Ty Ty and Pre-Rock of Love Bret Michaels.

Hi, little bunnies!  I'm Tyler from Arkansassy.  While my lil' Samikins is running around Dallas with Lady Gaga (jealous) and Helene (even jealous-er), I'm taking over her blog to tell y'all about the most amazing concert experience of my life.

drumroll......

Let's talk about the time I almost went to Tulsa with Bret Michaels.

you know, if I wasn't there, I don't know if I'd believe me, but swearsies, it's true.

Circa 2006, Bret Michaels came to the tiny town of Bentonville, Arkansas to play a show.

I don't know why.

My good friend Justin calls me up and says we just have to go see this glorious, aging rock star in his last hurrah.  He's playing at a bar, so I said okay.

We drive the twenty minutes up the road and get to The Icehouse, the now-defunct establishment housing Bret Michaels and his weave band.  He plays some random songs that he'd written in the last five years, which were fine, I'm sure (couldn't really tell you, I had a lot of RBVs), but everyone was screaming for Every Rose Has Its Thorn, even though it was a Bret Michaels show and not a Poison show, so he got all pissed off and regretfully played that stupid song to a bunch of screaming middle-aged women.

(And me.)

Whatever, got a thing for older men.

anywho.

The show was fun, all went well, Justin and I are leaving, and we pass Bret's bus to get to the car.  Justin points to the slightly questionable-looking working girls women standing at the front of a loooong line outside of the bus, and with a slight shove, tells me to, "Go wait with the skanks and get on the bus."

Let me tell you now that I never in a million years thought this would actually happen.

I go up to the skanks, make nice, chit chat, talk, la la la ...

*doors open*

And everyone stops.

Four people got picked to climb aboard the bus.

The three skanks.  And me.

waitwhat?

I spent three hours on a bus with a pre-Rock of Love Bret Michaels.

[don't worry, we got Justin on the bus, too!]

He doesn't drink, but he made sure everyone else did.  We took eleventy billion Jager shots (I was 22, get off me), and Bret told us stories and showed us pictures of his kids.  Very un-rock star.  Loved him.

Then the bus was getting ready to leave.  I asked where they were going next, and he said they were headed to Tulsa, which is a little over an hour and a half from where we were.

And then he said it.


You wanna come?



I'm stunned.  I'm speechless.

Yes.  I want to come.

And then my common sense Justin chimed in and said we had better be going.  And then he grabbed my arm and all but dragged me off that bus.

After we got off, he asked me how I planned on getting home from Tulsa if I left with Bret Michaels.

I smiled as sweet as I could and said, "I was gonna call you."



 I'm surprised he didn't leave me right there in the parking lot.

Because I suck at life, I didn't have a camera on me, and these were the days before iPhones, guys ... so I don't have any pictures of our romance.

I do, however, have this.

Yep.

"Tyler: You're bringing sexy back.  Love, Bret"

Life = Won.


*************************

I've told you my best story, so I don't know why you'd wanna come listen to my boring ones.  Just in case, though, if you wanna come visit, come see me here!