKELY TO OFFEND.]
To begin with Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong asks if anyone in the crowd knows how to play guitar. The crowd gets pretty rowdy and he eventually he narrows in on Sadie. “How old are you? You’re eleven?” Jenni and Dan were back in the Lawn Lounge, unable to see who he was talking to, at this point Jenni turned and looked at Dan but he said, “It’s probably not her.” When Billy Joe continued, “How long have you been playing for? Two years?” Jenni turned back to Dan and said, “You better get your phone out!”
To begin with Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong asks if anyone in the crowd knows how to play guitar. The crowd gets pretty rowdy and he eventually he narrows in on Sadie. “How old are you? You’re eleven?” Jenni and Dan were back in the Lawn Lounge, unable to see who he was talking to, at this point Jenni turned and looked at Dan but he said, “It’s probably not her.” When Billy Joe continued, “How long have you been playing for? Two years?” Jenni turned back to Dan and said, “You better get your phone out!”
A security guard picked Sadie up and put her on the stage.
Jenni and Dan ran down towards the front of stage area. Two security guards
stopped them but when they explained that Sadie was their daughter they parted
the sea of bodies in front of them and let them through.
Sadie was confident that she could play what she was being
asked to. She’s been taking guitar lessons from Highlands High School student
Nolan Valz, a talented musician who offers guitar lessons as well as playing
gigs locally, for the last two years. Even though she knew she was capable, she
was still nervous. “It was really nerve
wracking but after a while I got a little more comfortable up there.”
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Sadie soon got into the swing of performing (provided) |
“I was crying, I kept
hugging Billy Joe, I was stunned and super excited!” Jenni remembers, “She must have gone in to give him about
five hugs!”
Jenni says that Sadie’s brush with celebrity didn’t end
there, she obviously couldn’t leave the stage with the guitar, so they asked
her to wait until after the concert. “They
brought out the guitar and then drove us to our car in a golf cart so we didn’t
have to walk through the fans. The fans were all waiting outside and when they
saw Sadie they started coming up and giving her high fives and chanting her
name again. They did it pretty much the whole way to the car.”
Due to the power of social media, Sadie’s story spread quickly.
“When I got to school the next day there
was a huge crowd around me asking questions. On Instagram a bunch of random
people followed me, I had 120 extra followers overnight.” Her Green Day
experience may have also pushed Sadie to take her guitar lessons further, “I always wanted to join a band but this
probably pushed me more to do it. It was really exciting and fun, a really neat
experience.”
The Aseere family are beyond thankful for Sadie’s once in a
lifetime experience and realise that it wouldn’t have happened without those
important acts of kindness; the Jamie family sharing their tickets, the man who
gave the girls his front of stage tickets, even the random concert-goer who filmed
Sadie’s experience and put on on youtube so they could enjoy watching it again.
“Paying it forward” is very much a part of their family philosophy, in fact
they have a marker board in their kitchen, with the headline “Practice Three
Random Acts of Kindness” Jenni explains:
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Sadie with her new, most prized possession (provided) |
We were at the concert and Sadie was great on stage! So excited for her.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I were at the show, Sadie did great! If you are unfamiliar Green Day has been doing this for the past tour or two. Pulling Kids up on stage to finish playing a cover of the band Operation Ivy's song "Knowledge". As the song completes they let the young guitar player know they can keep the guitar. Search youyube for these moments. There are some really great moments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rjOzquONk0 Skip to about 2:35 into the video. #Whoiscuttingonions
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