My mother and I are both huge fans of Leon Russell, when i learned that she had always wanted to see him in concert but never had, i immediately sought to rectify that injustice.
June 18th, 2016 I drove my mother to the Granada Theater in Dallas where we watched an amazing performance. Leon slowly walked out on stage, you could hear a pin drop, he sat in his chair at the piano, dropped his cane to the floor beside him, adjusted himself... and the piano exploded into a frenzy of sound. I was instantly floored by what he was able to make his instrument do. every few songs, Leon would take a couple of minutes to tell a story about where he got an idea for a song, or talk about his first time playing with various musicians and bands. I remember the laughter from the audience when he played his last song he turned to the audience and said "This is the part of the concert where its over, and i walk off the stage and you guys chant my name and raise a bunch of hell and demand an encore so i walk back out here and play one more song... but those of you who know me... know i'm not a big fan of walkin' these days, so we're all gonna pretend that i left, and you all raised a bunch of hell, and now im back."
Mom and i had a great time together, dinner before the show, drinks during the show, enjoying the performance of a legend, and in the two hours it took us to drive home we had a lot of laughs talking about a lot of topics important to us both.
a month later, Leon suffered from a heart attack. The performance at the Granada we had the privilege of witnessing, would be one of Leon's last.
Leon did a lot of things with his life, he wrote a lot of great songs, he inspired a lot of great musicians... but the best thing Leon Russell ever did IMHO was gave me a night with my mother that i will never forget for as long as i live.
