“Happy Birthday America!! How are ya doing DC?!?!” So the national parade was even better than I imagined. Early estimates were that over 1/2 a million people attended – looking forward to hearing what the actual numbers were. Intentionally, I wore an outfit that would give homage to the King himself, Elvis Presley, which I knew would get me noticed. What I didn’t realized is just HOW MUCH it would get me noticed. I had screaming fans, people who I’m sure had no idea who I was, putting their lives in harms way to try to get a photo with me on a moving float. Security, several times, had to get people to move back from the float. It was a surreal experience to be driving between all of the historic buildings in downtown DC, with Ben Franklin by my side, singing almost the entire way.
My personal highlights include moving the microphone to Ben Franklin who sang the “Never Let Go” hook with me – by the end, I’m sure, he had all of the words memorized. Also, at the judges station, they handed me a wireless microphone which enabled me to get off of the float for a minute and go give a number of kids high fives. One little girl with down-syndrome I particularly remember; She was so cute and seemed genuinely excited to be high-fiving a quasi-celebrity. Throughout the afternoon, I also had some fun, lyrically – I guess I got a little bored, but I ended up changing a verse or two, once to honor a cop I saw on a Segway (replace “Never Let Go” with “Cop on a Segway” – it works and it’s funny) and I often inserted Ben Franklin’s name in parts of the song. This often got some good laughs from the crowd.
Many said Obama was in attendance today, but I never saw him or knew if he was. I did see a number of high ranking military people and so forth. All and all, it was an honor to be involved and hopefully I created a little more awareness on who I am and what my music is about. Big thanks to my driver (whom I’ve forgotten his name – hope he’ll forgive me), Amy Walp for putting up with me and making all of the arrangements, also John Best and Kimberly Johnson for their involvement and support on this one… Now, off to nurse my sunburn and get something to eat. I’m exhausted.
Photos from the National Parade:
