Sandy Lo with Aaron Carter backstage in 2002.

On January 29, 2002, exactly 10 years ago, I received my first press pass to a concert for StarShine Magazine.  It was to an Aaron Carter concert in Albany, New York and I will never forget that experience.  Everyone told me I would never be able to get a press pass, but I did.  I was extremely excited, nervous and green about it all.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I was a teenager, but I was driven and wanted to prove myself as a journalist…eventually I got the hang of it.  This is still one of my favorite journal entries I wrote though, in spite of my overzealous fandom!  Enjoy!

Let me just say that this was a dream come true for me—to hang around and talk to people in the industry and be taken as a serious journalist…Wow.  I was so amped up and nervous that I got to the Pepsi Arena at around 2. The opening act I was interviewing, Lindsay Pagano, wasn’t arriving till 4. So the tour production people sat me outside her dressing room where they guaranteed me “plenty of action”…and oh were they right!

The first person I see is Jane Carter. She walks out and asks me, “Do you know where the production room is?” Oddly enough I had just come from there so I gave her directions and she thanked me. Moments later Lindsay Pagano’s dancers arrived. They let me sit in the dressing room with them and we were just gabbing away!! They were cracking me up. I asked them if any of Aaron Carter’s sisters were with him and they said there is this one girl with long dark brown hair who’s tall and skinny…so of course I assume Angel, and I was right. She walked by and just smiled at me. I think she knew I was an Aaron fan because I guess my face showed it all every time her or Jane walked by. I saw Bob (Aaron’s father) a few times too.

Anyway so finally I get the nerve to go up to Angel and ask for a picture. She was nice about it. A little while later Lindsay’s dad and little sister got there and they are so nice! We were all talking in the dressing room when this little puppy peeks it’s head in! I of course “awww” and when my eyes follow the leash up to its owner, I realize it’s Aaron with Angel next to him! He walked away too quickly so I didn’t get to even make eye contact. Later on I got to pet the puppy, who is mostly wolf!

Pretty soon Lindsay arrived and we began our interview, which went extremely well! Before hand, her little sister says to Lindsay, “Did you know she’s a big Aaron fan?” I blushed and Lindsay was like “Really? Aww! You want me to introduce you?” I nodded insanely and she giggled. She then says, “I think he’s doing sound check. I want to see it. Do you want to come?” Of course I wanted to see Aaron’s sound check!

So Lindsay, her sister, her dancers and I walk over to the stage area where Jane is watching Aaron from one of the seats. We all sat in the front row and sang along. Aaron kept looking over at me like he was trying to figure out who I was. Throughout sound check he was goofing around, making weird noises and doing his Donald Duck impersonations.

After that, we went back to Lindsay’s dressing room. Aaron was walking down the hall and I tapped Lindsay “Aaron Aaron…”. Haha! So Lindsay yells out to him, “Hi Aaron Carter!” in a goofy voice. He replied, “Hi Lindsay Pagano” in the same goofy voice as he waved and went into the dressing room.

Next was Lindsay’s turn for sound check. I sat and watched with her sister. Of course who comes and sits a few chairs away? AARON! For some odd reason he was holding a hub cab…I assumed he didn’t steal it, haha.

After Lindsay’s sound check we headed to catering. I ate lunch with her and her family and Jane Carter was also eating. She kept staring at me. (Author’s Note: I’m sure she wasn’t too keen on a fan/journalist hanging around backstage at her son’s concert all day, but I didn’t know proper etiquette back then and this was a chance of a lifetime for me!)

Soon it was time for Lindsay to get ready to go onstage. I’m waiting outside her dressing room with her father when I see Aaron coming down the hall! Her father was like “Go, go!” So I start walking down the hall, trying to be casual, knowing this was my chance to meet him.
When I got up to him, I said, “Hi Aaron, my name is Sandy from StarShine Magazine.” He replied with, “Hey what’s up?” He kind of looked at me like “Oh so that’s who this girl is!” lol. Then I asked him to take a picture and for a few autographs for the magazine. I told him that I’d really like to do a feature on him in my magazine and he said “Cool” and wrote down an email address to contact. “You can talk to my manager,” he says just as I respond with, “Your mother?” He laughed and said, “Oh yeah that too!”

After leaving Aaron, I see Jane and I give her all my contact info on a sheet of paper. (Author’s Note: Real professional of me, huh? Luckily I got real business cards after this event!)

I finally started seeing Dream Street members walking around. They had a signing at a mall so they didn’t have sound check. We all made our way over to the stage area next. Aaron and his dancer were playing basketball and the ball rolled over to me so I passed it back. I was talking to Lindsay before she went onstage and she told me she was nervous. Aaron must have overheard and walks over to us and says, “You’re nervous? Aww, I feel ya!”

He starts telling us this story about when he was six and he was doing a “confort”…lol. He looks at me and says, “I can’t talk”. “You mean concert?” I asked, and he laughs and says “Yeah, that’s it!” So the story was that he was so nervous that he fell and chipped his tooth. Lindsay didn’t feel like his story made her feel less nervous and we all laughed and she said, “Thanks, I’ll be sure not to do that.”

I asked Aaron if he’d be willing to do an interview tonight and he said “That’s the man you got to speak to.” pointing to his road manager. So I thanked him and walked away. I asked the manager about an interview and he said there was no time for tonight but we can try to schedule a phone interview. I talked about it to Jane too, so it’s all good.

(Author’s Note: Wrong!! It wasn’t all good by any means. Following this concert, a history of me getting turned down for interviews while Jane was managing Aaron ensued! It took me over 2 years to get an interview and that was after Jane stopped managing Aaron! It makes for a funny story though and funny enough, I still work with Aaron and keep in touch with the Pagano family and members of Dream Street! Anyway, back to the story…)

I watched the whole show from the side of the stage. Everyone was great! Aaron posed for pictures for me during the concert!

After the show, I was standing by the wall and Aaron was walking by and I told him “great show”. He thanked me and hugged me while Jane gave me a dirty look. I just didn’t understand why she didn’t like me. (Author’s Note: Apparently she thought I was some stalker from Tampa, Florida named Monica??? She didn’t take me seriously as a journalist. In hind sight, I can understand why. Still, I was no threat to her son.)

After that, I got to interview Chris Trousdale from Dream Street who is super nice! (Author’s Note: Who would have thought I would end up being his publicist at some point? Lol.)

I said goodbye to Lindsay, the Pagano family & the dancers, before saying goodbye to Angel and the puppy, Akia. I didn’t get to say goodbye to Aaron but the hug was kind of that, so it’s all good. I so had the best night of my life! Spending 8 hours backstage was incredible!