Paul Shaffer - It's a Small World After All

You all know Paul Shaffer. He's the very funny band leader on the Letterman show and I'm a big fan. I knew vaguely that Paul was Canadian, from Thunder Bay which is at the far Western end of Lake Superior.

Across the country, here in Denton, Texas, I'd written a song with my partners, Jon Christopher Davis and Deryl Dodd, for a veteran's project, called, "The Boy I left Behind." You can hear it on the “Songs” page here on my website. Anyway, one day last year, I got a surprising call out of the blue…

" Is this Adam Mitchell? I have Paul Shaffer on the line."

“Ah, okay, put him on."

So I hear this excited, high-pitched voice....

"Is this Adam?"

"Ah, yeah"

"The Adam Mitchell who used to be in the Paupers?"

"Ah..yeah...(long pause, me trying to get it together). Excuse me. Have we met?"

"Yes! Yes! Don't you remember? You were coming out of your house on St. George Street in Toronto on your way to meet your girlfriend, Carolyn, at the University of Toronto!"

What? Wait a sec. Why would he remember all the details of this, even the name of my future wife Carolyn, where I was going, etc. and I remember absolutely none?

Then it hit me. Of course. He was a fan. The Paul Shaffer who cracks jokes with Julia Roberts and lampoons Joaquin Phoenix was a fan. Wow. How the passions of our youth live on.

And none stronger than music. Turns out, he'd seen my name on "The Boy I Left Behind". That I'd written right here in Denton, Texas. Wow. It's a small world after all.