In the fall of 2009, I got to see Bruce Springsteen for the first times, and that included two of his shows at Madison Square Garden in November.

It was exciting to get to see The Boss, and we were fortunate to also see two nights of his appearances at the Rock Hall 25 shows, both at MSG as well.

In New York, we were very fortunate to have passes to attend a backstage gathering prior to the shows. It was the largest backstage set-up I've ever seen. Basically, Bruce had several curtained off areas back there. Each held at least 100 if not more people. Maybe 200 per area. In our area, which was the lowest level, we were very lucky to have a radio personality I've admired for many years -- and who I met many years ago -- join us. Robin Quivers came in with Artie from the Howard Stern show, and maybe one other staff member or friend. They were approached by a bunch of people. I did it after a few others had, and just told her how cool I thought she was, how I'd been a big fan of their show since 1986 when I was in high school and they were first being beamed to Philadelphia, their first satellite city out of NY.

She was so down to earh, accessible, friendly, kind, warm, giving, easy going, and I cannot say enough nice stuff about this PRO. Being an enormous fan of the classic years of that show, she was a part of what I would call among the very most entertaining radio I've ever heard. The OJ era, just after he made news, and the show worked magic with their own previously recorded OJ interview. The Biily West stuff, Jackies vibe... it was epic in that 94-96 era...

Robin took the pic, was just a superb, classy woman all around -- I can only gush good things about this hero encounter. She thanked me a bunch, and just gave me only the best vibes.

It was a brief, but truly inspiring encounter.

I'm a media personality and radio broadcaster in Honolulu, Hawaii,
and news anchor with Hawaii Public Radio, the voice of NPR statewide in the islands. You can hear me most weekdays on the KHPR/statewide feed at http://hawaiipublicradio.org
on NPR's award-winning show All Things Considered.

I anchor local news and features, including many fun interviews with
major music acts.

Follow the HPR News link at http://hawaiipublicradio.org
for my Dave Lawrence Reports page, where you can hear extended interview segments with artists I've interviewed this year for HPR, including Ziggy Marley, Tower Of Power, filmmaker David Lynch, 311, Grateful
Dead's Bill Kreutzmann, comedian David Spade, Jack Johnson, Julio Iglesias, Boz Scaggs and many other acts.