This past Sunday, with an injured
shoulder, I went to Great Woods to see Mötley Crüe playing the Massachusetts
date of their “Final Tour”. The
Crüe was the first concert I ever went to (27 years ago, August 10th,
1987 at the Centrum in Worcester), so I wanted to see them one last time.
When
the Mötley boys started into their ballad “Without You”, I was taken back to
1990 when the song was being played in heavy rotation on WAAF. This was during my sophomore year in
high school, and there were three girls who had told me (each in her own way)
that they weren’t interested in me romantically…Shocking, I know. To me, it made sense to call WAAF and
dedicate this song to all three of these lovely lasses. I think one of them
heard the dedication, so it was “mission accomplished” in my book.
It’s
funny sometimes how you get what you wish for, but life has a way of making it
happen not exactly how you had it in mind. I remember thinking about these three girls during my
sophomore year and wondering if things would have been different if they knew
me my freshman year when I was in the hospital with Crohn’s Disease. I thought maybe one of them would have
felt bad for me or maybe would have wanted to take care of me, and my chances
of having something romantic would have been better. Two years later, I was
diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.
One afternoon when I was in the hospital, all three of these girls came
to visit me. It was hard for me to
complain about the chemo that day, for sure. My favorite nurse (a neighbor) came in to check on me during
their visit and could tell I was one of the happiest cancer patients she had
ever seen.
Now,
over 24 years after I made that “Without You” dedication, I still keep in touch
with all three of these women. Two are married with kids and one is engaged to
be married. Although I am still
looking for the one I can truly dedicate this song to, I’m very happy for all
of them and glad we are still friends.
Here’s
a little clip I took of “Without You” from Sunday’s show, and the official
music video.
