Had a pretty cool experience last Wednesday. A local writer who covered the Blues for 14 years at the Post Dispatch and who now writes for The Athletic, Jeremy Rutherford, ghost wrote Hall of Fame Blues Center Bernie Federko's life story. The book is called 'My Blues Note'....pretty cool story of his life and playing career. I'm buddies with Rutherford and he got me an early copy...really enjoyed the book.
so last Wednesday they had an event that was a town hall type deal....$35 a ticket you get to sit in this small hall with Jeremy and Federko and they did a Q & A and talked about the book...the process of writing it....heard some stories that weren't necessarily in the book...so on and so forth. At then end of the Q & A they both signed your book and you had a few minutes with them.
Rutherford texts me that day and asks if I was going to that event and I said 'yep' and he says we should just ride together, so we did. Well, after the Q & A when the line formed I made sure to be the last person because I knew I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon being I rode out with Jeremy. It gets down to me being last....took my pic with Bernie....said a few things...got my book signed (for my Dad) and thought that'd be that.
Well Bernie had to sign another 30 or 40 books for some online orders so Jeremy and I just hung out there and chatted with him and some workers while he did that. He gets done, looks at JR and I and says..."How about going and getting some cocktails boys?" Jeremy asks me if that'd be cool and I was like "Umm....no....I don't want to go hang out with a Hall of Fame Hockey player"
Of course I'm going with them. We went to a local bar ....they had a couple beers....I don't drink so I just sipped some water....but I got to sit and chat and hang out with Bernie Federko for the next two hours or so. We left the bar around midnight. It was such a neat experience....just hearing him talk about some old stories....hearing some behind the scenes things that go on with the Blues now...like I said, it was just really neat. Federko's a real down to earth guy that didn't have this attitude of being 'better' than anyone. I mean, here I am a nobody really and I talked to him for a couple hours like you'd talk to one of your buddies. Just 'real' conversation without any nervousness or anything. Was quite the experience.