Kelsey Riggs, her boyfriend Andrew and her father all qualified on air by listening and calling into 95.5, GLO, during our months-long Bud Light Mt. Rockmore contest. They arrived and grabbed a table on Water Street outside Kellehers in Peoria, but were about as far away on Water Street as could be and couldn’t hear the public address speakers too well.

So Kelsey inched her way closer to the stage, wading through the hundreds on hand for our big giveaway, where one person wins a pair of tickets to see rock royalty this summer: Paul McCartney in Moline on Tuesday, Queen in August at the United Center in Chicago and The Who at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin in early September.

She could hear that Tim Ylinen was calling out the winner’s name of “Kelsey,” but thought that some other woman who shares her name had won the big contest, just her luck. Tim, Kellehers owner Pat Sullivan and I were on the stage, waited for someone to appear from the audience, wondering if our winner had left too early. Then the crowd started to part and Kelsey Riggs made her way to stage to claim her ridiculous summer of rock winnings.

Kelsey’s only 30, but she’s been a fan of The Beatles since her earliest days, thanks to her dad’s love and indoctrination to her of great classic rock. She and boyfriend Andrew will have the best rockin’ summer of their lives, thanks to Brewers Distributing. And thanks to all who listened and qualified and came out on a beautiful, warm summer-ish night for our annual Bud Light Mt. Rockmore contest with 95.5, GLO, Peoria’s home for classic rock concert tickets the past 25 years.

Doc Watson