A small world just got smaller.
Thanks to online communications, new technology helped reconnect two people linked by old technology.
KFMB-TV (News 8)San Diego reports that a David Lee Roth fan that lost his camera during the singer's 1999 concert in Austin, Texas is in the process of having it returned — thanks to the Internet.
In November 1999, Roth rocked the house at Stubb's Barbeque in Austin. It was an unforgettable night captured on a disposable camera by a die-hard fan who lost the camera and all of the priceless memories it contained during the sold-out concert.
"I had a lot of Jack Daniels that night calming me down a little bit. That's probably the damn reason I lost the camera in the first place," Greg Aulick said.
The camera was recovered that same night by Matt Sellars, who's now a director at News 8 San Diego, and was at the same concert almost 12 years ago. He took the camera home and forgot all about it until a year later when he came across it and decided to develop the pictures.
"When I got the pictures back I couldn't believe what I saw," Matt said.
After an unsuccessful attempt more than a decade ago to track the "Mystery Rocker" down, Matt had packed the pics away. “Late last year I came across the pictures on my computer again and I thought with Facebook and YouTube now we could probably find this guy in a couple of weeks," he said.
In fact, it took less than three days with the highly produced YouTube video and accompanying Facebook fan page Matt created. The video quickly went viral, with more than 30,000 views on YouTube and 1,200-plus fans on Facebook, landing on websites catering to the rocker community, and word finally got back to the "Mystery Rocker" himself -- 45-year-old Greg Aulick, an architectural designer still living in the Austin area.
"Absolutely friggin' flabbergasted, man," he said.
"Everybody is so positive about this story, and it's great to see the Internet being used for good," Matt said.
The story doesn't end there. Greg, aka the "Mystery Rocker" has seen the pictures on Facebook, but Matt is working on returning the photos to him in person at Stubb's in Austin, where the camera went missing. He's also hoping David Lee Roth himself will be part of the reunion.
KFMB-TV News 8 San Diego – David Lee Roth report
David Lee Roth David Lee Roth – Yankee Rose (1986)
See also:
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Van Halen: new album due for summer release?
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Van Halen begin recording new album
