Hey everyone, has been a long time since I posted on here. I have been out of the loop for awhile with health problems, no car, no money, ha ha. But I was in need of a serious "Vince fix" and decided to attend the Room At The Inn benefit at the HOF last night.

The whole lobby of the HOF was filled with tables, set with fresh flowers. Tons of wine, beer, champagne, pop, water and scrumptious appetizers. I was really enjoying myself. Ran into fan club member Linda Blackburn, who came in from Texas for the event. Enjoyed spending the evening hanging out with her. A couple friends of mine showed up and the 4 of us sat together. Vince was wandering around for the "cocktail hour" chatting with patrons and posing for photos etc. He looks great, was wearing jeans and a white shirt with blue stripes. He gave me a big hug and said he hadn't seen me in awhile. We chatted awhile, was so nice to be around that Vince humor and twinkling blue eyes. He's great medicine.

On to the cooking part. Vince was Johnny Carrabba's sous chef and he did a great job! He really was hands on, dredging the chicken thru flour and pan frying it, making wine sauce for mussells, and pasta and sauce for angel hair pasta. He said Amy always said she loved muscles and he found out she loved mussells and he wasted all his time at the gym...LOL. He would bring out the bowls of food and walk around and show them to us after they were done with a dish. He and Johnny were a good comedy team.

After the cooking demo all the foods they cooked and about 3 others were in buffets set up on both sides of the lobby. We went and got some food. I ate tons of the great shrimp fried in parmesean cheese and herbs and had some lobster ravioli AND two delicious deserts in parfait glasses with fresh fruits, pastry cream and butter cake....yum. Naturally, while feeding my face Vince shows up and asks if he can sit with us! Of course we allowed him to, ha ha. For the next 30 minutes or more the 5 of us just sat around ate, and gabbed like normal people. I didn't want to bother Vince with a lot of questions but since I'm a big Bill Murray fan I asked him if he ever played golf with Bill and he said yes and said he's crazy on the golf course but is crazier in Vegas gambling! Vince said that for the 1st time ever the HOF was going to have a funeral viewing of a body laying in state, which they are doing on Tuesday for Eddy Arnold, which is open to the public.

There was a silent auction also and Vince went to hang with Charlie Chase who was hosting the events tonight. We got in line for the Ford Theater for the concert and sat in the 2nd row. Was fun, Vince telling his funny stories about his Dad and Amy etc. He sang 2 new songs, one called The Lucky Diamond Hotel. I missed the 2nd song as I wasn't feeling good and had to go walk outside for a bit, then decided to just head to my car and go home. Maybe Linda or the contest winners can get on and give more details I missed.

Also met Rachel the fan club admin and she was taking photos and says she will have some posted on here soon.

Vince was a doll, in a great mood, happy about his upcoming gig with his bluegrass band at Delfest.

Better wrap this up before I get timed out.

I'll try to get back more often.

Maggie

Great to have you back on board!!!! Sorry you didn't feel good & had to leave. Thanks for the info of the nights events. Did Vince say anything about what the new songs were for? It has been OVER a YEAR and a half since "These Days" came out!!!!!!!

Hey Reggie, Vince just said he was writing songs again. Am sure he's probably ready to record again soon. The second song (that I missed hearing) he said was inspired by visiting with the Priest who runs A Room as the Inn and after visiting the place. Wish I could have heard it.

Maggie

Oh how special for you Maggie..............Vince missed seeing you and paid you tribute by eating with you.........that is awesome and goes to show ...he is the best.

Can't wait to hear what Linda has to say about this......lol

I wrote a post in the members only section in a reply to Bruce. You can read it there. It was a great night. Once in a lifetime thing.

Hi Maggie. Nice to see you back on the board.So sorry you have been ill . Thanks so much for posting about the evening with Vince . He is such a special guy . I will never forget the lunch he had with us . Hope we get some more new songs from him soon .

Hey Maggie - glad to hear from you. We have all been thinking of you.

WOW, glad you got to have such a wonderful evening with Vince. That is great!

Welcome back Maggie! We missed your "birds eye view" of things going on in Nashville. I hope you feel better and better! Thanks for the wonderful review of the evening. Kay

At the Tennessean.com website under videos there is a clip of him cooking at the event. Its cooks. Its seems he enjoys cooking.He is cute..trying to be a chef.Nice clip.

See maggie...I told you that you were missed around here...lol
I am so glad that you were able to have such a special night out...you deserve it.

Oh my gosh what a great review of your fantastic night, Maggie! I laughed so hard at the "mussels/muscles" story... he just kills me. It's also really exciting to hear he's singing some new songs. That can only mean good things ahead for us fans.