The grand prize winner of the ATO Fan contest is Jessica Thornton of Newell IA. Her amazing encounter with Brendan Benson was quite the tale. Here’s the story:

“In between songs it got REALLY quiet, so naturally I yelled “PLAY WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR!!” (as it’s my favorite song in the world EVER). And Brendan looked at me sort of like “I’ll get to it when I get to it silly” so I yelled “I’LL PLAY IT FOR YOU!!!” Brendan was like “On the guitar?” I yelled “YEAH!! Just not in front of everyone though” Then he said “I might have to hold you to that” Well.. they got done playing and went off stage until we cheered his name. And he came back up for the encore, and held out his guitar, looked straight at me and said “You think you can do this?” And I said “ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?? UP THERE!? I’M GONNA POOP MYSELF!!!” (Lol) He said “NOOOOo! Don’t do that!!” And a bunch of people in the audience said “Just do it!! You have to do it, It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity!!” So I decided to grow some balls and get up there with shaky fingers. At first I messed up and couldn’t find the fret *what I’m looking for* started on, I was SOOOoo nervous! But then I finally got it! And the band started in, and Brendan started singing!”