Cymbal Of Success––

Seventh Grader Boogies With Bon Jovi

By Dottie Evans

Make no mistake, Debbie O’Handley had almost as much fun as her daughter when she helped 12-year-old Caitlin O’Handley realize a long-held fantasy last week – to meet rock star Jon Bon Jovi and dance with him onstage.

Not even the prospect of a four-hour drive through a raging snowstorm was enough to stop Mrs O’Handley and her husband, Daniel, from driving Caitlin and two friends, seventh-graders Chelsea Fowler and Stacey Broughton to Uncasville on Thursday, March 6.

Their destination was Mohegan Sun Arena where 10,000 people would be watching Jon Bon Jovi’s band perform and play songs from their newest CD, titled Bounce.

“We all had the most fantastic time. We’ve got photographs of the band and all these screaming 12-year-olds, and we even got invited to dance with band members,” Mrs O’Handley said Friday morning.

The O’Handleys had not gotten home until 2:30 am Friday, so they were doubly grateful for a Newtown Middle School delayed opening that allowed for a couple more hours in bed.

“Caitlin still did not want to shower this morning,” Mrs O’Handley laughed, “because she was afraid the hot water would loosen her ID bracelet.”

Both Caitlin and her mother had been given the ID bracelets by the concert security people, which allowed them to go onstage during the performance and take part in the dancing. The O’Handleys joined other VIP guests during the second half of “You Give Love A Bad Name” and stayed up on stage for the playing of “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “Every Day.”

“There were bomb-sniffing dogs all over the place,” added Caitlin.

They were both interviewed at My Place Restaurant Friday morning, where they had stopped on their way to school for the express purpose of picking up a large, empty pizza box to hold a very important bit of memorabilia from the concert: a large, cracked Power Crash 20-inch cymbal belonging to the band’s drummer, Tico Torres.

The gleaming gold cymbal was signed by all four band members – Mr Torres, lead vocalist Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, and keyboardist David Bryan – and given to Caitlin by Mr Bon Jovi himself.

“Somebody saw me carrying it out and offered me $10,000 for it,” Caitlin said, but of course, she has kept this priceless souvenir along with the concert program, a list of songs performed and a couple of guitar picks.

But Caitlin’s unforgettable adventure was not just about getting up on stage and dancing with Jon Bon Jovi. It was also about hanging out in the band’s tour bus after the concert, drinking sodas out of his fridge (with all his food in it), and seeing all 30 guitars owned by band member Richie Sambora.

“He uses a different guitar for every song and has to tune them every two days,” Caitlin said.

“We had to wait an hour for him to get back to the bus so we could talk to him. You should see how they live. It’s not very glamorous,” Mrs O’Handley noted.

But when Mr Bon Jovi arrived, she added, “he could not have been nicer.”

The Uncle Steve Connection

As one might expect, Caitlin’s experience was not simply happenstance. As a note on Bon Jovi’s official band webpage points out, backstage passes are given only to the band’s family members and friends, or close friends and family of the band’s crew. They aren’t even doled out to fan clubs.

It turns out that Bon Jovi’s cameraman is also Mrs O’Handley’s brother, Steve Ossler, and Mr Ossler had been urging the family to come to a live concert if ever the band got to Connecticut.

“He is one of the few people in the country that can do the slow-motion photography Bon Jovi uses during the concert,” Mrs O’Handley said.

“He projects the images onto the satellite disks you see behind the band during their concerts.”

The band had been in Japan since January, and her brother had called to say he thought they were coming to Connecticut in March but was “not sure exactly when.”

“Then suddenly last week, he called and it was, ‘Well, Are you coming?’”

Mr Ossler sent front row tickets and VIP passes and the family scrambled to arrange for the three seventh graders to leave early from Newtown Middle School (not knowing a snowstorm would end up giving everyone a day off).

Caitlin said watching the show gave her a new appreciation of her uncle, how his camerawork enhances the performance and also how well he and Mr Bon Jovi seemed to get along.

“He treats them all like family,” Mrs O’Handley said, adding that once her brother had gotten a bad cold and Mr Bon Jovi had gone out of his way to be sure he got some medicine and took time off until he could recover.

Caitlin and her friends had been impressed with all the medications and food Mr Bon Jovi uses to keep his voice in good form, “menthol­-eucalyptus candy, cough drops and even Teddy Bear honey,” said Caitlin who, along with her two friends, had made chocolate chip cookies to bring along for the band members.

“He’s a family man from New Jersey with a couple of kids, just a very nice person,” Mrs O’Handley said.

Thursday’s concert was special in another way, she said, because the rock star had just celebrated his 41st birthday on Sunday and he “still did a great show.”

Being in a rock band is a hectic life, she concluded, since the band has to set up, do the concert, then pack up the show the same evening and be ready to head for the next gig.

For Bon Jovi, it was Connecticut on Thursday, Philly on Friday, Washington, D.C. on Sunday. This week the band was in Houston on Wednesday, then scheduled to be in Fort Lauderdale on Friday and then Tampa tomorrow night.

The Goo Goo Dolls opened for the band and were “excellent,” according to Caitlin, who enjoyed every minute of the concert from start to finish.

Caitlin said after dancing with Mr Bon Jovi, she was surprised how short he was, shorter than she was.

“You can’t tell from the videos,” she added.

A good cameraman like her Uncle Steve would know how to get the best angles.