That’s right. On April 12th at Guitar Works on 16th Ave in Calgary I met Zakk Wylde. Marshall held an autograph signing to which you had to enter a draw or buy a Marshall MG amp to attend. I, naturally not wanting to leave it up to luck and bought the amp.
First off, I should just say, the whole thing was a gong show from 11:30 when I showed up until 3:30 when I actually got through to meet him. The thing was poorly planned and totally unorganized. I don’t really want to get too much in it, but if you ever get the chance to meet the guy, bring something to get signed EVEN if they insist there will be no bringing in outside stuff to sign. I say that because they said there would be material to purchase to have him sign, and there wasn’t.
Anyway, the singing was supposed to go from 1pm to 3pm and you were supposed to arrive at 12pm to get an entrance bracelet. When I got there at 11:30 they wouldn’t give me one because I didn’t bring a CD to get signed. I wanted to purchase one there, but they hadn’t arrived yet. So I waited, and waited, and waited with about 20 other people for the CDs to come. Zakk showed up at about 2:30, and we still had no CD. In the end they gave us Dunlop posters for Zakk’s new guitar strings to get signed. The poster is pretty sweet, but still, not a CD.
I waited in line for about an hour after this and finally made it through the doors at almost 3:30. I was in awe just being in his presence. I cant really explain what it was like talking to the guy. He gave me a one armed hug, asked me if I was coming out to the show that night, I responded and we shot the shit for a few minutes, then he gave me another one armed hug and sent me on my way. It was awesome. I still think back on it and it seems like it was a dream. It was a great experience.
Here is a photo of the poster that I got signed.
I wanted to get a picture taken with him, but that was strictly prohibited. So I didn’t push it.
