Play every show like its your last..

I've had many strange encounters with legends and heroes of mine. It is one of the main reasons for this blog. This is one I had long forgotten about until last night. It was in the early goings for my band Bleed the Dream. Scott, our drummer, was healthy and with us on the road. We were playing about 2 miles north of LA on the coast..I forget the town. It was a gig in some random gymnasium with some friends who had a big local band in the area. We were young, tenacious and on fire. In those days we played every show like it was our last. I remember looking to my side of the stage and seeing some really OLD man watching us and tapping his foot. Like, in his early 60's probably. I thought in was weird, but at the same time he did look strikingly familiar. We finished our "balls out smokin'" set and started to break down the gear like we normally did. I looked over at Scott and this old man was helping him with his kit. He was complimenting him on his playing (Scott was a lefty and played open hand) and his Gretsch drum kit (that sounded AMAZING btw). The old man was British I could hear his thick accent from across the stage. I went over to them and introduced myself and he said "'ello. My name is Bill." "Bill" I said in my head...but Bill who!? We continued to get our gear off the stage and Bill was helping us all the way. I remember Dave (my guitarist) walking up to me and saying "Are you guys ready to shit your pants? That old dude over there is Bill Ward of Black Sabbath, he is helping out the band that we opened for." Scott's eyes got all big. I remember listening to Sabbath as a VERY young boy. Songs like "Children of the Grave", "Hand of Doom", "Snowblind"...I mean, I could go on and on really. I just remember the songs rhythmically and the guy responsible for that just helped us load offstage at a random show. Totally weird. Scott was so pigshit happy. We got a pic with him for evidence reasons. Just goes to show that you never know who is watching you up on that stage. Lesson learned!