Here's my story.
May 1, 1992. It was the highlight concert night of my concert going career, edging out a Daniel Amos show I saw in Tulsa back in 1980, right after Shotgun Angel came out. That one was pretty unbelievable.
This time, I had the chance to do a pre-1997 Living Room concert for about 2000 of my closest friends. I was managing a radio station in San Antonio, and we produced concerts from time to time. I had called Bruce Carroll and booked him for a date, and we talked about the idea of having Bob come too. Bob had been living with Bruce when he went to Nashville, and the two were good friends ("Hey Bruce, How's your steak?"). We booked Bob for the show, and everything was set.
A few weeks before the date, I was in Nash-Vegas for GMA, and Bruce did his song "Sometime Miracles Hide" at the songwriters showcase, with Kelly Willard on stage doing background vocals. It was a knockout. I went up to Bruce after the song was over and asked "Do you think we could get Kelly to come too?" He pulled the strings, and everything was set.
Bob, Bruce and Kelly came to San Antonio the day before the concert. My dream was to get them all on stage in an impromptu, unplugged songfest. We went to a local church where I bounced the idea off them. They were familiar with each others songs, but had never played them together. When it came time for Bob and Kelly to sing bgv's for Bruce, for example, they knew the melody but not the words.
We worked for a few hours putting together a set and running through all the songs. I went back to my office that night and typed out the lyrics to all the songs so they would have a copy of the words on stage.
What happened that night at Cornerstone Church was magic. Almost three hours of uninterrupted, non-stop music, fun, mutual admiration, some train wrecks, Bob saying "I'm sorry guys, I messed that last one up!" (while no one in the audience knew the difference). People sat riveted in their seats, wanting the night to go on and on.
Imagine Bob and Kelly doing You're Welcome Here, live. Or Bruce and Bob trying to stumble through the chorus words on Kelly's song "Love Will Find You" (the words, by the way, are "no hole too deep, no river to wide, no chains too strong, something something something.....).
The next night, Bob stayed in town and sang My Redeemer Lives at a friends wedding.
I only wish I had taped the evening. The bootleg tapes would keep both Bob and me in Fritos for a while......