Why were you inspired to do this?

I was inspired simply to go to the River of Dreams concert because it was going to be the last show in the old Boston Garden and my friends and I were just back to school for fall semester. It was a friend's birthday and the whole group of us were huge fans, so we decided to go for it.

What were 3 things you did to make this happen?

We bought tickets, literally the last row and worst tickets in the place, obstructed view behind a pole. But we didn't care! We got tickets and that's all we needed to have a great time. River of Dreams, here we come.

We got there early. As soon as the doors opened, we were among the first waves of concert-goers who poured into the venue, just taking in the energy. There was music playing over the sound system, people were hooting and singing. Billy Joel fans are generally just fantastic fans and his music is without generation. We were so ecstatic just to be there, in our newly bought tour t-shirts, singing and laughing. We were a huge group, eight of us all sophomores and juniors in college, so we were hard to miss.

We had to share our enthusiasm. When a man (someone we thought was just another fan) asked us if we were huge Billy Joel fans, we shouted and high-fived, we expressed a genuine thrill. Our answer must have suited him because he said, "Wow. Well, Mr. Joel saves the best seats for his biggest fans. He would like you to be his guests in the front row." When we recovered from the surprise, he escorted us down (celebrating all the way) to our new eight seats, in exact opposite value of the seats we'd been thrilled to have just moments before. We all just looked at each other, huge incredulous smiles on our faces, shocked and amazed.

How did you feel once you had accomplished this?

When the lights went down and the music started, we freaked out. There was Billy Joel, literally as far from us as if he were sitting across the aisle on a bus. As the show ramped up, so did we. We were sweating buckets and dancing, elbow to elbow with a sellout Garden crowd. At one point during a song (could have been You May Be Right, could have been We Didn't Start the Fire), my friend Tracey had him fully by the thigh with both hands. She looked at me as though she had touched God. It was fantastic.