When we were down in Costa Rica, Phil asked me what date my 100th Coldplay show was going to land on. At the time, I had a pretty good idea of my schedule, so I gave him a tentative date. But as usually happens, the schedule completely shifted once a few unexpected surprises popped up.
One of those surprises was finding out that I needed to get to Dallas a day earlier than the actual show date. I was pretty far from Texas at the moment, but after working out some tight travel logistics, I managed to arrive a day early. I had zero idea what was actually happening, other than a brief instruction that I needed to know all the lyrics to Humankind. Fortunately, that was the easiest part of the assignment since I already knew every word by heart.
I pulled up into the parking lot near the Cotton Bowl stadium, and I have to admit it looked a little sketchy at first. But then I spotted a few familiar faces, and soon after, even more friends started showing up. That was the moment I knew whatever was happening was completely legit.
We all piled into a van and were driven over toward Fair Park, right where the Cotton Bowl sits. Once we arrived, the secret was finally out: we were taking part in filming a video where we would be singing along with Chris right in front of some brightly painted shipping containers.
Chris came out and took time to chat with everyone for a bit before we started rolling. The filming itself went incredibly smoothly. I think deep down all of us were standing there wondering how or why this specific moment was coming together, but we were all just completely grateful to be in the middle of it.
A Note on Gravity and Fix You
After we wrapped up the shoot, we had some time to hang out and talk. There were plenty of people around who wanted to chat with Chris, so I made sure not to take up too much of his time.
Whenever I see him, he always asks me what song I want to hear at the upcoming concert. He occasionally tells me he feels bad that I keep hearing the exact same setlist over and over, as if it is not entirely my own choice to keep showing up! It always gives me a good laugh because it just shows how deeply he cares about the experience for every single person in the crowd.
As for my song request, I always joke with him that it does not even matter what I ask for because my picks are usually obscure and completely unrealistic for a massive stadium show. This time, I asked if there was any chance he would play Gravity, since it is one song I have never heard live.
He gave me a realistic “probably not happening,” but then he shared a fascinating detail with me that I had never considered.
He told me that if he had never given Gravity away to Embrace back in the day, we would have never gotten Fix You. The moment he gave that song away, he immediately sat down and started writing Fix You. Hearing that made total sense, especially when you realize that the final resolving chord of Gravity is the exact same chord that opens Fix You. Whenever I play Gravity on the piano at home, my hands somehow naturally drift straight into Fix You without me even thinking about it.
Hard Numbers and Reconnecting with Friends
After asking about the one song on my mind, I stepped back and spent some time catching up with Phil. We talked through the massive logistics of mounting a global stadium tour in a post-pandemic world with skyrocketing costs. He shared a few details and hard numbers that I had never even considered before. Hearing the behind-the-scenes reality made the sheer accomplishment of pulling off a tour of this scale even more impressive.
The next day was the actual concert, and it turned out to be an incredibly special night for a lot of personal reasons I will keep to myself. I got to spend the show hanging out with Abhi and a bunch of old friends from the Dallas area who I do not get to see nearly enough, even though they live relatively close by back home.
Earlier that day, I realized I had a few extra tickets available. I reached out to a couple of local friends who are huge fans but had missed out on getting tickets during the main sale, and was able to hook them up so they could join us. Getting to share that experience with so many great people made the night, and dinner after the show, something I will remember for a very long time.
All in all, it was easily one of the best experiences of the entire tour.
