Krista

At the 2nd Hartford 90125 Yes show, I brought a guitar that I made out of cardboard, paper mache, and real guitar strings. I had hoped to get it autographed. I asked roadies and security people to get it signed for me, but I had no such luck. I had a 2nd row center seat. I was dressed in a white satin angel sleeve shirt and white spandex pants (eeeek! I must have been quite a sight!) I couldn't resist picking up my fake guitar during "Wurm" and playing the chords since I knew the chord progression. I might as well get some fun out of it. Chris kept staring at me. He seemed to be getting quite a kick out of my antics.

Yes went offstage and came back for the encore, "Roundabout". At that point, a security guard told me, "Hey! They want you backstage! Come with me." So I told him I wanted to watch the rest of the song and asked if I could go after. He said, "It's now or never." So I went with him.

The next thing I knew, a roadie was directing me to the back of the stage. That's when I caught on. I freaked and turned right around. I could see Chris nodding his head egging me on and Jon giving me a "come on" look. I was almost paralyzed with fear, but thought, "I can't let them down, this is a chance of a lifetime, I'll never forgive myself if I don't do it". So I walked toward the roadie who directed me under the stage and told me to go up the stairs and play guitar behind Trevor.

I gazed up from the dark depths of the walkway under the stage and could see into the magical realm of lights above. A mere stairway was between the worlds of reality and fantasy. I had my last chance to chicken out. I almost did, but in a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, I put aside my fear and took that first step.

The next thing I knew, I was emerging from behind Alan's drumset into the middle of a real Yes performance. Well, now I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. There were my idols in front of me. I could reach out and touch any one of them.

But I remembered the instructions from the roadie -"Go play guitar behind Trevor." So I walked down the stage and did what I was told. At that point, the crowd erupted with much confusion. "Who the hell is this person?", they must have said. I had straight long blonde hair at the time. As you can imagine, the folks with not so close seats might have thought it was Rick- but with a guitar? Or Steve with newly bleached hair? Maybe someone slipped some Orange Sunshine into their drink. I later heard quite a few different explanations on the local radio stations. A DJ jokingly claimed that it was really Yoko Ono.

So there I was, air-guitaring behind Trevor. At this point, Trevor had no idea I was behind him. About 5 minutes into the song, after the part "the words will make you out 'n' out," Trevor looked towards Chris and Alan and saw me from the corner of his eye. He turned around and faced me with a look of complete shock. I said,"Hi." He looked me up and he looked me down and said,"Hi." He glanced back over at Chris who had a wide grin on his face.

Now it was the mellow part of the song, so Jon came over and said,"Hi babe, how ya doing?" All I could think of saying was, "Great!". Then Chris came over and asked,"So, how do you like it?" I think I said something like, "It's wild!"

Now I realized my legs were shaking and I prayed that I wouldn't collapse right there on stage. I had stopped playing at this point. Chris gestured to me to keep playing. I resumed playing and managed to keep on my feet for the rest of the song.

At the end of the song, I climbed up to the second step on Alan's drum stage and jumped off ala Ted Nugent onto the stage for the last note. The band took their bows and left the stage. There I was standing onstage with the house lights on wondering, "Did it really happen?" I stared at Chris' vintage Rick for a minute up close and then walked off the side of the stage. As I walked off the stage, a nice man gave me a backstage pass. Later, I managed to get my guitar autographed. Mission accomplished!!!!!!!!!!

I've never been quite the same since that night. I woke up the next day in complete shock. Somehow, I had to have dreamt this crazy experience. My friends confirmed that it really happened.