Blind Items Revealed #39 - Kindness

September 21, 2017

I loved the way this was written, so tried to keep it as is. Had to delete some identifying things, but the starstruck, fun quality is still in it.

I used to work at a popular bar in a mid size city in Canada. One Monday, a co-worker asked me to cover her shift for her, I obliged thinking it would be an average Monday. Myself and another server were working on our upstairs patio and it was not busy at all. We were standing around (extremely bored), when an English man came by and took a look at our patio and menu and asked if he could reserve it that day for a private function. I told him that our patio is first come first serve and we don't take reservations but if he wanted to, he could ask my manager. So he did ask my manager, and received the same response from him. It was then that the English man said, "I don't really like to name drop, but my client is playing at the arena tomorrow and we will make it worth your while." Another waitress immediately said "Oh my god, that's __________!!" And she managed to convince our manager to close down the patio, which we never do.

Myself and the other servers were skeptical that ____________ would come by, but a few hours later, he comes up the stairs to our patio with his whole crew and also the opening band, _________. I could feel myself getting hot and sweaty and my heart was pounding -- I guess you could say I was starstruck. There's just something about seeing a person in the flesh that you only see on TV. Anyway, he walks over to me and immediately orders around 40 Jag bombs for himself and the whole crew. Apparently they were celebrating a crew members birthday. Myself and another server were chosen to serve him and his party, but every other server kept coming up to the patio to do busy work (clearing a glass or plate here and there) just to catch a glimpse haha. He was in great spirits and kept floating from table to table laughing and socializing with his crew. He ordered a couple of gin and tonics with a cucumber slice from me and I spilled a little bit on him (shaky hands -- again, starstruck). He didn't mention it and just said "you are absolutely wonderful, sweet pea" -- a bit of an overstatement for bringing someone a drink, but I appreciated it. It should also be stated that his crew and the opening band, ________, were also extremely nice -- a truly classy group.

His manager definitely stuck to his promise about making it worth our while. _______ and his crew of 40 racked up a $3000 plus bill in under two hours and tipped me and the other server very well. I made a lot more money than I was expecting on that Monday evening. Not only that, but we were invited to hang out with ______ and his crew after. Our manager kindly let me and a few other servers off early so we could party with him. We ended up bar hopping to different downtown bars with all of our drinks paid for. _____ was nice to every single person he spoke to (and it was a lot of people). Myself and the other servers were invited to his concert the next day (for free).

The next night myself and the other girls got ready together and made our way to the concert. We were treated to an amazing show. ___ is truly talented and I was so impressed at his musicianship! It was also impressive that he could perform that well considering he later told us that he was up partying till 5 am.

Side note: the maintenance guy who works at the restaurant was gifted with front row seats, and he ended up proposing to his girlfriend (who has brain cancer) during the show, which ___ acknowledged during one of his songs.

After the show, we were brought backstage where we were again treated to unlimited free drinks. The opening band was there. ___ came later and everyone was praising him on the awesome show he put on. It was hilarious because he started telling a story and we were all crowding around him in a circle listening, and the circle just kept getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller to the point that you were fighting for your spot to be near him (oh the power of fame). I'm not one to compete, so I backed off trying to hanging out with ____ for a while to hang out with my coworkers, the crew and the guys from _______. We got a bit drunker and went back to one of their tour buses and had some pizza.

We came back to the backstage area and I overheard ___ telling one of my coworkers that he was good at relationship advice but not at relationships. So, I (possibly fueled by alcohol), decided to ask for some advice. At the time, I had been sort of seeing this guy who I really liked but rarely asked me to hang out -- even though we texted all day everyday for about 2 months. I explained this situation to ___ and he said "It sounds like you're his back up plan. Don't be a back up plan. You're too good for that." It's completely obvious advice looking back on it, but it was just what I needed to hear at the time. I took his advice and stopped talking to the guy in question. I thought it was pretty cool that one of the biggest current pop stars, who specializes in writing love songs, gave me relationship advice.

So, it was definitely a memorable Monday and Tuesday. I definitely never thought I would be so lucky to hang out with _________ for two days straight. I dealt with a lot of people working as a server at a bar (including other celebrities -- none as famous as ___ though), but ____ and his crew displayed such kindness and class that is really rare these days (unfortunately). It really impressed me that a huge celebrity could be nicer than a lot of "regular" people and also would treat some random waitresses to an experience that they would never forget. So glad I decided to pick up that Monday shift!

Ed Sheeran/Rixton