Johnny Stimson – FIRST CONCERT EVER

In this First Concert Ever segment, the pop artist, Johnny Stimson, shares the story of the first concert he ever went to growing up. You can check out his story and listen to his newest single, “Gimme Gimme”, after the break.

This one is special for me because it kind of marked a new era in my life. I was homeschooled so I had a lot of free time to learn things on my own and work on magic tricks or kickflips or whatever it was that I wanted to get really into. I got super into skateboarding and built a halfpipe. Then I focused everything on drawing so my first jobs were all drawing caricatures for parties. And then my parents gave me a guitar and new wheels started to spin.

My first real concert was an Eagles concert at American Airlines Center in Dallas. It was July 21, 2001, and I was twelve years old. I remember it was the first concert in our brand new arena and it was a big deal. At that point, I think I had probably learned “Sweet Home Alabama” on the guitar and a couple others, but I hadn’t really dug in. My dad, who’s a big Eagles fan, surprised me with tickets and took me to the show. I remember the harmonies just being so beautiful and those guys could SHRED on the guitar. It was world-class A+++ amazing. Singing along to “Hotel California” with my dad is a thing I won’t forget.

I think it really sparked two things. First, it made my new dream to play in an arena someday. I wanted to really learn the guitar and I became obsessed with writing songs and learning how to record my own music. That’s still my dream and it’s still the beat of my heart. And second, it was one of the first times my dad and I really bonded on another level over music. We’ve always been really close and music was huge in our house growing up, but the fact that he took ME was really special. I look up to him so much and I’ve been really fortunate to have him cheering me on all these years, just the way he cheered for the Eagles that night. Love you, dad.

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