My whole life I’ve had the tendency to talk a little too much and be a little too free with personal information. It was this flaw that caused me to reveal to my co-workers that there had been a day when I maintained a Dixie Chicks website that was of some reknown in the online country music world. They refer to this time period in my life as my “Stalker Days.”
The reason for this moniker is because it wasn’t *just* a Dixie Chicks site. It was actually a shrine to the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines. I don’t know why they say it was stalker website — so what if it’s affectionately titled “Natalie Maines, Will You Marry Me?”
That website eventually got published in Country Music Weekly, and was a big player in the Dixie Chicks web community. I had professional photographers send me their exclusive photos, allowing me to post them if I gave them a credit. That’s just how much clout I had in that tiny little world. There were even two spin-off sites inspired by my own for each of the other chicks — “Emily Robison, You Rock!” and “Martie Seidel, Will You Be My New Best Friend?”
I was told by more than one fan that the Chicks were interviewed on The Howie Mandell show and that there was mention of a website that had proposed marriage to Natalie. So I have it on faith that even Natalie herself was aware of my craziness. I’m sure bodyguards soon followed.
The stalker days don’t stop there unfortunately. I was also an afficionado of ZDTV at the time where a budding reporter named Erica Hill reported the tech news. She would meet up with Leo Laporte during his awesome show, Call for Help. My roommate at the time and I decided to erect a shrine to her at our simply titled “Erica Hill Fansite.”
Lightning struck twice with that one. Within a few weeks, her cohost brought our website up on live television and showed it to her. I don’t even recall what was said about the site, but they ultimately put our doctored pictures up on the air. That was exciting. I’m sure she hired personal bodyguards soon after.
In case you missed the internal links:
And those were my stalker days. I hope you get a good laugh out of it. I miss the days when it was easy to make a name for yourself out on the Internet.
We were at a restaurant the other day and I glanced up and saw Erica Hill on the TV, so I had to point her out to Michelle and then tell her the whole story. The mild look of horror on her face: priceless.