Third times a charm they say and I would say they are...pretty lucky that they got to go to the I Heart Radio Festival three years in a row! The festival (and Vegas) never ceases to amaze me. This year we were fortunate enough to have a room gifted to us at the MGM where the event was taking place. It made things that much less hectic on our end and well...it was just awesome!
After getting to our seats on Friday night, Tony dismissed himself as Sam Smith opened. I don't really blame him. While I love his voice, it was kind of a snore to start out the weekend. Just like last year he managed to schmooze his way into the VIP area where Aaron (the bartender) and Sharon (the bouffant haired waitress) greeted Tony with open arms. Our usual service ensued, with Sharon bringing red bull / vodkas every 20 minutes by the tray load. The people around us loved us...because every time Sharon arrived every body got a drink!
As the show closed with Kanye West, people got up in droves to leave. It wasn't that he went off on one of his tyrants again...he is just not that great of a performer. We stuck it out as long as we could and finally decided to head out of the arena and maybe check out Haakasan nightclub. So here is where it gets all Vegas on us. As we are walking out we end up next to these two guys in sweat pants carrying cardboard boxes following an Asian man on a Segway. It is as weird as it sounds because everyone is dressed up and carrying cocktails. There is no one wearing sweat pants carrying cardboard boxes. So Tony strikes up a conversation with the guy closest to him and asks what is in the boxes. They go back and forth for a while chit chatting as we are being herded like cattle and then the guy asks where we are headed. Tony tells him that we were going to try to get into Haakasan and he simply says "follow me. Act like you know what you are doing. Here...take a box." We work our way through MGM and arrive at Haakasan nightclub which has a line 200 people deep. Following the man on the Segway we walk up to a VIP entrance where the other guy in sweats talks to the bouncers and in 2 seconds flat we are all being issued stamps and led right in to a VIP booth above the entire night club. Bottle service, appetizers, meeting all sorts of wonderfully odd characters ensued until I finally looked down at my watch and it was 4am! On our way out we asked the man who led us in "what's your name and why us?" He said "my name is Kevin Black and I am Noel Lee's assistant. That man on the Segway is the owner of Monster Cables. And why you? Because you talked to me like a human being and because you seemed cool. I hope you enjoyed yourselves!" We woke up the next morning like "did that really happen?" In Vegas you never know what is going to happen!
Thank You Mr. Monster
Saturday night arrived and we were excited to see The Weeknd open followed by J Lo. When J Lo stopped shaking what her mama gave her we headed down to the VIP room and who do you think we see? Kevin Black! We invite Kevin Black and his friend ProHoeZak (yes, that is his name, he is the cousin of Flava Flave and I have the business cards to prove it) in to get a drink which they graciously accept. I find this hilarious because we have done nothing to get access to this area but shoot the breeze with the door man and the bartender and the waitress but here we are inviting our new friends to come in and have some drinks on us..errr...on MGM.
The highlight of my night was when Kevin Black and ProZak (we became fast friends and were allowed to drop the Hoe in his name) began a conversation that went something like this:
KB: You know who Tony reminds me of? Suge (Knight) He the same size as Suge when Suge was in shape!
PZ: You right! You know I got that n*gga's prison number right here in my phone! See...look!"
KB: Yea, I know Suge. Suge was a big boy like my man Tony here. Reminds me of him.
PZ: Suge don't know me, but I KNOW SUGE! See....his number right here!
The three of them could take that show on the road. It truly made my night.
As P Diddy and Mase took the stage, Kevin Black said "let's go." He walked us out to the floor, pulled out 3 crumpled up tickets from his back pocket that were about 10 rows away from the stage and we proceeded to have the TIME OF OUR LIVES until the show was over. It was a crazy, exhilarating time that could never be recreated even if we tried. That is magical thing about Vegas. You never know what will happen or who you will meet or where it will lead you. Which is probably also why it is a good idea to get out of there after about 3 days!
Tony and the infamous "Kevin Black"
