| Granny Groupies Go Gaga For Bon Jovi |
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Wisconsin concert newspaper review
WAUSAU - At 80 years old, Dorothy Korzilius is not your typical Bon Jovi groupie, but she and nine of her buddies just spent an evening with the band.
The Wausau woman launched her own "10 grandmothers" tour Tuesday, rounding up a group of friends to travel to the Bon Jovi concert in St. Paul, Minn. Her son Paul manages the band.
With a "Bon Jovi World Tour" scarf wrapped around her neck, she ushered the women into a white Cadillac stretch limo from a Wausau restaurant. Several women who'd seen the band before, including 60-year-old Roselie Wiedow of Tomahawk, waved their Bon Jovi tour T-shirts.
"This is what the graying nation does," Korzilius said. "We don't just go to gambling places." The group, which included several members of Korzilius' bridge club, held box-seat tickets to the show and all-access backstage passes. They'd also been invited to dine with the crew and some of the band members.
"We'll be ushered right in," Korzilius said. "We won't have to stand in line with all those little cuties in their short skirts waiting outside the stage door to get in." Korzilius is accustomed to the royal treatment at Bon Jovi shows. She said she was especially looking forward to saying hello to the members of the group, including lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, who calls her "Mrs. K." She's a one-woman street team for her favorite rockers, wearing Bon Jovi T-shirts around town, talking up their new album, and helping the group win fans by bringing newcomers to its shows.
Five of Korzilius' friends, including Charlotte Rasmussen of Stanley, were anticipating attending their first rock concert ever Tuesday. But all the women said they are rock 'n' roll fans: Their favorite bands range from the Beatles to Fleetwood Mac to U2.
"I'm one of the baby boomers," said Rasmussen, 56. "Of course I love rock music." Korzilius herself came late to the thrills of live rock 'n' roll. The classical music buff saw her first concert at age 55 when Paul, who was working on the Queen tour, invited his mom and dad to a show in Chicago.
"We were the only gray-haired people at the Queen concert," she said.
"It was the pot-smoking days. There was a lot of entertainment in the audience, as well as on stage." After that, Korzilius and her husband, Dick, went to see all the bands her son toured with, including Cheap Trick, Cher and the Scorpions.
Korzilius, who has seen Bon Jovi a dozen times at venues all over the country, said this will be the first show she'll attend without Dick, who died three months ago. She'll think of him when the crowd jumps to its feet with the first guitar chords.
"My husband never could understand how people could pay $75 for a seat and never sit down," she said.
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Related URL: http://www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mnhlocal/279381030800278.shtml
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