Hey Bon Jovi, I'll Settle Your Debt for Two Front Row Tickets

I was crushed to learn that sometime during the flurry of trips driving my mother back and forth to the Mayo Clinic the past two weeks, tickets for the February Bon Jovi concert at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee went on sale. I missed out. The disappointment struck almost as deep as the time I missed my tour bus to the Franklin Mills shopping mall in Philadelphia two years ago when I was there tagging along on one of my husband's conventions. I took a four-block shuttle ride from our hotel room to the convention center that morning because the weather was so hot and humid and I didn't want to get all sweaty walking. What I didn't know about traffic in Philadelphia is that it actually takes six times longer to travel four blocks by bus than it does to walk. I saw my tour bus pull away just as the shuttle bus pulled into the convention center. I broke down and cried while explaining to a security guard that I'd missed my bus to the mall. "Two hundred stores," I sobbed.

That story had a happy ending, though. Just as the security guard was offering me a tissue, two other women who also were looking to go to Franklin Mills walked up asked me if I wanted to share a cab with them.

The Lord works in mysterious ways. I wouldn't mind if He mysteriously scored me a couple Bon Jovi tickets.

I've never really been much of a rocker. The concerts I've attended in my life reflect a taste for mostly pop music and male and female vocalists. The first concert I ever attended was, as I recall, Sha Na Na. (Anybody remember them?) Since then I've seen in person: Tom Jones, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Wayne Newton and Celine Dion.

But since I began writing music lyrics earlier this year, I started paying closer attention to all types of music, and, hence, I discovered the seductive soft rock music of Jon Bon Jovi. Not to mention he's not hard to look at, either.

In an odd coincidence, earlier this summer a friend of mine invited me to have dinner with him and his wife. He had arranged to have a well-known singer and guitarist, Tommy Holland, from the band Rock County, come to the restaurant and sing Happy Birthday to his wife. Tommy once did a stint as lead singer and guitarist for the famous rock group, Steppenwolf. After singing a sultry rendition of Happy Birthday, he stuck around for dinner and shared some entertaining "rocker life" stories, including one about Jon Bon Jovi.

"Yeah, Jon still owes me ten bucks," he recalled in his raspy, Rod Stewart-like voice.

According to Tommy, a couple decades ago Steppenwolf and Bon Jovi were performing at Alpine Valley on the same night. Bon Jovi was just a "little squirt," a "nobody" back then. Apparently one of the Steppenwolf band members had an inkling to beat him up until Tommy stepped in. Bon Jovi thanked him, then asked him if he had one of those special cigarettes that band members sometimes smoke to relax before a gig. Tommy said it would cost him ten bucks but Bon Jovi said he'd have to pay him later.

Well, Bon Jovi never paid up.

Fast forward to 2007. Tommy wants his money. He seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't charge interest, though.

My friend thought it might be a cool idea if Tommy and I showed up at the concert to try to collect the dough.

Of course, we'd need tickets to get in.

Right now it's looking like we'd probably have a better chance of catching the next bus to Franklin Mills.