My King Diamond Experience

4/13/1999

I was looking for people to form a Christian Heavy Metal band with. (yes, Christian Metal) One day I received a phone call from a guy who saw my ad in a newspaper who was interested . We talked of our musical interests and decided that our interests where just too different from each others to start a band together. But since music was the topic of our discussion, of course I mentioned King Diamond as my biggest musical and visual influence. He told me funny that I should bring up King Diamond because he has an Aunt who is a close personal friend of Kings. I couldn't believe it, what are the odds of that happening, ya know? But he asked me if I knew of the King Diamond concert that was coming up in a few weeks in Milwaukee. I already bought my ticket in advance so of course I knew about it, would not miss that for the world!

King Diamond was going to be at the Rave at the Eagles Auditorium in Milwaukee on May the sixth nineteen ninety eight and four days later in Chicago at the House of Blues on May the tenth. I had both tickets already. He told me that his Aunt Lori was going to both shows also and with backstage passes for her and that she had a couple extras for him and a friend. I asked him if he would consider taking me along with. He told me that he would have to call his Aunt and ask about it first, so he told me to stick by the phone and that he would call his Aunt and then call me right back in about ten minutes. While waiting I couldn't help but to think that this has to be some kind of a dream, cause I mean , I am waiting here to find out if I am actually going to be able to meet King Diamond!!! Either that or my leg was being pulled a mile. But I went along with it just in case it was real.

He called me back in ten minutes and told me that his Aunt would meet me there at the Milwaukee show at four o'clock sharp in the lobby. He told me exactly what she looked like and what she would be wearing that day. Long blonde hair, tattoo of a wolf on her shoulder, a black mini dress, and backstage passes around her neck. And she also was told my description and my name so she would know who I am when I spot her and tell her my name.

As it turned out I thought I was going to meet him and his Aunt, but he told me that He could not go, so it would just be me and her. I am more or less a shy guy, so that made me a little nervous because his Aunt was a total stranger to me as I am also to her. So now I have to wait a few weeks for the show and that was a lot of time to think about what was happening to me and what was going to happen to me. It did not quite sink in yet because I just kept thinking that this is way to good to be true, I mean how many people actually get to meet there biggest hero of all time in the entire world? I mean, King Diamond and his King Diamond band are my Rolling Stones, so to speak. And I didn't want to suffer the truth of finding out that someone was putting me on the whole time. So I concentrated on not getting excited just in case, I was saving myself from being hurt I guess you could say. I told my guitar teacher about what happened and he couldn't believe it either!

So now is the concert day. I went to bed early to get plenty of sleep so that I would be in my best shape for the show. Gave myself a few hours to get ready, took a shower, got dressed in my best outfit, put my best jewelry on, and my best leather fringe jacket. The doors open at eight p.m. and I was meeting his Aunt Lori there at four p.m. sharp, so I left the house at about two thirty just in case there were traffic jams getting into Milwaukee. I could not be late for this ya know!!! I got there at least an hour early and just waited out in my car for a minute or so. I could see that the front door of the building was open so I walked in and saw a few heavy King Diamond devoted fans in there extremely early. Some of them talked to me and asked if I was hear to see the King show. They were really great fans of King, telling me they have been waiting to see him all their lives and stuff like that. They would look at his promotional flyer they had in the lobby in complete awe shaking there heads. King Diamond hadn't toured the states in nine in a half years since the conspiracy tour.

 After talking with these guys for a little bit I go back into my car and listen to music for a while. Then at about ten minutes to four, I go back looking for Lori because it was about that time. I am extremely excited, thinking about it in my car on the drive up, all to that point, I am finally going to find out if this is actually real or not. I see a woman that fits the description of Aunt Lori, I calmly approach her as she is walking out of the building and I say" excuse me, are you Lori Devito, I'm Tom your nephew told you about me?" She stops in her tracks, looks up at me with a smile and says "yes, he told me about you, your one of his friends right, my name is Lori." shook hands with a smile and she said that we were just going to get something to eat right around the corner real quick, would you like to join us? Of course I say yes I would love to! The person she is with is a security guy who goes by the name "Mike". A very nice and polite fellow. He told me that is father used to be security for Mercyful Fate back in the old days before they broke up. So the three of of walk to this place that is just around the corner to get something to eat, at this point everything is going better than expected, much better!!!

While eating we talk of various subjects, world crime, Danish law in comparison to United States law( Mike is a full blooded Danish). I learn some things about King from Lori. And of course I wanted to know about King Diamond, but I had a great time talking about anything! I learned that King has three cats that he loves dearly, an all white one he has named Ghost, and an all black one he has named Magic (Black Magic), and another cat he named Juju. Lori is also a cat lover and was telling me about the kitten she had for a short time till the pour thing died prematurely. That was sad to hear.

The end of grub we get the bill and I chip in five bucks, I only had a bowl of egg drop soup. We walk back to the venue, past the security sticking close to Lori so I could get in. We go into the back stage area which on the front of door says king diamond dressing room only, private. I'm looking at this as I walk into the doorway into the backstage area as my heart is beating a thousand miles an hour. I try as hard as I can to stay calm so I don't do something that I would regret just out of my being nervousness.

I'm backstage now and we keep walking into this other little room with a few sofas in there, and behold, there is Andy LaRocque sitting right there on the couch before my very eyes!!! My eyes are automatically opened really big as I calmly but excitedly say, "Andy LaRocque, I can't believe it, it's really you. You are my absolute most favorite guitar player for any type of music I love everything you have ever done and it's such an honor to meet you." Before I even said anything Andy looked up at me as I walked in and could see right away that I was very thrilled to be there and he extended his hand to shake mine. After I told him how I felt about him he said, " well, thank you, thank you very much." as he slowly shook his head in appreciation with a smile on his face. He was the first to sign my new King Diamond cd entitled Voodoo. I talked to him for while, but not very long because I could see that he was very tired and wanted to get some rest before the show, so out of courtesy for him, I let him rest.

I talked to the other guys that were there, Chris Estes, John Luke Herbert, and Glenn Drover. And also some of the King Diamond Crew. They were all very wonderful people. Very polite, hospitable, and respectful people. They offered me a seat on the one of the sofas there to sit with them. I took my jacket off and got comfortable and just talked about anything. At this point I was feeling very relaxed, they created a very comfortable atmosphere for me to enjoy myself in.

As one of the opening acts was playing, I can remember me saying to Chris that I have noticed how a lot of metal bands at this day in age always tune down there instruments and the singer barks out lyrics as deep as he can and without any melody, and all the songs sound virtually the same. It gets real stale. I told Chris that I am so glad that you guys don't sound like that. He shook his head and very modestly said, "yeah so are we" Laughed for a little bit about that and then he said that he really doesn't listen to that much metal though. He told me he likes Pink Floyd a lot and other bands in that vein. I agreed with him that Those guys are good musicians. Chris signs my cd next to his picture. Then I go over to John and congratulate him on getting the part in the band. He humbly says thank you and signs my cd also. After about an hour or so as I'm sitting on the sofa with Chris, I tell him that I have everyone's autograph now except I still have to get Herb Simonson's and King's. Chris asks, " Herbs?" Herb is no longer with the band. He left the band to become a used car salesman. ??? That seemed awfully strange to me, but I guess he has his reasons. I ask Chirs about the replacement guitarist and he points to the floor down to where newcomer Glenn Drover is sitting talking to Lori. I look over at him and think to myself, Wow! That is soooo cool! He must feel great now that he is Kings new guitarist along side with the greatest of them all, none other than the immaculate Andy LaRocque! I go down to sit on floor with Glenn and I introduce myself and congratulate him on his arrival into the band. I asked him about that and he told me that one day he got a phone call only a few months ago from King, and King asked him if he would be interested coming into the band. Glenn said he was very excited to get the invitation and of course accepted.

We talked about various things as well, he is a huge Queensryche fan and we talked of there box sets and there new material. He had not heard the new stuff yet but I told him that they had totally molded themselves into new age and that he probably wouldn't like it either, Hear in the Now Frontier was real grungy and alternative like. Glenn just shook his head in disgust and said he probably wouldn't like it then. He told me he used to be in a band that sounded similar to old Queensryche.

After I got kinda quite, Andy looks over at me and asks me how I'm doing? I was flattered that he wanted to make sure that I was having a good time, that was really nice of him. He talked to me more and asked me what kind of instrument I play and so on and so fourth. I asked him how he got to be so damn good, and he explained to me that he doesn't really think about it anymore, it just comes from his gut and he plays strictly from his gut. No real fancy explanation about music theory or anything like that. Obviously he knows his theory.

Lori walks out for a while to talk to some friends and I stay behind for a while longer just keeping company backstage with the band. Then Lori comes back in and takes me out to show me there tour bus that they travel in. I meet a crew person named Tommy in there who is watching the Bulls game, we are introduced and he welcomes me to the bus and to the show. Pretty cool name he's got, just like mine! We talk for a little while and I ask him what he does for King Diamond. He has a lot to do with setting up the stage and other various things, tells me that they would do a show for only fifty people or fifty thousand, doesn't matter they will put on there best show for anyone.

While on the bus I remember Tommy getting a phone call from some snobbish business executive type person asking if they were really going to kill somebody off in there show that night? This was a concern of there's, Tommy sarcastically replies" well see, we are going to need her again for tomorrow nights show so that we can do the same thing again, so it would be a real bad idea for us to REALLY kill her off in real life. Ya see?" When Tommy got off the phone with this guy he told me and Lori all what that was about and we laughed our butt's off. We could not believe someone from the concert venue really thought they were going to kill somebody...LOL

Lori asks Tommy if King is up yet in his hotel. "oh yeah he's up and around, been up for a while now." Me and Lori were going to pick him up at his hotel earlier after we eat but Lori figured he was still sleeping.

After a while longer, me and Lori go back inside and backstage. The place is packed to all four walls with fans. Chris asks me how many people are out there so far and I tell him, "I don't think they can fit anymore inside, it looks like ya sold out man! They are all just standing around motionless watching the support acts saving there energy for you guys!" Chris smiles with anticipation getting a little bit more enthused for the show as well as the other guys after I say this.

Backstage I meet another crew person who does sound and so fourth, Willie. Great fellow, talked for a while with him. I asked him how Andy gets his sound, I sure wish I could remember, I just remember that Andy plays mainly three guitars, a Les Paul (which he used on Halloween, and Don't Break the Oath, a B.C. Rich Warlock, and I don't remember the other one but it is a B.C. Rich also. He uses Marshall amplifiers, and I don't really remember anything else, but I did ask specifically how Andy gets his tones and his distortion. Willie told me about all sorts of things that he uses. Even some stuff that is no longer made anymore that Andy still has.

Show time is getting close now, A crew person wakes Andy up after I suggested to Andy that he has plenty of time for sleep if you don't go on for so many hours from now. He took my advice and got in a few hours till someone woke him before the show. There is still time left till they go on so we talk for a bit more. I remember Andy telling me that he loves roller coasters. So I tell him about Great America in Gurnee Illinois. Glenn is also into roller coasters as well, none of them have ever been to Great America so I ask them If they have a day off at all so that I could take them to ride the best roller coasters I have ever seen! Unfortunately they have not had a single day off from the tour so there was simply no time for that. In fact right after the show that night they had to travel all night to there next show in Columbus Ohio which was on the following day. But I had to ask, ya can't blame me for trying!

Now it's just minutes before Showtime and I still have not seen King yet? Ole Bang comes in and asks everyone except for the band and crew to go outside the backstage area. Which was just me and Lori. We are right next to the side of the stage, and I can see kings spare bone cross microphone! I even asked Lori if I could just touch it once. She said ,"you better not because I don't know if you might mess something up that they have set a certain way." So I just looked at it.

About ten Minutes after waiting on the side of the stage I see the song list that they will be doing and at the same time the introduction starts!! Out From the Asylum followed by Welcome Home was the start of the show. The audience is fired up now! You can hear them chanting the words of Grandma and her friends in the attic room! A light mist starts to rise from the stage as the lights are dimly lit. The stage is without a doubt the coolest stage I ever saw before. It was themed like a cemetery, the voodoo burial ground I would imagine since that's the album they were supporting at that time. There were two very large and bigger than life looking cemetery gates at both sides of the stage with a single upright cross over the top of both of them. In the middle was the huge drum kit set up on a platform with another platform set up in front of it with a tall wooden stake standing straight up the middle in front of the drum kit. Standing up on the stage floor where a couple of tombstones, one that said Missy, and the other one I don't remember but it was another character from an album. There really were a lot of stuff on that stage, I still can't believe how cool it looked!

About half way through the introduction, Andy, Chris, Glenn, and John come slowly walking through the cemetery gates from behind and to the front of the gates facing the audience as they pick up there instruments. People roar with excitement as they applaud the bands appearance. Now Out From the asylum is done and it's strait into Welcome Home with no stopping them from there.

King is still not visible yet. I'm wondering if King is going to miss is queue or not because he is still not even on stage yet! All of the sudden I see the backstage door open and a security guys walks out and leads the way for someone else behind him to the stage. That someone else is King Diamond!!! I have only seen him before in still pictures and stuff like that on his albums and so on, and all of the sudden I see King about ten feet away from me walk out from a door way in full stage garb and makeup walking towards the stage. I freak out with the music already going and everything, biggest adrenaline rush I ever had! No one else can see him yet till he gets up onto the stage. Maybe 2 or 3 seconds before the vocals come in King appears to his audience for the first time as he is walking slowly through the back of one of the gates ready to thrill us all to death! I never saw so many people so excited before. Only at a King Diamond concert can you see and hear something so unique and in such a wonderfully exciting way and his fans certainly know that for a fact! Dead Serious!!  The very first note he sings is higher than Mariah Carrey can whistle tone. He fills the entire building with the muscle, vibrato, and high pitch of his voice. It is truly the most amazing, spectacular, and unique experience anyone can experience in a life time. The whole band plays brilliantly without flaw that I can notice. King works his audience like I had never seen before. All eyes were fixed on the stage in total awe. Usually at a heavy metal concert there is lots of moshing, but King Diamond and the rest of his band are so amazing that you just want to watch and see what's going on onstage. So naturally there was not a lot of moshing, very little. The whole band really were playing, and dressed to kill! From the outfits, the boots, the guitars, the events, everything, just all together the greatest show on earth ever created!!! Things that I can still remember are when King delivered baby Abigail onstage from an actress onstage. During the song Voodoo king held this neat looking rod that controlled this actress to dance and to freeze and to do whatever King commanded of this person to do. I'm assuming this was the character of dancing Lula. I remember an executioner leading Jeanne Dibasson( a character from The Eye who was believed to be a witch) to the stake on the platform in front of the drum kit to be burned alive there while the band played The Trial (Chambre Ardente). Very real, she squirmed as she was burning and everything! Great acting on all of the actors and actresses parts, Bravo!!! I also remember King walking Grandma across the stage as he sang to her" let me help you out of your chair, gr gr grandmaaaaa, let me touch you, let me feel, ahhhhh." There were a lot of things going on, it was very theatrical and themed oriented around his stories. A lot like a theater musical show. I can't think of anyone else that does there shows like that to that extent. Alice Cooper was certainly great at it, and was the first, but I think King does it even farther than him and better. I saw half the show from back a little ways towards the center to get a good view of everything, and half from the side of the stage.

Towards the later half I was on the other side of the stage from where I was at the very beginning. I was actually onstage now behind the stage props out of the way. But I was on the same side as Andy standing maybe ten or fifteen feet away from him as he played, very cool! he would look back at me and Lori every once in while and smile at us as we would graciously cheer him on. I would clap and give him two thumbs up and Lori would scream and headband. King would turn around every so often also and wave to Lori standing next to me. I can remember thinking to myself, oh my gosh, king is definitely looking over by me and I know he must see me right now standing next to his friend Lori. He's probably wondering who the heck I am? But I just stood there screaming and clapping and cheering him on. King came out for two encore's because he got such a greatly loved response from his audience.

About ten or fifteen minutes after the show ended, they let me and Lori backstage again to be with the band. King had left the building already to go back to his hotel and shower. I congratulated everyone there on the show and told them they were the greatest live show I have ever seen. They took great appreciation to that and after the place had emptied, we were escorted to the tour bus. I remember two guys jumping out of the bushes as Andy walked outside asking for an autograph, they were so excited that Andy talked to them for a minute, it really made there night and gave them something to talk about forever!

Now we are on the bus and I ask if it would be ok to take pictures, its fine with everyone. So I run out to my car real quick to get my camera and some more copies of my demo tape that I gave to everyone including crew members who were interested. I had pictures of me taken with everyone in the band after they had already gotten into there sleeping clothes, so I figure these pictures have to be extremely rare and I treasure them dearly. Not all of the pictures are signed but I do have all of there autographs at least in my cd. When I asked for Glenn's signature I told him that he could just cross out Herb's name and write his in, because I had everyone sign by there picture on the album. He just laughed at that and wrote his name next to the picture without doing anything else, that was cool. I even got one of the actresses signature's.

The time on the bus was mostly spend waiting in the parking lot for some reason , and socializing and laughing and just having a good time. The TV. was on, Glenn was channel flipping.

The bus that they travel in is unbelievable. I remember seeing at least twelve different private beds in there, which I hear are very comfortable, a microwave, complete kitchen with an oven, refrigerator, counter, sink, cabinets, a bathroom, a table, sofas, soft seats, a back lounge, satellite dish , TV. laser disc player, very fancy looking inside, very nice indeed. I heard that King usually likes to sleep in the back lounge area instead of one of the beds.

Me, Jodi( an actress), Lori, and Glenn all went back to the back lounge when the bus started moving to the hotel to pick up king. We just talked back there about different things very calmly and in a more relaxed atmosphere, It felt like it was quality time, that I will never forget.

Now we arrive at the hotel and it is time for me and Lori to leave so they can go to there next show. I have not met king yet, and we are now picking him and Ole Bang up at the hotel while I'm still on the bus. I 'm sitting down in the front lounge area now with Lori, who still hasn't had a chance to say hi either or tell him about her kitten that just died.

King walks up onto the bus with a wet damp head , no makeup , and in sweats ready for bed. This is the first time I have ever seen him without his makeup or not in one of his outfits. I was doing everything I could to keep calm as I waited to be introduced. Lori went over to him and talked for only a few seconds and gave him a big hug. King was happy to see her even if it could only be for a second because they had to hit the road. Then King looked down at me as I looked up at him with wide open eyes waiting eagerly to meet him. Lori told King my name and that I'm a fan and I confidently stood up as he extended his hand and I told him exactly how I felt about him and his work and his influence that he has on me. I did it brilliantly, I even impressed myself, I still can't believe how smooth I sounded with the way I worded, and that I didn't stutter out of nervousness or anything. It was great, the last thing that I wanted was to walk away from there with the feeling of regret that I said something wrong or that I might have offended or whatever, there were all sorts of things that I could have done wrong just from being so nervous. But I can honestly say that there is nothing that I would go back and change at that crucial point in my life.

I handed him a copy of my demo tape that I had made and told him how he influenced it, and I told him that ,"I had started listening to King Diamond about four or five years ago. The fist song I heard was Dressed in White off the Twisted Metal compilation tape and after that I went out and I bought everything you did and since then I buy everything that comes out on the opening day. I have got everything you have ever done in every format possible including all the remasters. And I just saw the best show I ever saw before in my life." King still shaking my hand hand at this point and the whole time looking dead into my eyes with amazement. He was very impressed with me, and at my good manners and politeness and respect and confidence that I showed. King showed very much appreciation and said "thank you" As I walked off the bus he extended his hand once again to shake mine and that right there really made my day, because he didn't have to shake my hand again like that if he thought I was not a good person.   King treated me with a great deal of respect, the whole band was very down to earth and welcomed me with great hospitality.

After me and Lori walked off the bus, we just stood there on the curb watching the bus that has the greatest band in the world drive away till we could no longer see it any more. Then we had to go to the hotel lobby to have a cab called for us to take us back to the concert venue to go home. We both went to my car and sat inside there and talked for a little bit about the day, and about the next show in Chicago four days later.

I met Lori at her house this time and followed her out to The house of Blues. We had both never been there before so finding it was new to both of us. Actually it was the first time I had even driven through downtown Chicago, what a mess!

We arrived very early, the band arrived late because there bus broke down if you can believe that or not!! I just can't picture a bus like that breaking down. But anyway they finally arrived and began setup immediately. I got to see the them build the stage this time and also got to see and hear the sound check, that was very cool. Chris was playing these wicked pipe organ lines on the keyboard in petal notes and stuff like that, very classical. I clearly remember standing in front of Andy as he was checking his guitar out, Killer vibrato, did these really slow evil sounding harmonic minor and diminished stuff, best vibrato I ever heard before, then he effortlessly played this linear line on all strings with lots of shifting in there as fast as he could at I'm guessing 6 notes per beat at 160 beats per minute, who knows maybe faster, it was just really fast, and I could hear every note so clean. Then he put his guitar down till everyone else was ready to do sound check.

They played The Eye, and the trial in full length for there sound check and parts of other songs. That was great to hear it that way, the guitar harmony parts on the chorus lines in The Eye especially stick out in my mind, they were so beautiful.

The show that night was pretty much the same thing four nights earlier, except the two crosses over the gates had mysteriously been turned upside down for this show, and me and Lori saw the whole show from the balcony level in front of the stage, great view, saw everything!

After that show, we were invited upstairs to there dressing room, for an after show sort of thing. A lot of people were invited to this. Everyone was up there except for King. I was really quiet at this , and just sat on one of the couches eating a pear, and apple, and drinking a bottle of apple juice in there refrigerator. Very fresh tasting fruit.

After that, Lori got into my car with me and we followed the tour bus to there hotel where they were spending the night instead of on the road in there bus like last time. We walked them to the elevator and Lori or myself could not go up to king's room because Mike (the security guy from earlier) told us that he was very very sick and started throwing up immediately after the show. Wow, I couldn't even tell he was sick. He is very dedicated to with stand that for entertaining his fans and not even cancel the show. I was impressed, but also I wanted King to feel better to.

While talking to the band and crew while waiting for there room keys, I had a chance to ask them if they had listened to my tape I gave them four days earlier. Andy said he hadn't listened to it yet. I know that he is very busy so told him I understand. Glenn said he had a chance to hear the first few songs on it, and he said he liked it , told me it was very good. That made me feel good to hear that from Glenn, he is one of the greatest guitarists I have ever seen. And Willie (a crew member from earlier) said he liked it very much also. He could tell that it was recorded on a cheap four track recorder, but he said the overall quality of the tape considering what I had to record with was not bad and he really liked the music itself a lot. Willie, Glenn and Lori all told Andy that is really is a good tape and to check it out sometime. I don't think that Chris had heard it yet either. All of these compliments were great for me to hear. I would love to know how they all felt about it, but I'm not sure if I'll ever see Andy , Chris , or king again. I didn't have a chance at all to see King this time so I didn't get to ask him about my tape.

As Mike went up stairs to bring him something to eat, Lori gave him a letter to give to King, and I told Mike to "be sure to tell King that a concerned fan hopes that he feels better." Mike just smiled and said "ok I will." Now it's come time for me and Lori to say our goodbyes to the band and crew guys.

I drive Lori back to her car and we talk for a little bit about the up coming ninety eight metal fest in Milwaukee with Mercyful Fate being the main act. We meet each other again at the eagles auditorium in Milwaukee. I meet Sharlee D' Angelo in the lobby and get his autograph next to his picture on there new one entitled Dead Again. Also when I was standing around waiting for Lori to show, John Luke Herbert see's me standing there and says hi to me and asks me how I'm doing. I was surprised at this, I was not expecting that, but that was very cool. He remembered me from about two or three months earlier and spotted me in the middle of a thousand other people when he wasn't even looking for me. So I know that the whole King Diamond band has to remember me from that experience. Most of the time I was talking to Glenn and Chris, Andy to, and then John remembered me that clearly. I figure that I must have left some kind of impression on the King Diamond band and they will probably remember me for a long time. I'll certainly remember them and how great they were for the rest of my life!

I also saw Willie there to. He remembered very clearly to. Told me that his room mate keeps taking my tape that I gave to Willie to listen to it, and doesn't like to give it back because he likes it so much. That was so awesome to know that!!! Willie told me that for the Mercyful Fate tour Dead Again, they went with an all Danish and Swedish crew, or all Danish, I don't remember which. So that means Willie was not part of the crew for this tour, and he told me someone else, I think it was Tommy, who went to do the Opra show for the time being, but I remember Tommy having an accent so I don't remember if that was him or not.  I think I also remember Willie telling me that another crew guy from the King Diamond Voodoo tour went on to do security for one of the late night talk shows like the Jay Leno show or something like that. I don't quite remember.

Well, that is what I remember from this experience right now, I might suddenly remember something else that happened in future and when I do I will insert it somewhere in here to share it with you. I still can't help but wonder if King heard my music, and what he thinks, constructive criticism from the best song writer that ever lived I would immensely benefit from. Also to hear what Andy thinks and the rest of the guys that didn't hear it yet would be another dream come true for me.

Thank you all very much for reading this and looking into my website I appreciate it very much and I REALLY hope that you can make it to a King Diamond show, you will love it!!!!!!!!! Yours Truly, Tom (Metalpalace) 4/13/1999

In this first set of pictures, on the upper two I am with Andy LaRocque. He is drinking a bottle of Blue nun. He hid his face on the first picture so he let me have another one taken with him and then he signed both photos. The one on the lower left I am with John Luke Hebert. The one on the lower right I am with Glenn Drover, you can see him holding up a copy of my demo tape that I gave him. All of these pictures were taken inside the tour bus after the show while waiting in the parking lot of the concert venue in Milwaukee. All pictures were taken by either Lori, Jodi, and Glenn took one.

 

The upper left in this set is me with Chris Estes making scary faces. Lower left is a photo of me with Lori (the one I have to thank for my having a King Diamond Experience!) On the lower right is Jodi (an actress who played grandma, Lula , Jeanne Dibasson, and Countess Mariam Natius.) The guitar pic is Andies. I asked him what he uses and he said "purple." After laughing about that he handed me one of his own custom pics and said 1.14 milometer. It's custom because it has King Diamond engraved on one side and Andy LaRocque signature on the other side!

Here are the two tickets I bought for the two King Diamond shows I went two. The bottom one is for the Milwaukee show, Andy signed it for me when I pulled it out after the concert on the tour bus. The other one is for the Chicago show four days later. They were never collected since I went in with backstage access with Lori, so I kept them. The pic is the same pic as the one above, but the other side with Andies signature engraved on it. Andy gave me his autograph a total of four times!!! If you include the pic that is five! The business card is from Jodi (the actress.) She gave both me and Lori one.