When she was just eight years old, Jessica Cloukey attended a Garth Brooks concert in Maine.
“I saw him back in ‘92. I was 8 years old. He was just starting out. I happened to be on my uncle’s shoulders when he was singing a song and he handed his guitar pick down to me,” she told WAGM.
Thirty years later, Cloukey made her way to Gillette Stadium to see Brooks again. She brought the pick with her to return to the musician as a souvenir. In a crowd of about 70,000 people, he spotted Cloukey and her handmade sign. But instead of taking the pick, he gave her another one and something a bit more valuable—his guitar.
Security kept the instrument backstage, and when the concert was over, Cloukey was able to meet briefly with her idol.
“I’ll always remember it. He bent down and put his hands on his knees and he looked at me and said, ‘Sweetheart!’ And I just melted. So, he came over and he signed the guitar. He talked about Bangor. He remembered Bangor!”
