No. 950 – Desert Rose

Performer: Eric Johnson

Songwriters: Eric Johnson, Vince Mariani

Original Release: Ah Via Musicom

Year: 1990

Definitive Version: None

In the fall of 1991, I saw Rush for the second time in a week—this time in Cleveland. I came over from Flint and was going to meet my dad coming up from Columbus, and I couldn’t wait to see the warm-up act.

Eric Johnson blew me away the first time I saw him warm up for Rush, and after listening to Ah Via Musicom pretty solidly for a week, I was ready. There was just one problem, which didn’t reveal itself until we left from our meeting point on I-71 to the dear departed Richfield Coliseum: I had lost my ticket to the show. Dad had mailed it to me in case we weren’t able to meet up, and I had no idea where it was. My guess was I left it at home in Grand Blanc.

Because this was before Ticketbastard automated its system, which had been great for getting tickets, as I will relate at a later point, the ticket office had no record of the transaction, so I had to essentially rebuy my ticket. OK, no problem. We made it inside just as Johnson was hitting the stage.

It was a carbon copy of the set the week before, in which he played almost the entirety of Ah Via Musicom and nothing from Tones, and I was loving it. Desert Rose is the song I remember the most, because it was the first one that I had memorized most of the words to already.

The show ended up being one of my all-time favorites because I was into the whole thing, all 3+ hours, and not just the main act. And the lost ticket? It was in my car the whole time; I found it years later under the driver’s side seat.