News

Exclusive
  • St. Louis Show Review - By Road Reporter Keri!

    Here is the St. Louis Official Road Reporter review from Josh's Straight To You Tour by hisbocchan! Want to enter to win for a chance to be Josh's Official Road Reporter? Get all the contest details HERE.


    Let me begin by sharing with you a quick review of my life with Josh and his music. Back in 2001 when his debut album went on sale, I was only 11 years old. Being so young, I had no specific musical interest other than Nsync and the Spice Girls. Of course, I was also too young to pick out and buy my own music. So when my mother brought home his self titled album one day and put it in our old CD player, needless to say I fell head over heels. Ever since then, I've been listening to his music almost daily. As I grew up, his music became more and more important to my life. Songs like "To Where You Are" and "You Raise Me Up" really helped me through painful times in my life. The passing of family members, the loss of close friends through unneccesary young drama.. His music really pushed me forward. For most kids, they were asking for tickets to see Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears. I was asking for Tickets to see Josh Groban. I was asking for HIS CDs. Not theirs.

    As the years went by and I entered high school, I fell into a deep, deep depression. I was spending a lot of my time locked in my room, not talking to anyone. It was a very dark time in my life. I had stopped listening to him everyday. I wasn't talking to family or friends, my grades were terrible, which of course, made my parents angry. The more I was disiplined, the deeper I got into depression. It was pushed so far, I was considering suicide. I was hurting myself in an attempt to end it all. I was writing letters to people, thinking of ways to go about it. I just kept telling myself that people would be better off. I was telling myself that people wouldn't care. But like a heaven sent message, at the peak of my depression, in 2006 a song called "You Are Loved" played on the radio in my dark room. Realizing it was Josh, I of course turned up the volume and listened. I cried for hours. After hearing that song, my depression was starting to lift. I realized my parents were just looking out for me. I realized my friends really WERE there for me. I realized that there are people out there that do love me. That song is one of the reasons that I'm still here today. His music gives me strength, it gives me hope. So writing this, being apart of his concert this past weekend has meant more to me than you could know. Thank you for letting me share this part of my life with you. Thank you for the amazing opportunity. Now onto his concert report!

    Regardless of how many times I had begged for tickets, we could never quite afford them. So finally, on March 2nd 2011, I bought my first set of concert tickets. Of course, my calendar was automatically marked each day with a descending number, counting down the days until May 27th. It was a long wait but well worth it. As the days went by, I was getting more and more anxious. My co - workers didn't get to hear the end of it! But finally, the day arrived.

    My friend and I arrived at the Scottrade Center at around 5:00. We were the first one's there, of course but that quickly changed when a few fellow Grobie's showed up! We talked, took pictures and had a great time listening to him practice through closed doors. After the doors opened, we were taken to meet Josh. Graciously while waiting, his body guard came to me and introduced himself. He let me know about the duties of the road reporter where I found out that I would have to miss the first three songs of the show if I wanted to actually be in the press area. He also told me with my camera, and my seat location, I would be better off taking pictures from my seat. I have no regrets doing just that. The first three songs were absolutely wonderful as expected and I didn't want to miss that for anything. Now, I don't want to give away too much, but he really did shock and amaze through the entire concert. He did many audience walk - throughs, personally talked to individual people in the crowd and really engaged us all.

    Before the concert, everyone in the audience was given the opportunity to text him questions they wanted answered. This of course was a lot of fun. To my suprise, my question was chosen! So, in case any of you were wondering, he would use an elephant gun in the case of a zombie apocalypse. That, or a candy gun ( which he apparently wants to get for future tours ) but filled with brains instead of candy. To which he followed up, ".. That's gross." After bringing Sweeney on stage for a bit of a meet and greet, he sang the Prayer with the "Oh my God trio" and proceeded on with his wonderful booming baritone.

    As you may or may not know, Joplin Missouri was recently hit with one of the deadliest tornadoes in years. Giving out his prayers and condolences, he told us he'd be singing a song that wasn't on the list. He hadn't practiced it, he hadn't sung it in a while.. But he was dedicating "To Where You Are" to Joplin, the victims and their families. It was a beautiful and touching moment that had everyone in awe.

    Of course, he continued to engage the audience only to discover a man with his girlfriend wanting to say something. Upon stopping to talk to the man, he reached into his bag for something. Josh jumped and yelled into the microphone, "He's getting something out of his bag!" And excitedly handed the man the mic. In a romantic twist, the man announced that he was asking his long time girlfriend her hand in marriage. Josh of course jumped with joy and was very suprised by the situation. Happily, she said yes.

    He brought a few people on stage and served wine to the adults and milk to the young one he brought up with him. After taking a seat, ironically he announced he'd be singing "Broken Vow" to which he knows "wouldn't happen," in regards to the newly engaged couple.

    After what we thought to be the last song, he came back out ( in a white t - shirt ) to do a few more songs for us, one of which was "You Raise Me Up." He asked us to help him sing it and of course, we couldn't say no. It was so powerful seeing everyone raising their arms and pointing to him when we sang those words. It touched my heart and of course, I was once again in tears.

    A night that I will never ever forget. He truely is one of the greatest voices I have ever heard. He's a wonderful entertainer and you can really see that he cares about and loves each and every single one of his fans. We laughed with him, we cried. This night, this opportunity really meant the world to me. I hope each and everyone of you reading this will get the chance, if you haven't already, to see and experience him how I did this past Friday night. Josh is someone special. His song may say that he's not a hero, and it may say he's not an angel.. But his music helped save my life and he's got the voice of an angel. So I have to say that he's both.

    - Keri

    PHOTOS COMING SOON
Submitted by jgSarah on