Chance, Fate, Coincidence? Purpose?!

This post will be very short, or at least I will try to make it short. Quite some time ago in England there was a man who owned a pharmacy, but at this time they were not called pharmacies. The sign would usually state chemistry on the storefront window. The name of the building was Greenberryhill. In 1911 the pharmacist and owner, Sir Edmund William Godfrey was murdered.  And he was murdered in front of the store. Three men had commited this violent act who were eventually hanged on November 26th. Coincidentally, or maybe not, the last names of the three men were this, Green, Berry,and Hill. In my early 20's, I just happened to be in the city called Grand Rapids in the state of Michigan. I had walked into a guitar shop. It was quite large.  There was an abundance of people surrounding a drum kit. As you walk in, this would be to the right of the store. But I could not see who was drumming. To the left of the store is where the guitars and amps were, as I was looking to buy some equipment.  I grabbed a few pedals, an amp, and a Fender strat. As i was born with perfect pitch  it allows me to hear things that others can't. I noticed the drum beat. It was to the song by Aerosmith, Sweet Emotion. So I cranked up my amp and started jamming the song Sweet Emotion. As I'm playing, most of the time my eyes were closed. As sweat was dripping from my brow, I lifted my guitar up, as I was sitting on the amp, so I could use my forearm to wipe the sweat so I did not stop playing. At this time I did a double take as I noticed a flier. The flier stated Joey Kramer drum seminar. Most know Joey Kramer is the drummer for Aerosmith. I glanced over and people moved as if the seas parted by my staff that is called a guitar, Joey pointed at  me with his drumstick in a circle motion as if to continue on. We rattled off 5 Aerosmith songs. Ended with Last child. The owner of the guitar shop knew me, by the third song had set up a microphone and PA system and as of then, I was now singing the songs as well as playing. At the same time, hooking up a bass to an amp. The owner's name was James and he lived for Aerosmith. What a session. afterwards Joey came up to me and asked if I wanted to open for Aerosmith. Now, of course, he introduced himself and the words were, "Do you want to open for us tonight?" Of course my answer was yes. The problem was my band was not with me. They agreed to play back up for me. I got there about two hours early and there meaning Van Andel Arena, my set was about 45 minutes though Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were not part of the opening act. A standing ovation from 20,000+ people. As it would be normal for me to do an encore, Steven Tyler came out  and to my elation said, don't worry he'll be back later. I was welcomed back on stage, played several songs and to my dismay,  but again elation, Joe and Steven let me walk back on stage and let me end their set with Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughan. However, they did come back for an encore and we all did the song last child. Coincidence? I will tell you this, the emotion was and is sweet.




~Joshua Jet Vaughan~