On the Brink...: Happy Birthday Ben Johnson!

Today is Ben Johnson’s birthday!

Ben is one of my most favorite guys in the whole entire world!

He is in the band Pink Fuzzy Animals and I completely adore him!

This pic was taken during the Austin 100 Monkeys show. Austin + August = Friggin HOT! If you coudln't tell by how sweaty Ben is.

Although he does play guitar and bass also, Ben is usually the drummer. It is very hard to get a good picture of a drummer. So most of my pics of Ben look like this. :/ I am not ashamed to admit that I spend a lot of time at concerts trying to get a decent pic of Ben. Trust me when I say this - I have hundreds of pics like this. It is very frustrating.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Ben several times and he has always been just the sweetest guy ever. He’s quiet and I like that about him. But what intrigues me most about Ben is that he hardly ever smiles, even while he’s playing music. I don’t know why exactly. I guess some people aren’t smilers. (In fact, I really have a hard time figuring those two things out about him. Anyone that knows me in real life, knows that I’m always joking around and always kinda loud. I don’t really understand how everyone else isn’t loud too. But Ben is from up North and maybe they grow them quiet up there. Anyway, I digress.)

This is a picture of when I met Ben in New Orleans last summer. This was at a fan event for the 100 Monkeys. He was just sitting at the bar, no one talking to him. So, of course, I saw this as an opportunity to attack! LOL

I walked right up to him and told him that he needed to stop being so anti-social. He just chuckled and we started up a conversation about his other band Mechanical People and how they began in Baton Rouge. We talked about Baton Rouge a little and how New Orleans is so much better! He asked me if New Orleans was the only show I was going too. And of course, it wasn’t!! I told him how I was following them all through Texas and the Austin show was gonna be my last one.

After the Austin show, the Monkeys had an autograph signing. When I got to Ben, he shook my hand and said “So, tonight was your last one right?” Almost a whole week after we had that conversation, he remembered that Austin was my last show. Awwwwww! He thanked me for being such a good fan and supporting the band. And I told him that I was a fan for life! (And I am, no matter what band he's playing in.)

This is a pic is from the acoustic set before the 100 Monkeys Houston show. I love this picture. Ben is kinda smiling AND I think he's looking at me! Yeah, he thinks I'm cute ... feeling is mutual sweetheart! ;)