Dear Nile Rodgers…

So, I am a massive fan of Duran Duran, have been since the first time I saw “Hungry Like The Wolf” on MTV way, way, way too many years ago. (Yes, I’m that old that I remember watching videos on MTV. And “Hungry Like the Wolf” was a video my mom and I would bond over while watching…) I had posters, I had import 12-inch singles that I had to wait a month from the time I ordered until I could pick it up at the record store in the mall, I had satin 80s bomber jackets with their faces on the back that I bought with the money I made from my paper route… So when they announced their tour dates for 2016, I was almost hyperventilating to see Austin on the roster of tour dates. And I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that Chic with Nile Rodgers was going to be their opening act.

For you young’uns, Chic was the disco band of the late 1970s. Formed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, Chic was responsible for the defining disco hits of the day – Le Freak and Good Times are two songs everyone who’s every been to a U.S. wedding reception probably knows the words to, even if they never knew who the band was. And Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards are responsible for writing, producing, and/or playing on more hit songs than you can even imagine – Upside Down (Diana Ross), Original Sin (INXS, a personal fave), Let’s Dance (David freaking Bowie),  Material Girl (Madonna!), the wedding reception song of all time We Are Family (Sister Sledge), and for those of you without any cool parents to expose you to any music from before you were born – Get Lucky (Daft Punk). That’s right, all of you singing about being up all night to get lucky for the entire summer of 2013, you have Nile Rodgers to thank.

The show was last night here in Austin. And for Christmas, my husband bought me tickets for the show – take that back, amazing seats for the show. Yes, he spent a fortune for those second row seats on the left side of the stage; but after the year I had and the undisputed fact that no one in Northern Ohio loved Duran Duran as much as I did in the 1980s, I pretty much earned those seats. As expected, I had an experience that will likely never be topped; but I’m not writing this post to brag about how awesome the entire evening was (although I’m detecting a bit of humble-brag in this paragraph).

During Chic’s set, Nile Rodgers opened up about his battle with aggressive cancer. In his case, it was prostate cancer. But all of us touched by cancer – skin cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and all of the other horrible myriad ways that cancer invades our bodies – know that feeling of hope mingled with despair, with fear mingled with optimism. And he spoke from the stage powerful words about overcoming cancer and life after. And so, I wanted to write an open letter to let him know how I reacted to his words…

Dear Nile Rodgers… First of all, thank you for an amazing night of music. You probably don’t even remember who I am, but I was the blonde girl in the green polka dots (and the major cleavage) who noticed you waiting in the wings during Duran’s set to come out and play a few songs with them. I freaked out seeing you there, because I knew you were going to make an appearance on stage and it was blowing my mind to know you and Duran were going to share the stage. You smiled and put your hand to your heart when I blew you kisses.

I blew kisses to you, not only because you helped write and produce most of my much loved music and I was so stoked to have had the opportunity to see you play again; but because you have also shared your experience with cancer – both on the stage last night and in your own blog. In a way, last night I realized I had a connection to your triumph over cancer, the same thread tying together millions of us beating back a threat that should have ended in sadness – but didn’t. That triumph over being able to say, cancer no longer has a home here. That triumph of being able to dance, to sing, to throw your hands in the air with the crowd to the beat of the music. And to thank you in the only way I knew how – I blew kisses to you and then danced, sang along, and threw my hands into the air with the crowd to the beat of your music.

Thank you…