KISS

  I had a dilemma.  Elton John was coming to Columbia as part of his farewell tour in 2020.  I had seen him in concert twice before, but this would be the last time.  He puts on a great show.  Then, it was announced that KISS and David Lee Roth would be here in February 2020.  I had never seen either one of them, but I was familiar with much of their music.  What to do?  The ticket prices for Elton were a lot.  More than I really wanted to spend.  After all, the first time I saw Elton in 1973 at UGa, my ticket cost $2.  The second time was in Columbia in 1980.  Tickets were around $20.  Now, they wanted $200 for a fairly good seat.  I bought a ticket for KISS instead.  Less than $100.

 The seat was where I liked to sit.  Right behind the soundboard.  David Lee Roth was their opening act.  He did some Van Halen songs mostly.  I was amazed that he could still jump, but I was afraid he was going to throw out a hip.  He didn't look like the front man for Van Halen anymore, but his voice was still good.  Then, KISS came out.  They put on a great show with everything you would expect from them.  It was well worth the ticket price.  I made the right decision.

 I had a meeting at church the next morning, so I decided to stay in a hotel downtown overnight instead of going back home after the show.  I got a little sleep and went to the meeting.  The world was hearing about Covid-19, but I felt I could go to the show with no problems.  There was a man sitting next to me, whose son was sick.  He kept coughing a lot during the show.  The father finally took the boy and went home.  A day or two later, I started feeling bad.  I thought it was the flu, even though I got the flu shot a few months before.  It could have been a mild form of the virus.  I don't know.  BUT, life sure changed after that. By the way, Elton postponed his show, when Covid started getting bad.  He came back a couple of years later.  I still didn't go.  Tickets were just too expensive for me.  The yellow brick road might as well have been paved with gold.  KISS was more like a black diamond.