❤️💲🎉

Planet Hollywood, NYC, October 8th, 2013. After disappearing from the music scene for three whole years, Miley was back with a crazy new 'do, a hot new sound, and a touring crew that could be a circus act. When I saw her perform "We Can't Stop" at the VMA's I didn't know what to think, but I was a fan from the beginning and I'll be a fan till the end.

This was a long awaited event since 2006 when my mom didn't let me meet her. Hannah Montana had just come out, and Radio Disney was handing out fliers at The Cheetah Girls concert for Miley's CD signing at Virgin Megastore for the Hannah Montana soundtrack. There had only been a handful of episodes of Hannah Montana at the time, but I knew it was electric. I would've had to miss school to go to the signing, to which my mother exclaimed, "What do you have to go for, you don't even care about her." At the time, I somewhat believed that to be true, and didn't wallow too much that I didn't go.

But just a few months changed that when Hannah Montana really blew up. After that not only did it become impossible to meet her, I couldn't even get a ticket to the Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Tour tour featuring the Jonas Brothers. Shocker right, there's a Jonas concert I wasn't at? My mom felt so bad about it she was willing to fly to Vegas to catch the second leg of the tour, only to find out that Aly & AJ would be taking over for the Jonas Brothers at that point. Low and behold, this was a begrudging regret for years to come until the Bangerz CD release.

After years of Miley not doing any signings, I would finally have my chance after 7 years. I didn't know how early to get there, because I couldn't measure the fan response for the most epic comeback of 2013. When I got to Planet Hollywood that morning, there were already more people than I anticipated, but I felt I was still in good standing. The horror of these things is that they can sell 500 passes, but when the celebrity has to leave, that's it no matter how many or few people they met. I'm not really one for superstition, but I knew it was going to be a good day when Starbucks spelt my name right for the first time ever.

Once Planet Hollywood finally started the process, I have to say it was one of the most organized meet & greets I've ever been to. They took a handful of people at a time to buy the CD, and they even gave you the option to buy whichever collectible booklet you wanted, as well as the explicit or clean version. Usually you just have to buy whatever option they're offering and then buy the one you want after the fact (for this reason I own 6 of Nick Jonas' self titled album). Once we got on line for the meet & greet, two announcements were made: 1. Miley was staying all night to meet every single person that came out, and 2. Professional pictures would be taken. Neither of those things ever happen. No celebrity has ever offered to stay at a meet & greet more than their allotted time, and I think that made Planet Hollywood extremely uneasy. Also, free meet & greets are usually signings only, there were never pictures let alone professional ones.

Now that Miley Cyrus went from bubblegum pop star to the coolest chick on the planet, I wanted to think of something special to say. I blanked and just told her about how I felt like I waited my whole life to meet her. No matter what you told her she was 100% into it and genuine, like when she grabbed my cousins' hands in excitement when she told Miley her dad won't stop twerking to "We Can't Stop". You can think whatever you want about her, but you must realize this meet & greet was far from ordinary. I'll also have you know that Bangerz is a musical masterpiece. I'll always miss the "old" Miley, but I think the world is better off for knowing the "real" Miley. All I know is it'll always be my favorite Halloween costume 😉