We know that you love Danny and want to do everything you can to help him so we compiled lists of things we can do for Danny besides buying his CD, singles and going to his shows!

Marilyn’s Recap: Danny Gokey at Rodeo Club (San Jose, CA)

My husband Bill and I drove down to the Rodeo Club in San Jose, CA, listened to Danny sing, stayed overnight and drove home the next day.

That’s the crux of it, but oh, in between those words lays a whole lot of living that was indecisive, scary, worried, bewildered, aggravating and marvelous, exhilarating, wonderful and fun.

When I found out at this site that Danny was going to be in San Jose, my heart started pounding because it’s just a few hours drive to San Jose and I knew it would be doable. I wanted to go so badly to see Danny. But I knew Bill would never let me go alone to the club/bar or drive that far and come back early in the morning.

Also it would be costly because of gas, meals, motel, entrance fees etc. So I wrestled with the problems and made sure I was certain I wanted to go before mentioning it to him. Thinking that Danny is on the edge of shooting to the moon in stardom, I thought I may not get another chance to see him up close and as inexpensively since I’m in northern California and he’s seldom in my area.

So, my first problem: get Bill to take me.

So many times he comes into my computer room when I’m reading this blog with little pictures of Danny on most posts. Of course, I don’t try to hide, but he has been very negative about Danny and I think it’s because I spend time on all things Danny.

He thought I was half-crazy already, I guess, because I was so gaga over Danny. He once said to me, “What’s happened to you? You were never like this over a singer before.” And he walks out of the room when I try to get him to listen to Danny. He’s not mean or hateful about it, he’s just been not interested. But in my heart I knew if he just gave Danny a fair chance, he would love him too.

How could I get Bill to go? Then out of the blue I thought of a way that would be hard for him to say no to me. “Honey our 51st wedding anniversary is coming up in a month and I would like for you to take me to see Danny Gokey sing in San Jose for a present.”

He laughed at me. And said, “You’re serious, that’s what you want me to do? Okay, if you’re sure that’s what you really want.”

I was so thrilled. What with Danny’s album dropping Tuesday and my getting to see him Wednesday, I was so happy. It all seemed so perfect.

Wednesday the 3rd arrived and I packed an overnight bag and off we went—in a SNOW STORM. We had planned to leave at noon but left earlier before the snow could get any deeper. By the time we left there was two – three inches on the road and it was building up fast.

It only snows a few times a year normally in these Sierra Nevada foothills at the 2700 foot elevation, but this year, like everywhere else, we’ve gotten more than our share.

We were driving the F150 Ford Pickup with no 4-wheel drive and just hoping that the snow would stop once we dropped down the mountain to a lower elevation.

So we crept down the two-lane mountain road that curves back and forth and around then drops from 2800 to 1400 in about 5 miles. I was beginning to think I was foolish to insist we still go with the weather conditions. This wasn’t going to be the fun trip I had envisioned. At one point I said, “I’m sorry, let’s go back home.” But he ignored me determined to get me to hear Danny and sure enough, as we got lower in elevation the snow turned into rain and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Things were looking up but about 3/4 of the way, the heavens opened and rain poured in buckets, then hail filled the freeway lanes so that at one point Bill said, “I don’t know if I’m even in my own lane.” I wanted him to pull over and wait, but nope, he kept going.

As we got closer to San Jose, Mapquest had us to take a off ramp that didn’t work and I had to hop out and get directions and later it was raining so hard that I couldn’t read the signs.

Then again, Mapquest no longer was working for us and we pulled off the freeway on another off ramp and I called the motel that I had booked just that morning. They gave us directions. But told us to turn left instead of right and it was another 15 or 20 minutes before I called again and found out the motel clerk had made a mistake. We finally arrived. A nice comfortable place, thank the Lord.

Anyway we rested up a couple of hours and a few minutes after 7:00 left for the Club in downtown San Jose and–can you believe it? Got lost. It was only about 5 or 6 miles away, but it took us 40 minutes to get there in heavy traffic, still raining.

Had to take two different freeways, and go west and then we were in the wrong lane and had to go with the traffic and make the few mile loop again to get back to where we could turn off again. Whew! Was all this worth it I was wondering? I sure hoped so.

We were both frustrated, out of sorts, tired and arguing by the time we drove into the club’s parking lot, but got happier as we parked and went inside and put it all aside. (We really need to get a GPS.) lol

Inside, the Rodeo Club is a cavernous western-style bar with several large dance floors, loud music with line dancing, and a couple of stages, sponsored by KRTY San Jose Radio Station. Drinks $7.75 each. To someone that no longer clubs, I thought that was high, but not to those in the know, I’m sure.

Good thing I brought my coat because it was cold inside. I loosely counted the people, around 200. Young adults filled the club mostly wearing T-shirts, blue jeans and boots. Women outnumbered the men, 2/3rd’s females, 1/3 males. All excited to be hearing Danny. We found 2 seats at a small table and sat facing the stage where Danny was to sing.

Bill generously suggested I go join the women and a few men already standing near the stage, so I could see Danny better. I really wanted to go upfront but didn’t want to leave him alone and glad he was happy for me to go.

So I introduced myself to the girls already staking out their places at the stage. I was hoping one of them would be Nina. I meant to take her phone number with me, but in the rush to leave home left it next to my computer so I couldn’t call her.

The loud music practically drowned our my voice as I introduced myself to the fans around the stage and asked their names. I thought I was going nuts when it sounded like the women kept saying their names were Stephanie. When I double checked, three out of the four nearby women were named Stephanie. I introduced all the Stephanies to each other and we had a good laugh over me thinking I was hearing things. They were all really nice and so excited to get to hear Danny.

They were Danny fangirls, but had never visited any web sites and didn’t know much about what Danny had been doing since Idol. Just knew he had a new CD that we all received when we paid at the door.

Soon after, the band came out to set up. Brandon and Ivan wore matching T-shirts with some kind of large design on it, but Brandon had a silver cross on a chain around his neck. Greg sported a button up shirt with short sleeves. Blue jeans with shredded material around the knees, and Brandon’s blue jeans had tears around the knees. Ivan’s dark-blue jeans looked new. He wore a brown leather jacket before they started playing.

I spoke to Brandon and told him I thought his wife sounded good with Danny and I thought she was very pretty. He smiled and agreed, of course, and said thank you.

I told Ivan that I was from the Iheart Danny site and had driven several hours to see them and he was so sweet. He took my hand and thanked me for coming. About this time, Gregg brought out 6 plastic waters for the band and set two next to where Danny would be singing.

And I was right in front of where Danny would soon sing, up against the stage. Yup, exactly in front of the long mike stand and stool. What a great spot. I was very pleased with myself. haha (Actually there was a 2 1/2-foot wide box that boomed out beats in front of me where I layed my camera and my cd. But if I wanted to, I could have reached over and touched Danny. I would never do that of course. Would have been fun though.

The guys set up and left, then a club person came out and put in more light bulbs and fixed a spot light on Danny’s area. And still no Danny.

The Rodeo Club’s web site stated Danny was to sing at 9:00. However 9:00 came and went and the fan next to me said that Danny had said at Best Buy that day that he would be singing about 9:30. It was past 9:30 when it went through the crowd to tweet Danny and tell him to come out that we were waiting. I looked around and the room was filled with people standing, maybe 300 or more.

Then the band came back, picked up their guitars, got ready to play and we waited a couple of minutes. Then our Danny hurried out wearing a huge smile amidst thunderous applause, whistles, and yells. I finally stuck my fingers in my ears and laughed because it was too loud.

Danny: Thinner than he looks in the videos. I would describe him as slender, about 5′ 9′. Not certain because I was looking up at him on a 3 foot high from the floor stage. He might wear a size 31″ waist, medium sized hands, long fingers, well buffed fingernails. His beard looks brown and he does have a flawless complexion. If he was tired, he didn’t look it. He wore new-looking dark denim jeans with orange stitching down the side seams and on the back pockets designs in the same thread. I think I’ve seen him wear them before in videos.

His medium grey short-sleeved henley of fine knit was unbuttoned the first two buttons that showed-off his silver medallion. But also he had a longer silver chain around his neck with something hanging on it, looked purplely-blue, couldn’t tell what it was. At first I thought it was a ring on a chain, but that wasn’t it. He also had a bracelet in the same color. He had two bracelets on the right hand. The other hand he wore a black leather strap that was maybe three inches wide and had what looked like diamonds in a small cross design (or it could have been Austrian crystals) very white and sparkley. Really attractive.

When he was singing and raised his arms I glimpsed a belt buckle, but his shirt covered it. He wore black suede boots that looked very soft and not very high heeled. Maybe a size 9 shoe I’d guess. He had on a rich-tan leather jacket that he took off half-way through his songs to the screams from the women.

(I just looked at the San Jose Best Buy video after I wrote all this description and you can see how he was dressed on that video. I believe Danny likes to take his coat off during his performances. That cute and harmless gesture always brings out the screams of the women and he is so darling as he grins when he does it. Or on second thought, he puts so much of his energy into his singing, he probably gets too warm. Maybe both things.)

I could see the hair on Danny’s arms, light colored and not heavy. His brown hair has a lot of red in it and was spiked and he looked so adorable. His glasses were the ones with wide black sides with designs, but I couldn’t tell what they were. I could even see Danny’s teeth when he sang and they looked really good. I wondered if they had filed down his eye-teeth even more. I don’t know. I couldn’t see any chest hair or tattoo peeking out from his shirt.

He was so happy that he had a good crowd. He said, “Hi”, and right away they started with MBDAAOM and when he got loud squeals from the girls he looked over at Brandon and he raised his eyebrows at him twice and Brandon smiled back at him. I always wondered if there was any interaction between Brandon and Danny, because Brandon always looks so stoic (even bored) in videos. But they telegraphed looks back and forth to each other. They are on the same page, I could tell.

After the first song, Danny said, “Tonight I’m just going to sing songs off of my new CD.”

But after a couple of songs and ear-deafening applause and screams, he started telling us that we were the best crowd they ever had! I thought, well, maybe he’s just saying that, but Danny is so truthful, I don’t really think so.

He also said that today at Best Buy his voice was tired and cracking. He laughed and made a croaking sound to show us. He said to us, “You have so energized me with your great acceptance and appreciation that my voice is good tonight. He said when you are like this, you energize us too.” His voice never cracked once and he sounded so marvelous.

At one point he looked straight into my eyes just for an instant as he was singing. You know what? He really saw me and might remember me if he saw me again. I think he has that ability, not that I’m memorable.

Oh, if he only knew how closely I was scoping him out. lol I was trying to remember every little detail. I took pictures, but I don’t think they came out, I haven’t checked yet, but the shutter speed was really slow. I should have been doing it manually for low light. I couldn’t think how to do that though and I wanted to take Danny all in, live in the moment.

So Danny decided to sing “Back at One” even though he hadn’t planned to. He and Brandon kept exchanging looks, like “Hey, this is a fun crowd, I like this.” And when Danny asked if anyone was in love, the girl next to me yelled, “Yeah, with you!” and Danny looked over at Brandon and laughed. And Danny had us singing. He likes the crowd to sing and then he likes to harmonize with us. He did the same thing with WHTM.

Again he told us that we were one of the best crowds they ever played to. Every time he said something, everyone applauded and yelled. Everyone was so into him and his songs and his band. It was crazy fun. I clapped in time to the music and sang all the songs too and bopped my head and kept time with my feet. His wide voice just soared through us, over us and surrounded us strongly, filling every nook and corner of the club. I forgot where I was in the wonder of hearing Danny sing and when he announced he was singing “Crazy Not To,” I said too loudly in the lull before the song, “Oh, I love that song!” The people around me looked at me in amusement and I blushed and said ,”Did I say that out loud?” I just forgot myself.

A while later Danny said again, “When you’re like this, (so appreciative) it makes me want to sing my little face off.” haha He seemed so happy to be entertaining us.

A couple of times he motioned with his hands to have Brandon hold a note longer, just for fun. Danny was all about entertaining us as well as singing. He has great showmanship and is so friendly on stage.

The girls next to me kept putting out their hand to Danny as he sang and finally he started holding our hands momentarily. I say ours, ’cause I held up my hand and as he held my hand, I squeezed his quickly like I would a friend. To me, he is. lol

The same fangirl held both arms out to him too and Danny started laughing again and said something like, she likes me. It was funny. You know how a toddler lifts their arms to you when they want you to pick them up and hold them? That’s what she kept doing until she finally wore the joke out and quit doing it. A couple of times I checked in back of me and all around and everyone was clapping and singing and moving to the music.

When he sang GA and held that high note, the crowd applauded and screamed in approval. Every time he did a riff, we applauded. Someone in the crowd made a heart sign with his hands and Danny made one back. I tried it too, but Danny never looked at me, so I gave up. Later he said, No he wasn’t making the heart sign for Lenscrafters on AI, but his wife’s heart foundation.

He sang every song on his album, and the other two I mentioned. He told about proposing to Sophia in some detail and how surprised she was and he made it funny and laughed as he told it. He later told everyone about Sophia’s Heart Foundation and how he felt not ever wanting to say goodbye before he sang the last song, IWNSG.

When he introduced his band, he told us again that he was trying to steal Brandon’s wife away from Carrie. Brandon mumbled a comment like that’s okay or fine with me. Danny said she and Brandon were awesome.

After IWNSG , his last song, we begged him to sing more songs but he said he had to save his voice to sing at AI tomorrow night. So after we told him how much we loved him (the noise was deafening even more than before) he and the band left, meanwhile we were still applauding and suddenly Danny ran back up on the stage and said, “I’ll sing MBDAAOM again and then I really have to go.”

So the guys picked up their guitars and Danny sang and started pointing at us and singing, “Your best days are ahead of you. If you keep getting better, you can be whatever you want to be.” Finally, he thanked us for coming to see him and said he wanted to be sure and come back because we were such fun and then they left again for real.

The band came back to pick up their instruments and talked to us. Gregg thought that Danny was going to come back out to sign CDs, but Ivan told me that Danny needed to rest before AI tomorrow, so I left.

But I saw a large group of women rushing out the door to follow Danny. I suddenly felt sorry for Danny, being tired and having us wanting more of him than he had in him to give. I don’t know what happened next with Danny. I found my husband enjoying himself, chatting to the couple next to him and too many drinks in him to drive. We stayed awhile longer then I drove to the motel, stopping for a snack at Burger King that was next to our motel.

The next day, the rain quit and a watery sunshine shone on us and we enjoyed the green hills and flowering trees as we headed home with Danny’s CD playing and I loved, “Get Away” as we drove along. And Bill and I for the first time discussed some of the things Danny had said.

Bill thinks he’s one of the best singers he’s ever heard in his life. “He sure can sing! Awesome voice.” And he also said he bet Danny’s sad that his wife isn’t alive to enjoy his success and Bill felt for him.

Danny completely won him over. I have a CD for my vehicle and he’s keeping the other CD for his truck. Woohoo!

One of the reasons I went through all the problems we had was to encourage the few who haven’t yet met Danny to go ahead and make the effort to see/meet Danny. Go ahead and put yourself out there and even if it’s a little tough, it’s really worth the fun and exhilaration of hearing Danny in person.

I’m so happy I got to hear him in person. I feel blessed.