The following story was submitted by a fan of The Howard Stern Show who wanted to share their ''Brush with Greatness'' with others.

Submitted by: Adam - 6/26/03

The story...

While driving around on June 24th listening to K Rock I heard something about Gary Dell'Abate and Staten Island, where I live. I didn't hear where or when or even if he was appearing anywhere. So I really wanted to see him and searched around on Marksfriggin.com for the appearances section and couldn’t find it. So I e-mailed him and he very nicely replied to me with a link to the part of his site with the appearances.

I saw that Gary would be at the Bally's Fitness Center on June 25th about 15 minutes from my house and I got really happy and excited about going to see him there. I was so excited that I only slept 90 minutes the night before, from 7:30am to 9:00am or so.

My boss let me leave work 7 minutes early at 5:53pm and the thing was starting at 6pm. I got there at about 6:20 because traffic sucked and was let inside at about 6:25. I asked where Gary was and it turned out that Gary was emceeing (if that’s the right word?) some wrestling show with Roddy Roddy Piper. A few minutes later I walked outside to wait for my friend and we found each other and went to the ring to see the show.

Gary was introduced and came out and talked for a little while then said he had 2 tickets to Metallica and that if someone could answer a Howard Stern trivia question they would get the tickets. He picked 3 people from all around the crowd and asked what Howard's middle name was. Someone said Denver or something like that. And no one else got it so then he looked around the crowd again and I was raising my hand and jumping in the air to catch his attention. So he said "you, in the gray hat" (me) I shouted Alan twice and on the third time he heard me and he told me to come on up and get the tickets. He took them out of his front shirt pocket and gave them to someone working at Bally's and I got them and put them in my car because I didn't want any of the pumped wrestling fans to kick my ass and take them away. I hid them in the arm rest of the back seat. The seats are in the 100's section and if you find a seating chart of Giant stadium they are very decent seats. My friend paid $100 for the tickets he bought a couple of months ago. I also found out that the tickets weren't just for Metallica; it was the K Rock DFP, which is their big yearly concert with really big bands. On July 8th I'll be there.

After the first match Gary came onto the mic again in the ring and asked if anyone had any questions. One guy asked why Howard was so rude and Gary told him something like I don’t mean to be insulting but if you don’t like him change the channel, and that there are 112 channels to choose from. And this guy was at a fucking phony wrestling match where people are taught to solve their problems and he is worried about Howard's "manners" because he likes to look at naked woman. Someone else asked when his next movie would be and Gary said nothing is in the works but that Howard would love to do another one. Then I waved my arm in the air again and he pointed to me and I asked if Benjy really smelled. He said he has never personally smelled Benjy but a lot of people say he does sometimes.

There was also another game to see who could figure out which of the following Howard Stern enemies had appeared on the show: Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Kathy Lee Gifford, and someone else I can't remember. But the answer was Spike Lee. He had appeared on the show when he was still up and coming and was forced to by his publicist and the person won free tickets to the wrestling show that the whole event was plugging.

The wrestling match itself sucked for me because I'm not into wrestling but I guess if you are it was a good show.

After the second match people started to shift over to another part of the gym and I did too to get in line for the autographs. Some of the people on line were annoying with the constant talking of wrestling, but luckily no one had b.o. and it was pretty hot in there. The guy in front of me said to his friend something like do you think I should tell Gary that I listen to Howard's archenemy every morning, Imus. I thought he said something about Eminem, not Imus so I asked what he said and he said that he listens to Imus. So I asked why, and he gave some answer that I don’t remember. But I think he doesn’t like Howard anymore because like the people in the newsgroups who bash Howard, they have absolutely no lives and are angry that theirs suck so much. And they were happier when Howard was sitting in his basement having sex conversations with fat house wives and jerking off instead of banging a really hot model every night and going out all the time.

I had been on line since about 7:40 and it was no 8:20 and Gary was only booked until 8. Most of the people only wanted Roddy Piper's autograph and a lot of the time Gary was just sitting there talking to the Bally's people. Then he got up from his chair and was walking towards the people in line in between those metal barricades and shook someone's hand in front of me then walked up to me and shook mine. Then he said how he saw I had a book (Private parts) and that he was thinking of leaving soon. So I asked him if he remembered me and he said he did but didn't remember from where. I said I was in the World's Meanest Listener Contest and then he took my book and signed it: "To Adam, Baba Booey!, Gary." While he was signing that I asked if I was responsible for Robin's no party edict because of how cruel I was in my roast. He said no, it was a dumb wild theory but I'm glad it wasn’t true. I also asked him if there will be another World's Meanest Listener Contest and he said maybe next year. Then as he started to leave I asked for a picture and the guy behind me took it of us. While waiting for the picture to flash I asked if he remembered me calling him an "asshole" on the show and he said yeah. Then I said sorry about that and he said that he takes it all in strides. I extended my hand again and we shook hands again and I left.

Now my Private Parts book has Howard's, Artie's, and Gary's signature in it. Also, Gary has really great handwriting. And the last one would not be in my book if it wasn't for marksfriggin.com, so thanks.

I brought a piece of paper with about 20 questions of stuff I wanted to ask Gary because I assumed no one would show up like some of the appearances Gary and Jackie have talked about, but I only had a minute with him and asked what I could think of off the top of my head. Maybe I could have asked if I could have hung out with him until he left, but I didn't and I guess I'll have to wait until the next appearance.