Geri Vassau

Meet Geri Vassau from Cary, Illinois.

Hi All, I've been an America fan for about 30 years now, and have been to see them about 8 or 10 times. I hadn't seen them in about 10 years up until recently, I've seen them in Aurora, IL and at the Potowatomi Casino in Milwaukee, WI.

I shared a room with my older brother when I was little and he had America's first album on 8-track, which I absolutely loved. I think 'I Need You' was the first 'grown-up' song I knew all the words to. I also developed a huge crush on Gerry, who I thought was named Dan. On the back of the album below their picture it says 'America is...' and I just assumed it was the order of the picture. I thought I was 'in love' with Dan till 'Hearts'!

Anyhow, one of my fondest memories was when I was about 16 and had heard on the radio that the band was coming to the Mill Run Theatre in Niles, IL. I convinced my mom to call and get me tickets and eventually convinced her that my best friend Monica and I could be trusted to take the car and drive unsupervised to see the show, about an hour away. When we got to the show I was blown away when the usher took us all the way down to the front row. I was pretty into photography at the time and had taken my good Minolta 35mm camera with a huge 200mm Zoom Lens, just to be sure that I would get some nice close pictures in case we were way in the back. Well, let me tell you, did I get some nice close pictures. I got pictures of Gerry's fingers playing that big black baby grand! I got a lot of really nice pictures, including David Dickey mugging for the camera. He actually was drinking a bottle of Heineken and at one point I acted like I was dying of thirst and he walked out and gave me the bottle about half full. Man, you know that kind of thing doesn't go on these days, with a 16 year old anyway! I still have that bottle to this day and I also got one of Gerry's towels that he would wipe his sweat on. Much to my mom's disgust, I slept with that towel for about 3 years. Ah, young love...anyhow, that's my favorite story so far.

My friends all think I'm pretty much nuts for still being into these guys after so many years, but I think a big part of it is that their music was such a big part of my adolescence and first loves and the terrible teens. At any given time I have at least 2 or 3 of their discs in my 10 disc changer in my car. I have far too many favorite songs to list, but I think Holiday and Homecoming are probably my 2 favorite albums.

On a personal note, I'm 42 and live in the far north suburbs in Illinois. I've been a bartender for almost 20 years, I love to travel, to go skiing especially, and I am a big hockey fan (go Jagr!). Not married, no kids, 2 dogs that I adore. That's about it I guess. I will be riding my Harley this year to Indiana to see the band, looking forward to that definitely. I will try to put a few of my pictures up for all to see. I'm pretty proud of them.

Feel free to send your comments or questions to Geri.