Some of you might remember my review of the Dublin shows last year and also review of Richie’s new album, written almost a month ago. Those two were kind of connected but the things I will try to tell you now, will be the final chapter to this unbelievable story. I guess I can even call it my own personal BJ trilogy. With this review I would like to take you on this journey with me once again.

When I was writing that Dublin shows review all I wanted was to share my chase for a dream with you and its amazing happy ending. My quest for ‘Dry County’, no matter how unreal it sounds, was a true story (here it is for those who haven’t read it –(http://drycounty.com/jovitalk/showthread.php?t=53224). I know it sounded wordy or something, but I was as honest with you all as anyone can ever be. But it was actually a post by one of you in that thread, that made me realize something I was not aware while writing it. A lady called TaughTalk said this: “…You know what, out of all people, I wish Richie himself would read your review...”. That one sentence made me realize that even though I was only writing what’s in my heart and soul, and even though it was not intended to be like that, somehow it has become my tribute to not only a band, but most importantly to Richie. And that one sentence was a spark, that started the flame in my mind – “Is this really possible? What are the chances Richie himself reads my review?” I mean, come on, I am just an ordinary guy from Poland, I am one of thousands of fans all around the world that would love to say something to Richie or Jon and will never get that possibility. Why? Because it’s simply impossible. We live under the same sky but in completely different worlds. They are rock stars, out of our reach. You won’t find their phone numbers, or e-mail address, just to say: “You guys are amazing and have been the soundtrack to my life”. Yeah, for us it seems this is a really great unique line and we think it’s only us who feels like that, but they hear it all the time probably. For them probably it’s 1000th time they hear it and is no different to simply “You’re cool”. Anyway, at first I read that sentence, smiled and thought – “Yeah, that would be so cool if he reads that” but the second after it I was like “Nah, impossible”. Impossible ? What does it mean really? Wasn’t “Dry County” in Dublin impossible too? Who’s to say if something is possible or not? The more I thought about it, always it led me to one conclusion. Only we can stop ourselves from making our dreams come true. We set some invisible barriers in our minds, giving ourselves answers before giving something a chance. And “coincidently” I found a video on YT of my other idol from my youth – Michael Jordan (I was a die-hard fan of the Bulls in the 90’. Absolutely nuts about them). That was his speech he gave while being taken to NBA Hall of Fame. It was few years back from now, and I have seen it before, but this time I focused more on what it was really about. And it was the last sentence of that speech that has totally changed my way of thinking. It goes like this: “Never say never, because limits, like fears are often just an illusion”. And it was not just some cliché line by some random guy. If anyone of you knows the biography of the greatest athlete ever, you would know how he got to the top. He broke all the limits and erased the definition of the word “impossible”. And it forced me think this through again and ask myself again – “Are there any chances Richie might read it? Any? Even the tiniest?” If so, it’s possible. The limit might only be an illusion. For sure damn hard to do, but possible. I had two options. Either wait for him to surf the net to find it, or show it to him directly. The first one is like waiting for a miracle, while the other forces me to hard work. But how can I show it to him directly? There are no contact details. So if there aren’t any, you need to find other door that might lead you to desired room, huh? And so, here’s how this journey starts.

It was the middle of July last year, still with TC Tour going on in Europe, when I set myself a new goal and dream - find a way to show Richie my Dublin review. And why really? The reason was extremely simple. Just to thank him for his music and show him my deepest gratitude for everything that it has given me throughout my whole life, for 20 years now. And maybe also by doing so to encourage him to have enough strength to fight with his own demons, to find enough positive vibes around that would prevent him from doing stupid things and keep him away from his addictions. I believe that sometimes even our heroes need a helping hand, even if it’s only kind words that we can give them. But that’s the least we can do in return for everything their music does to us. My story might remind Richie that somewhere out there, there is another “Kuba”, waiting for his fav song and that he can’t let him/her down for the sake of a good drink or any other addiction.

My review has subconsciously become a THANK YOU letter that I always wanted to write. I have already written one for Jon, in London, and gave it to Obie asking him to pass it to Jon at the O2. I have never found out whether it has reached Jon or not, but I did everything I could to do it. This time it was time to say thank you to his right hand. If Jon is Michael Jordan of this band, for sure Richie is Scottie Pippen. And as we know, without Scottie the Bulls would have never made such a dynasty. I always looked at Jon and Richie as on MJ and Pippen. Perfect duo. You take any of them from the team, and you don’t see the same team. Together, they are unstoppable, without any of them, the machine doesn’t work that well anymore. Still a great team, but let’s just call it “stoppable”. And all the honors should not only go to Jon, but also to Richie.

And as you know, it was Richie, not Jon, that played the key role in my story. His solo in DC was the heart of the dream. Without him the dream would not be fulfilled. Moreover we both have daughters, so I think he might relate with my torn father love too, that was put out to the test. From start to finish of that story, I was connected with Richie, and since eventually he delivered and gave me more than I expected, I felt I just need to thank him for all that. His (and BJ’s) music is a part of me. I am just that kind of person, who just wants to give credit when the credit is due. And I think I owe Richie a huge THANK YOU.

And since there was absolutely no way to write to Richie directly, I started to write to anyone that might be related with Richie in any way, but mostly on professional level. All messages with more or less the same line: “Could you pass it along to Richie, so he could read it?” and pasted the link to the review over there. Of course many times I felt it’s not enough and I also had to write a short (in my case “short” is not a good word I think) letter to convince that person to read it and then decide if it’s worth passing along to the man. But quickly I learned a hard lesson, that actually no one reads it, or at least does not have time or will to answer me. My problem was that people who know Richie, are rock stars or celebrities or work in music biz too, that has their own fan base and probably receive hundreds of messages too, so one more, and even not directed to them, probably was not something that would be thrilling for them. Anyway I didn’t want to give up that easily and still were looking for a new way to reach Richie. After about a month or more, I realized that probably this quest is indeed impossible and not just an illusion. And I dropped it. I lost the game.

And as the weeks went by, rumors about Richie’s new album started to show up over here. It was the greatest news for me. His album was the one I wanted to hear the most. Not the band’s, not Jon’s, but his. And as the news about it were dropping here on regular basis, I found the thing called Twitter. My new door to slip the note to Richie underneath it. And so the new bunch of people that know Richie showed up, including Luke Ebbin and other people working on the new album with them. To be honest with you, I am a total anti social-media guy. I don’t have FB (so it seems I don’t exist, I know) and I had no idea what this whole Twitter was all about. But there was one thing I enjoyed in it – interaction, and a chance to get a quick reply. So I started to follow Luke Ebbin and as soon as he encouraged Richie to make a Twitter account too, I created an account for myself too, as this might be the thing that will finally enable me to show it to him directly. My account was made for one reason only and no one knew about its existence. And so, I think it was end of January when I started to tweet to Richie. I did it every day for quite a long time, I think until late April, but I also learned quickly, that there’s thousands of people like me tweeting to him. I thought it would have been much easier, and even though Richie even did reply to people occasionally, he never replied to me. So I decided I will tweet him until 29.06, which was exactly one year after the show with DC. On that day alone I sent I think about 50 tweets to him, but still never got the reply. So again, I lost the game.