This Austin based trio hit instant fame with their massive radio hit "The Way". Unfortunately, because of their seemingly quick rise to commercial stardom, Fastball are at times unjustly dismissed as another "Class Of '98" one-hit-wonder. They have had a few other radio hits along the way, but they haven't enjoyed that same commercial success as that first single. Nonetheless they are a great band and happened to be opening up for Collective Soul when they came into town, of course we would be trying for their autographs.

       We arrived at the Venue's hotel and saw their tour buses parked outside. Naturally we waited by them until hopefully something would happen. We weren't prepared very well because people kept walking by and we weren't sure if they were in the band or not. We're really big fans of Collective Soul's music, but just not that familiar with what all the band members look like. Fastball is another band we liked a lot, but didn't have a hard to spotting the members of the group.

       Sterling spotted Tony Scalzo walking around the hotel and asked him for an autograph. Tony was a cool guy and we chatted with him quite a bit. He talked about past events he did in our state and many other things. If Tony was any indication the rest of the group would surely be just as nice. After meeting two guys from Collective Soul, we ran into the fellow co-lead singer of Fastball, Miles Zuniga. Miles also had no problem stopping to sign. He was an interesting fella and we're glad that he put pen to paper for us. After meeting three more members of Collective Soul, we only needed drummer Joey Shuffield's autograph to complete the collection of Fastball -cool.

       We began to realize that Joey had walked past us a few times already, but he looked a little different in person. He was now hidden away in the tour bus and wasn't coming down yet. We waited and waited, but thankfully our patience was rewarded when he came down. Two other fans thought he was from Collective Soul and asked for an autograph. He told them they had the wrong band and when we asked and showed him our pictures he said "now, they have the right group." Joey, like the rest of his band, had no problem signing and posing for pictures. We thanked him and were off to get ready for the concert.