RIDGEFIELD — Bob Meek knows what love is.
It’s rejoining his wife, family and students in the wake of a life-threatening heart condition. Having those students share a hometown stage with a world-famous rock band on Friday night should prove pretty cool, too.
“What an experience,” said Meek, Ridgefield High School’s choir and drama director, as he contemplated all he’s been through and all he has to look forward to. “How lucky I am to be able to do this, to go back and do what I love. And to have my choir go sing in a concert with a popular band like Foreigner — they’re huge. This experience is so meaningful to me.”
It’s almost as meaningful to 16-year-old Kevelyn St. John, who rocked the air drums during zero-period Jazz Choir rehearsal at RHS on Wednesday morning.
“This is a dream come true — I love Foreigner,” St. John squealed as Meek got the group ready to sing. “My parents are definitely rockers” who taught her to love music of all sorts, she said, but there’s a special place in the whole family’s heart for Foreigner.
“My Dad is really into Foreigner. Whenever he puts Foreigner on, we rock out together,” St. John said.
On Friday night, concertgoers will get to see St. John, Meek and the RHS Jazz Choir rock out on one of pop music’s most unforgettable ballads, alongside the band that made it famous.
‘Heartache and pain’
All of this is really two unrelated stories coming together. The first is about Meek, 40, a married guy with three young children who lives and teaches in Ridgefield, where he’s renowned for a disarmingly friendly, low-key style that helps him spot latent talent and ease wallflowers onto the stage.
But in 2011, Meek started slowing down and feeling unaccountably tired all the time. Medical tests revealed that a virus had damaged his heart, and corrective surgery wouldn’t be enough — he needed a new one.
“It’s such a crazy thing, you go in and they do this test,” said Liza Meek, Bob’s wife. “We thought maybe he would have to have surgery to correct a valve. For the doctors to say no, you need a heart transplant — it’s surreal.”
Meek languished on the heart transplant wait list for years while his condition deteriorated; the stress on his heart was not good for the rest of him. And when he was abruptly admitted to OHSU Hospital in January and bumped up to top priority on the list by his worried medical team, that wasn’t good for his family’s bank account.
Coming to their assistance were Meek’s friends, colleagues and former students whom he’s influenced over the years; the Feb. 7 fundraising variety show they staged at RHS featured opera, dance, musical theater, rock ’n’ roll — even a video contribution of a song from “Les Miserables” by Meek’s Broadway-star friend Louis Hobson, who couldn’t make it in person.
The fundraiser was a joyous and successful event, but Meek was compelled to keep waiting at OHSU until a heart became available — which finally happened in May. Surgery went fine, and Meek’s doctors have called his recovery “phenomenal.” Meek said he’s got more energy and mental focus than he did in the run-up to surgery, and he’s looking forward to returning to work in January. Meanwhile, retired teacher Deanna Hastings will be Meek’s substitute in the choir and drama department.
Meek spent this summer doing what’s most valuable, he said: hanging out at home and enjoying his family.
“We’ve spent so much time together, playing outside, playing inside, just eating together as a family — it’s been awesome,” he said.
‘Juke Box Heroes’
Meanwhile, the rock band Foreigner — formed by Mick Jones in the mid-1970s, it’s one of the biggest-selling acts of all time — was planning its 2015 “Cheap Date” tour with Kid Rock. The tour started earlier this summer, with Foreigner the opening act and Kid Rock the headliner.
But here’s a way to make headlines of your own: Foreigner routinely invites local high school choirs to join it on stage for Jones’ anthemic power ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is,” according to marketing director John Lappen. The band donates $500 to each choir, and the choir sells the band’s new greatest-hits CD — with all the revenues going to the Grammy Foundation, an industry charity that makes arts-education grants to underfunded schools.
“Sometimes I reach out and cold-call high schools,” said Lappen. “And sometimes those schools go, ‘Come on, you gotta be kidding me,’ and they hang up. They don’t believe me.”
But Scott Hamilton, who was subbing for Meek last spring, didn’t hang up. He just said yes. “What a cool gig,” was Hamilton’s instant reaction.
“I’m pleased to say we’ve raised over half a million dollars for high school choirs this way,” Lappen said. “But what warms our hearts the most is seeing those kids get onstage, seeing how excited they are. They’re floating on cloud nine.”
Lappen added that the original Foreigner recording of “I Want to Know What Love Is” — an enduring monster hit, released in 1984 — features the gospel harmonies of the New Jersey Mass Choir. Foreigner founder, leader and songwriter Jones “was always hoping to perform it live with a choir,” Lappen said. “We’ve done it over 500 times with a choir, and there’s always a huge smile on Mick’s face. It’s really become an integral part of the band’s show. They always ask me, ‘Hey John, are we going to have a choir?’ ”
‘Feels Like the First Time’
They sure will.
While just 10 sleepy students made it to 7 a.m. rehearsal on the first day of school, a handful more trickled in and opened their throats before the hour was up. Meek expects 20 singers in all.
Meek ran through the logistics — where and when to meet at Amphitheater Northwest on show night, everyone wearing blue jeans and RHS T-shirts, attend a short meet-and-greet with the band. Then, with Hastings’ piano accompaniment, he began reviewing the eight bars of simple-but-soaring harmonies that lift the chorus of “I Want to Know What Love Is” to such glorious heights.
“It’s my generation,” Meek said of the tune. “Maybe it means more to me than it does to them — but that song in particular has been redone a lot, especially by choirs. It’s fun. It’s lively to sing. Pop music is always fun to sing.”
But there will be no “dry run” with Foreigner before the show, Meek was told, which admittedly makes him a little nervous. “You like to feel prepared,” he said. If 500 high school choirs have knocked it out of the park with Foreigner, he said, “I don’t want the 501st to be the one that fails.”
It doesn’t seem likely. Within a few minutes of reviewing its parts, the choir was sounding anything but sleepy. Singing along with Foreigner’s rousing original recording surely helped. St. John, the 16-year-old Foreigner fan, belted out her part while pumping her fist in the air, rock-glory style. Friends followed her lead.
“It’s gonna be so awesome,” she declared.
Meek couldn’t help agreeing. This Friday night in Ridgefield, which he might well have missed, will be awesome.
Scott Hewitt: 360-735-4525; scott.hewitt@columbian.com; twitter.com/_scotthewitt
