#tom dreesen

Karaoke bars combine two of the nation's greatest evils: people who shouldn't drink with people who shouldn't sing.

At age 78 we were all wondering when he was gonna lay it down, when is he gonna quit. He would have hit and missed nights but crowds loved him - they couldn't get enough of him. They were really coming to say goodbye to him - and every city we went to, they were coming to say goodbye. And one night in the Marc Auditorium, there were like twenty-thousand people in the arena and I did my show and it was a good audience and everything, and he went out, he did three songs, he was rolling! He got to the forth song and he totally blanked on the lyrics. And the orchestra was down in the pit, and they kept playing not knowing that he was lost. He started whispering into the microphone "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Now, when I saw that happening I went "Oh shit, this is it." We were always wondering when is he gonna lay it down but this is the night. He's whispering and now the orchestra started to realize that he wasn't with them and they started to wind their instruments down one at a time to an eerie silence in this huge arena. And now Frank's whispering; "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry." By that time, I was standing stage left and I thought, "Ok, this is it, he's gonna come off stage and I'm gonna say "Let's go home, Mr.S, it's been a great career but it's time to go home."" And he turned around and there was dead silence, and he had tears in his eyes, and he looked like he was going to come and lay the microphone down until a guy way up in top of the audience stood up by himself and hollared out; "That's alright, Frank! It's alright! We love you, Frank! It's alright 'cause we love you!" and he started to applaud and the guy next to him started to applaud until everyone was applauding and cheering. Frank got to the edge of the stage and I thought he was going to go home but he turned around, went back to center stage, and they wouldn't stop cheering. Finally, they calmed down and he went into the next number and absolutely drilled that song. He hit every nuance and every lyric like he was nineteen years old again. When he finished that song, the people wouldn't stop cheering and he was ready to go into the next number when he suddenly pointed up to the guy and he said; "I love you too, pal" and he sang for two years after that. That guy doesn't know he brought Frank from the ashes that night.