Dear Satch,

I was absolutely blown away by Surfing With the Alien in 1990. From a small town, I was working in the big city of Ottawa for the summer and my friend came to visit. He had bought the tape by accident (looking for a Santana tape). His first words to me after not seeing me for more than a year was "Dave, you gotta listen to this". We cruised around Ottawa and listened to the entire album non-stop before we said another word. I'll never forget that experience. The next day I bought all 4 of your albums.

A week later I was walking with a friend who lived in Ottawa and told him I would give my left nut to see you play. He responded by telling me you were coming to Ottawa and 2 weeks later I saw you play at the Ottawa Congress Centre. I was about 15 feet away from you, and again, I was absolutely blown away. The whole series of events was like some sort of magic.

Though I had a large music collection, I listened to nothing but your first 4 albums the rest of that year (not at all an exaggeration) and I've been a fan ever since.

At the show I was beside a local newspaper photographer who took a few pictures and left during Flying in a Blue Dream. I was able to get a copy of the picture that appeared in the paper the next day.

I introduced your music to my son, and when he was 12 years old we saw you with Eric Johsnon & Steve Vai in Minneapolis. He's a huge fan as well. I made him his own copy of the photograph and told him we would try to get an autograph, but it was unlikely. In his 12 year old mind that meant it was a certainty, so I regretted doing that.

He's 27 years old now, and I thought I'ld finally make it up to him by flying to see you in Poland including the meet & greet. We were going to see Iron Maiden as well. Unfortunately events conspired against me. However, it turned out Iron Maiden is touring the US this year and we planned a road trip. Unbelievably, I discovered you would be in Grand Prairie at the perfect time. We'll see you there for the meet & greet, and we'll be bringing our pictures for an autograph.

Your passion and dedication to your music has been an inspiration to me most of my life. Your music has been a real part of my life and my memories for more than 33 years.

We can't wait to meet you and see you play again. If you are taking requests, I'ld love to hear Crushing Day included in the set list.