it’s all good

We get to meet some amazing people out here on the road

Everyday, there’s at least one person who stays with you

In your thoughts, I mean

Over the years, we have met some incredible people with some equally incredible stories

I wanted to tell you about a kid Dad met years ago

I remember Dad coming home from one of his first tours in the 80’s

He told me all about a 10 year old kid he met.

He’d received a letter from this boy’s family, asking if Dad could maybe meet with him when he was doing a show in their town

His name was Tom

Tom was a huge fan

Tom had Cystic Fibrosis

His prognosis was, in Dad’s words, devastating

Tom was living in a remote outback town in Australia called Coober Pedy. It’s in South Australia, and is often referred to as the opal capital of the world

So the day that Dad met Tom was a great one

They hung out together

Dad took him in their plane for a ride

Took him to the soundcheck and let him check out how all the equipment works at the shows

Tom loved it

I know Dad was blown away by this little kid

Such a personality, with an amazing attitude to life and his illness

Long after Dad said goodbye to Tom, he was deeply affected by his story

Sometimes life is just bullshit isn’t it?

There was nothing fair about what was happening to Tom

Dad never heard anything from, or about Tom after that

But he never forgot

Some 15 years later, a guy cam up to Dad at a show in Sydney

Do you remember years ago when you met a sick kid in Coober Pedy?

Dad told him he did

Well, do you remember signing your Los Angeles Angels baseball cap for him?

Dad said, yeah, of course he remembered

Well I still have that hat

It was Tom

And didn’t that just bring us all undone?

So here’s Tom, who was never expected to make it, all these years later

With his beautiful fiance Kylie

Tom is getting married next year

Who says there are no happy endings?