I Knew My Music Trivia Knowledge Would Come in Handy...

Last night my wife and I had a nice dinner at Fleming's Steakhouse. In her infinite wisdom, my wife had made the reservations because she saw that they were having their Vintage Rock & Roll Wine Dinner. It was a set menu paired with various wines, and the evening had a rock and roll theme. So just how rock and roll was it? Along with the appetizers and cocktails, each table had a generous pile of cocaine to enjoy. And then the strippers came out for their show...OK, just kidding, it wasn't that rock and roll. Basically, they sat us in their big party room and served us dishes such as Groovy Goat Cheese & Oven Dried Tomato Crostini, Killer Fillet Mignon, Smokin' Brownie Sundae, etc. The best tasting of the night was Rockin' Shrimp & Blue Cheese. Delicious. They had some speakers set up and played classic rock as we ate and the wine dude explained each course and discussed the wine.

The wines were a Mick Fleetwood Riesling and Doobie Red. So named because Mick Fleetwood (wildman drummer for Fleetwood Mac) also owns a respected wine vineyard in California and sells wines. The longtime manager of The Doobie Brothers, Bruce Cohn, also owns a vineyard and sells wines. Hence the Doobie Red.


ABOVE: Drummer Mick Fleetwood displays some vino from his Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar line of wines

The cool thing about last night, though, was that in between courses, the wine dude asked rock trivia questions to the patrons, and the winner of each question got a nice prize. Heh heh heh. My wife knew what she was doing. Like Michael Vick at a dogfight, she gave me a knowing nod and just set me loose. Let's just say that we probably paid for our expensive dinner in my winnings. There were 50-60 people in the room, and I was not very popular by the end of the night. In fact, some patrons asked that I not be called on any more to give others a chance. Among my winnings were a bottle of Mick Fleetwood Riesling (Question: which was the first band to become famous for destroying their instruments? Answer: The Who.) I also got an advance copy of The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band's upcoming release Blue Again, autographed by Mick himself (Question: what is Elton John's real name? Answer: Reginald Dwight.) I am convinced that I was robbed of some others, since they purposely started to call on other people even though my hand was up first.

There was only one that I missed. Question: who was the only rock star whom John Lennon wrote a fan letter to? I had no idea, but got my hand up first and they called on me again to the collective groans of the room. I figured Elvis was the obvious guess. Turns out, the answer was Buddy Holly. (Some chick from Lubbock got it.)

See how knowing lots of pointless trivia can pay off?