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That One Time I Was a Mariah Carey Fan Surrounded by Guns N’ Roses Fans
There are so many songs from the 80s and 90s that transport me back in time, but Mariah Carey’s Vision of Love takes me back like few others do.
I was much younger then — somewhere between a lad and a man — when I went through my Mariah Carey phase.
I was living in Florida when her first album debuted, and in California when her second album released, but whenever I think of Mariah Carey (which honestly, isn’t very often these days), I can’t help but reminisce about a unique experience I had one night in Simi Valley, California.
The year was 1991. Mariah Carey’s second album (Emotions) was to be released on September 17th and a local record store was opening their doors at midnight, not so music fans could purchase Mariah Carey’s new album, but so that their customers could purchase the CD of another musical sensation at the time whose album, Use Your Illusion, was also releasing that day. That band was Guns N’ Roses.
As a teen who was a fan of Johnny Gill, Regina Belle, Keith Sweat, Teddy Pendergrass, Anita Baker, Luther Vadross, En Vogue, Jodeci, Guy, Troop, Chaka Khan, Bell Biv DeVoe, and Babyface (just to name a few), I was certainly no fan of Guns N’ Roses. In fact, I loathed all the heavy metal and rock n’ roll of that era (and still do).