up-and-coming country music singer

Danni Leigh

Vanessa enjoyed meeting Danni, and spending

the day prior to the show, and the day of the show

with Danni. Oh! But that was just the beginning!

Vanessa was surrounded all day

long by the likes of Garth Brooks, Faith Hill,

Dick Clark, Tim McGraw, Martina McBride,

Buck Owens, Bryan White, Glen Campbell,

Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood, Dixie Chicks,

- Gosh! the list just goes on and on and on . . .

and the neat thing about it was, - they were all

wearing blue jeans and t-shirts! They are

just regular folks like you and me!

Vanessa almost fainted when Garth Brooks

got out of a Dodge Durango, and walked

less than 3 FEET from her! He looked

directly into her eyes, and said "HELLO!

Vanessa managed to get a "Hello" out, and

would have been totally satisfied if that would

have been all. But wait! There is more!

Lots More!

Meeting of the Garth Monster!

Later that evening, (which was the day

before the show) as Vanessa was walking

Danni Leigh out of the theater after her

rehearsal, Danni stopped to talk to one

of the stage hands Vanessa looked over her

shoulder, and there, not five feet away was

Garth Brooks! Garth's escort was also talking

to someone, which left Garth and Vanessa

just standing there waiting. Vanessa has

always dreamed of getting to meet Garth, and it

looked like "now" - was her opportunity!

But before she could even say hello, Garth looked

directly at her, and asked her "Do I know you?"

Of course, Vanessa said "No" and Garth then

said he remembers that he saw her earlier outside.

About that time, Garth stretched forth his hand

and said, "Hi, I'm Garth". Vanessa just about

fainted again! (Imagine this . . here

"THE GARTH MONSTER"

is reaching out to shake HER hand!!

Vanessa melted and smiled and told him her name.

Vanessa works for a cancer center

and so she asked about his mother

and expressed concern for her.

(Garth's mom had cancer at that time

but has since died).

After some more small talk,

Vanessa mentions that she used to

live in Garth's home town of Yukon, OK.

Well, this starts some further dialogue,

and well, as you can guess, Vanessa's dream has

just come true! For the rest of that evening,

she was floating on Cloud 9!

Now it is time to start the show!

(And Vanessa gets to be a Seat Filler!)

Well! The show starts, and it isn't but about

thirty minutes into the show,

and Vanessa notices her husband...

AND he is on the THE FRONT ROW!)

AND he is two seats away from GARTH!

So, during the next commercial Vanessa went

over and said something to the effect

that she wanted her husband to "get up"

and that the seat he was in was HER seat! So, being the

kind, respecting husband that he is, he graciously

gave up his seat for his lovely wife.

The commercial is almost over, and as the show gets

ready to start, Garth gets up and

heads back stage. Awwwww!

Vanessa may not be able to sit there

too long and she may not be able to

sit next to Garth when he come back.

(Remember, a seat filler moves quite often.)

Well, Garth came out on stage and

was positioned almost directly in front of her

and sang his song much to the delight of Vanessa

- because she knows that he looked directly

at her while he was singing!

This was another dream come true!

And Guess what?

Vanessa ended up sitting

there for at least 1 hour next to her man!

There she was, sitting two seats away from

Garth Brooks himself! - See the picture above?

That pretty lady in white on the left side,

that's Vanessa clapping her hands for

Garth as he goes up on stage to receive his award

for "Artist of the Decade."

Talk about LUCK! TOO COOL!

So, keep a sharp eye out THIS YEAR,

because you might just see her

there on the front row again!

Now that you read Vanessa's ACM Story,

perhaps you would like to read

Mart's ACM Story

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