The Grammy Awards Pt. 3

Even the ticket to get into the Grammy Awards is special. It's large and formal and a collector's item in itself. It lets you know well ahead of time that you're in for a special night. And that's what the 50th Annual Grammy Awards was from my view inside the Staples Center.

It was like going to 20 of my favorite concerts in one night.

How they can book, coordinate, mix, light, and pace a show like what I just saw is beyond me. I know a lot of work went into rehearsals because we could hear them through the walls as I broadcast from inside the Staples Center on Thursday and Friday. Carrie Underwood must've practiced "Before He Cheats" at least 10 times. Kanye also put in significant time for run-throughs. But still, I've been to concerts with one act where they didn't get the sound right. The Grammys crew had 3 1/2 hours of the biggest names in music to set up, and they nailed it without exception.

At the end of each commercial break a voice would calmly remind the crowd of mingling nominees to find their seats as we were getting ready to go live on CBS. His tone was that of somebody's Dad in his study telling his kids in the family room that Mom was on her way home with dinner. This is the guy in charge of merging 17,000 people in the hall with 17 million viewers around the country yet he sounded like he was cozied up in a recliner reading the newspaper. It was my first Grammys, but I'm guessing it wasn't his.

On my big fat Grammy ticket it said "Black Tie," but I thought I could get away with a black sportcoat, dark shirt and jeans. When I saw most of the people entering the hall with me dressed in tuxes and long gowns, I became a little worried. But once inside I had to laugh when these same formally-dressed folks stood in the same concessions line as me to get hot dogs, pretzels and cheese nachos. And as is usual at these kind of events, it was a cleaveage convention. As a boy you're taught not to stare directly at the sun, as a man you do your best not to stare at other things. In both cases, sunglasses help a lot.

Highlights of the Grammys for me were The Time singing "Jungle Love", Tina Turner with Beyonce, Ringo and The Beatles' producer George Martin, and Aretha fronting an amazing gospel choir. Even the ones that make TV producers nervous, Amy Winehouse and Kanye, were show-stopping impressive. Kanye was savy enough to self-edit his lyrics before the censors had to. He vocally clipped the naughty words without missing a beat.

It's one thing to listen to my favorite songs in the car, it's another thing to have my whole musical history tour performed right in front of me at The Grammys. I know they didn't know I was coming, but it sure felt like they did.

Grammy Awards Pt. 2

Interviewing celebrities is one of the mainstays of The Scott & Erica Show. And it never gets old.

The first celebrity I ever interviewed was at my first radio job in Newark, Ohio. It was the one and only Boxcar Willie. In case you haven't had the pleasure of knowing him, Boxcar was an old-school country music singer with a trademarked hobo hat and a train whistle that he would work into most every song he did. He pulled up to the station in a less-than-new camper that he toured the country with. Both he and his vehicle had seen some miles. But, back when we only had three TV channels, everybody my age watched Hee Haw on Saturday nights, and Boxcar was a regular guest on that show. So when he started answering my questions on the radio, I was in total disbelief that he was actually sharing a converstation with me.

Fast forward 20-something years to this weekend. I'm in Los Angeles at the 50th annual Grammy Awards. For the past two days, I've been in a room filled with superstars from Janet Jackson, to Kanye West, to Carrie Underwood. It's about as cool as it gets, but now for a different reason.

The bulk of the thrill I feel is delayed until I get to talk to my wife and daughter back in Orlando. I don't feel like it makes me more special to be around famous people, I just happened to pick a job that regularly includes that opportunity. But when I hear the elation in my family's voices, that's when the real excitement races through me.

This is very rare air I'm in this weekend. I feel extremely fortunate to get this chance. But it doesn't completely hit home, until I phone home.

The Grammy Awards

Wow it's been a long time between blog postings, hasn't it?

Being sent to cover the Grammys seemed to be the perfect time to fire things back up. The truth is, I haven't really done anything of note yet since I just got here to LA, but I wanted to get the ball rolling.

I just barely made my flight out here, so I didn't have time to grab any reading material for the flight. So once I'd read the SkyMall catalogue and the airline magazine, I had another 5 hours to do other things. After a 10 minute snooze I attempted to tune in to the in-flight movie, but my seat's audio didn't work. That left me almost 5 hours to do other things. The other thing I chose to do was sit and look forward. I haven't had a middle seat on a crowded flight in years. I usually travel with my family, so I get dibs on the aisle seat. But since I'm doing this trip solo, I had the honor of sitting between two wannabe mimes. I'm only guessing that to be their vocation because they didn't say a word the entire flight. Even when the guy next to me needed to use the restroom, he just pointed to the front of the plane so I would get up to let him past me. That killed probably 7 minutes though, so I only had 4 1/2 hours to sit and look forward.

But the flight was on-time, my luggage made it, the cab ride went smoothly and I made it to the Grammy orientation meeting that I thought I'd be late for.

So tomorrow it begins. Celebrities from the music, TV and movie worlds will be brought to my broadcast table at the Staples Center and we'll have a lot of fun. I'd gladly trade 5 hours of solitary confinement on a sold-out airplane for this opportunity any day.

More soon.