Me two days before my last birthday
When I reached my last birthday I received given an unforgettable present, a Video Birthday Card from friends all around the world. The amount of love and effort that went into this massive undertaking was humbling and loving. When you get a gift from the heart it's very special. I can afford anything material that I want for myself so when Christmas and my birthdays come around I tell my friends not to give me anything. I always say, "I spend most of my time trying to get rid of stuff." I was deeply moved - especially after having dealt with the aggressive cancer battle that's plagued my life for the past couple years.
Recently, my charity the We Are Family Foundation had it's annual gala, after also being plagued by numerous setbacks including Hurricane Sandy. Our Unity Award Honoree was recording artist Adam Lambert. I became friendly with Adam after playing on a song called "Shady" on his current album last year. We instantly had a musical and spiritual connection. Adam's birthday was two days before our gala and we wanted to give him something special for his birthday.
The Video Birthday Card from friends and fans had touched me so deeply we wanted to show Adam how much we appreciated him - but we didn't have the time to plan it as well as mine had been planned. Many of my friends are busy artists and didn't get their videos to me until after my birthday. In fact Peter Gabriel's video showed up about a month later but served to remind me how lucky I am every day of my life not just on my birthday.
We decided to try to pull off something really big for Adam! We contacted the Guinness Book of World Records and they told us the we'd have to achieve 4374 greetings to give Adam The World's Biggest Birthday Card.
VIDEO: Shady Adam Lambert Nile Rodgers Sam Sparro We Are Family Foundation 1/31/13 by: virg1877
One of the many messages that I received on my last birthday - Daft Punk
Me playing guitar on "Shady" with Adam Lambert who's a truly great person
Doing the Red Carpet at the WAFF gala
My music stand for Adam Lambert set at the We Are Family Foundation Gala