Kevin's Celeb Pics

350 million albums sold . . . the largest selling Christmas recording of all time . . . a Grammy winner . . . the first artist to ever have a greatest hits release . . . the third largest selling male artist in the United States (just behind Elvis and Frank Sinatra) . . . pretty impressive, 'eh! Who I am talking about? Johnny Mathis, of course.

Johnny was in St. Louis Saturday night for the first of two concerts at the Fox Theater. While I was one of only two people awaiting his arrival in the afternoon, he simply motioned to his watch and said he was running late as he made his way into the Theater at about 3:30 p.m. Running late at 3:30 p.m. for a 8:00 p.m. show??? Hey, maybe he'll do a sound check and then leave for dinner or go back to the hotel to relax. Could I be that lucky? Nope . . . he stayed inside until the very end. As he exited the Theater, he waved to the crowd and hopped in a town car. No autographs? No pictures? As the car made its way out of the parking lot, it slowed, and down came the back window. He signed autographs for about three minutes, and I was one of the lucky ones to get my CD signed. However, photos were impossible in the crowd that had grown to about thirty people. So . . . I jogged across the street to my car and waited for Johnny's car to exit. Naturally, I followed. Destination unknown. It was somewhere downtown. Final stop was the Ballpark Village Hilton. As he waited for his luggage to be unloaded, I asked for the photo and finally got it. Whew . . . success at last!