Achieving 7 #1 hits from 1994 and 1999 is just a small sign that this band isn't going away anytime soon. "Why P.2" was hitting the radio airwaves big time and there seemed to be no escaping their music. Since we were big fans of theirs it was great news when we heard they would be coming to town along with opening act Fastball. Besides just going to the concert we planned to try and get a few autographs before the show. This had been an amazing week for Earl because he had just met his favorite band Matchbox Twenty, so Collective Soul really had a lot to live up to if this were to be memorable.
We arrived at the Venue's hotel and saw their tour buses parked outside. Naturally we waited by them until hopefully something would happen. It's funny because we were big fans of Collective Soul, but didn't really take the liberty to instantly know all of the band members on sight. As a result people kept walking by us and we weren't sure if they were in the band or not.
After meeting some members from Fastball, Sterling noticed drummer, Shane Evans, heading to the venue and asked for an autograph. Shane didn't mind at all and signed/posed for pictures for each of us. After Shane left it wasn't long until Jesse (guitarist) came strolling out of the hotel. He didn't totally match his profile from the pictures we'd seen, but Earl asked him anyway and it was thankfully him. He signed for each of us and took a picture as well. Jesse was quite shy and didn't say much, but signed and that's all that matters. After meeting Jesse we ran into a member from fastball, but we'll leave that for their section.
Soon after we noticed lead singer, Ed Roland, walking to the venue but we were too slow to react in time. He had long hair and from what we had seen his hair was short, so that's why we were so late to realize that it was him. Ed is our favorite member so hopefully we didn't just blow our only chance. Ed's brother and rhythm guitarist, Dean Roland, was walking around the hotel and we spotted him in time for an autograph. He was willing to sign and pose for a picture, which was really nice of him.
When sound check finally ended we hoped they would be coming back out to rest up before the show. Earl barely caught a glimpse of Ed Roland walking back to the hotel and we quickly intercepted him to ask for an autograph. Ed was extremely friendly and sure didn't let us down. He agreed to take a picture with each of us, as well as signing our pictures. Two other fans were there and he didn't mind signing for them either. Now we only needed one more member from Collective Soul and one from Fastball.
Suddenly we spotted the missing link of Collective Soul, Will Turpin (bass), as he was heading to the tour bus with his hands full of food. We asked for an autograph and even though his hands were full he signed away (after handing over her beverage to Sterling to hold). He was a great guy and the reason we hadn't seen him earlier was because he was watching a basketball game inside the venue. Sterling handed over his beverage that he had been holding for him and we thanked him as he headed into the bus. Our Collective Soul collection was done and soon after so was Fastballs, which made our autograph hunt completely successful.
