Philly Meet & Greet Recap From clayloverinpa

The Clayboard's clayloverinpa posted a superb meet & greet recap for Tueday's show in Philadelphia.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but I finally have my recap done of my wonderful meet & greet with Clay in Philly on Tues. night!! Needless to say, it was awesome and I'm still on Cloud 9!! Here ya go:

The closer it got to Meet & Greet time, the more nervous I became! I was downing doses of Pepto Bismol like crazy!! I was so afraid that when I got in there, I wouldn’t be able to ask a coherent question! We went to the Mann Box Office around 3:30 to pick up my pass and I was told that they had no passes at this time. They had placed a call to find out about them, but had not heard anything as yet, so back to the hotel we went.

A little after 5 PM we went back to the venue and this time the passes were there but they COULDN’T FIND MINE! My name was not on the list the guy told me. He made a phone call and quickly (THANK GOD) this problem was resolved!

I met up with several other meet & greet winners standing there and shortly Jerome came looking for us and walked us to the back of the venue. We had to wait there a few moments and then he came back for us and escorted us down this hallway past what appeared to be the girls’ dressing room. We walked into a room that had a couch and a few chairs and in the one corner was a table with veggies/dip, fruit, and bottles of water and juice, etc. Jerome told us to help ourselves. He said Clay would be in in about 15 min.

We sat there for what seemed forever - probably 20-25 min. and then finally Jerome opened the door and in walked Clay!! He was wearing khaki shorts, a purple polo shirt, and sandals and his hair was kind of tossled. He looked ADORABLE! He had this big grin on his face and said “Hi! How are ya’ll doin’?” He wanted to know how far we traveled and where we were all from. There wasn’t an open spot for him to sit down anywhere so those of us on the couch started squishing together to make room but he saw there really wasn’t room and he just pulled an end table out from aside of the couch and sat on it with his feet dangling! Too cute!

He asked if anyone had any questions, so I spoke up and asked him if the song, “Back for More” might be resurrected at some time in the future either on a CD or in concert. He said “probably not.” He said“the song doesn’t really do it for me.” I said “ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Didn’t you see us all in the audience with our arms in the air singing along with that song?” He laughed and said that he just doesn’t feel the song fits with the direction the CD may go in I guess. I then asked if we were to assume that the next CD would be all original material. He said if he had ANYTHING to do with it, it certainly would be. You could see how strongly he felt about this and he did say that he feels he may have to fight for it, but he said he was prepared to “stick to his guns” and do it. He said it may end up taking a long time, but he wants to do it. I could just tell how badly he really wants this. He said he really dislikes the “politics” that go on with this type of thing. He does feel that his new producer is on the same page as he is and hopes all goes well. He still couldn’t tell us a name for him yet. As far as releasing singles, he said that he really has no say at all as to what is picked. He said he can offer his opinion, but usually it doesn’t work that way. He told us that his pick for a single would have been “Lonely No More” or “These Open Arms”. He also said that “These Open Arms” is his favorite song to sing right now along with the TV theme medley. When asked what song he’s tired of singing, he said “1000 Days” and he said that he NEVER gets tired of singing “Invisible”! He mentioned that the most difficult song for him to sing is “This is the Night.”

He said that he was prepared to bring Raleigh along for the rest of the tour. He said he even had a reservation for her on the plane, but Jesse is allergic to dogs, so he couldn’t bring her. He said it was awful because the dog was sitting in his suitcase when he was packing, and she sat there and whined when he went out the door. He said “it broke my heart!” Awwwww!!!

One of the other ladies there gave him a gift basket of goodies and he went through them all checking to see that no items were made in a factory that handled tree nuts. He read all of the labels!!! Most of them say they were made in factories that process peanuts and he said that was okay because he’s not allergic to peanuts. He was too funny sitting there going over all the labels!!

He then joked with me about being the only one that was asking any questions. I laughed and told him that I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to speak at all and now I can’t shut up!! He really laughed at that!

Then I brought up the subject of us - the fans. I said to him that I thought he used to be really insecure or uncomfortable in believing that we would be here for the long haul for him. He said “I still feel that way.” I asked him why, and he said “because I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you.” He more or less said that he doesn’t ever want to assume that we are going to always be there. He said “what if I put out a really crappy CD or something?” I told him that he needs to know that we are here for him and here for the duration. He thanked me for saying that and that he appreciated that comment.

He also told us about the letter that Quiana received from “a fan.” He told us the he was going to “call her out on it” tonight. He told us that he was going to read it on stage during the show! We all laughed and told him he should. He told us that the letter insinuated that he had let himself go and he was eating too many Krispy Kremes and mac & cheese! We all just howled at that! He couldn’t believe that someone would have done that! He called the lady a rather amusing name which I won’t put in print, but it got quite a laugh from us!

Then one of the ladies’ cell phones rang and he got this horrified look on his face and said “OH MAH GAWD!!” She grabbed it and slammed the phone shut and shoved it in her purse. It was hysterical! He said “you just hung up on them”! We were all laughing like crazy. THEN HIS PHONE WENT OFF!! He just quickly shut it and jammed it in his pocket!! TOO FUNNY!

He said he knows how we all go on the message boards, so he told us to tell everyone who has a meet and greet tomorrow (Wednesday) to wear purple. He wanted to see how fast the word passed and see how many showed up in purple! He’s just SO funny!!

It was nearing the end, so he signed each of our items making sure to spell each of our names right. Then each of us got a turn to get our picture taken with him. (Jerome told us we could NOT use our own camera even while Jamie was taking her shot. DANG!) He told us that the “prom pose” was the most popular and he made it the “ default pose”, and that was what we were going to get unless we told him differently. When I got up there he grabbed my hands and was trying to pose them with his - like in the prom shots! It was a riot!! Then he put his arm around me and I put mine around him (OH LORD!!!!). My knees went weak at this time, but HEY! I remained vertical!! Then he put his face right down to mine against my cheek. I glanced at him and he had this goofy silly grin on his face. I gave him a smack and told him I didn’t want the goofy face - that I wanted the nice grin on my picture. He laughed and said OKAY!!! So, I’m hoping he gave me a nice smile. Jamie was taking the pictures and told us she would have them out to us in e-mail today. (I STILL DO NOT HAVE IT!!) While there, I did mention to Clay and Jamie about the woman who posted from Houston that she still did not get her picture. Jamie said that she was aware of the problem and was working on it. I had printed out the woman’s post and I actually DID give it to Jamie and it seemed that they were both aware of the issue and were working on it, so hopefully this lady can get her photo.

Before we left, he did ask us if we liked the meet & greet format. YES WE DO!!!! As he got up to leave, we were all gathered around and he shook all of our hands and thanked us and we, of course, thanked him for doing the meet & greet!!

I walked out of there on Cloud 9! It had gone so well. I was nervous for no reason. You guys who said that you calm down after he walks in and starts talking were right! My nervousness absolutely DID go away when he came in, and I ended up feeling like we were talking to a friend in someone’s living room. It was informal, intimate, and a precious memory I will never forget.

Sorry this is so long, but I know you guys love details!!!

Lee Ann