Paul Potts was 8 years old when he first heard Linda Ronstadt.
He was mesmerized.ย
The Tucson native picked up his parents' phone book and started flipping through the pages of Ronstadts. He was 8; kids his age did impetuous things like phone up complete strangers and have a little chat.
He got as far as the G Ronstadts when he found Linda Ronstadt's father Gilbert, who promptly announced that Linda was living in California.
"But he talked to me about Linda for 90 minutes," Potts, now 48, recalled.ย
That was the closest Potts had come to meeting Ronstadt.
Until Sunday night.
Potts said he spent more than $800 on three VIP tickets to "Sunday Evening Forum" with Ronstadt ย at Fox Tucson Theatre so that he could finally meet her. He had arranged in advance for a quick meeting backstage so that he could present her with a framed photograph he took of an old Spanish-style church in New Mexico.
"I always wanted to meet her," he said afterwards, wiping tears from his eyes. "I've been a fan all my life."
Potts said he has every album Ronstadt has ever recorded and has seen her in concert. He put photos of her and her pop contemporaries on the walls of hisย Swade Barbershop on West Ruthrauff Road, where his celebrity clientele included members of the Kentucky Headhunters Southern rock band. The soundtrack included Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Ronstadt and other country artists from the 1970s and '80s.ย Potts has since sold the business and now designs jewelry.ย
At Sunday's event, audience members asked Ronstadt questions about her career and growing up in Tucson. It's unknown if Potts' question made it on the list โ audience members jotted their questions on a card that was read by Ronstadt's longtime friend and musical collaborator Jeff Haskell. ย But throughout the evening, Potts, sitting in the second row center stage, sported an ear-to-ear grin.
