LeRoi Moore's Secret Password for autographs

By Justin Steffman

Apr 24, 2018

One of the bands I've graphed the most over the years was the Dave Matthews Band. Not so much because I was a huge fan, but because the band was always friendly and always touring, and I loved getting autographs.

My first time meeting DMB was in 1999, and I brought 2 pieces of regular copy paper with DMB logos that I printed on them. I left a nice big space for them to sign below.

After 2 days in a row of waiting for them to come and go from consecutive shows, I managed to get every member - Dave, Stefan, Boyd, and Carter, on both of my pieces of paper. Stefan even drew a stick figure sketch without me asking him to! Unfortunately though, I saw LeRoi Moore on 3 different occasions and he denied me every single time.

On my third time asking, I walked with him from the hotel door to his tour bus and, as he stepped on to the bus, I said "Please LeRoi, you're the only member I need to complete these." He turned around, looked down at my paper, and said "4 out of 5 ain't bad." before slamming the door. 😲

I didn't think it was rude of him and I didn't feel rejected. I thought it was hilarious! 😂Did I think he had personality problems? Sure. But like all successful collectors, I've always enjoyed a good challenge. ✊

Later that night after the show, some other DMB fans and I caught up with the band again. At this point, LeRoi recognized me as someone he had refused repeatedly, and pointed my cousin and I out while refusing to sign for everyone else, and leaned in close to tell us something. "You two are devoted, and I'm going to give you a secret password for tomorrow. If you tell me this password, I'm going to sign for you and only you. The password (he whispered) is... Green Hour."

Huh?

We went home assuming LeRoi must have been high, and I didn't expect he would keep his word, but the following morning we went back nonetheless. Again.

There we were, a couple of dumb, devoted teenagers, waiting yet again to complete our items using a secret password. Our parents would never understand. Maybe no reasonable person would ever understand. But there we stood. Waiting to say "Green Hour."

Fast forward a few hours, and here they come. One by one, the members of DMB exited their hotel and stepped on to the buses. It was the final day of their shows, and they were all carrying luggage and checking out. Fans had showed up in swarms on this final day, so security was holding about 50 of us back across the street. As each member exited, we screamed. "Dave! Stefan! Carter!" but they all just waved. When LeRoi popped out, my cousin and I screamed the password as loud as we could. "GREEN HOUR! GREEN HOUR!"

It worked! Shockingly enough, LeRoi laughed, and he had security walk over and grab our items. He signed them all, while again refusing to sign for everyone else.

OUR MISSION WAS COMPLETE! 🏆

I met LeRoi about 15 times after that, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, and every time I said the same thing to him:

Green hour.

(It never worked again.)

Justin Steffman

Founder, @autographcoa @officialracc

I started collecting autographs in-person regularly back in 1996, and I still make time to go out graphing if someone is around who interests me. I spend 90% of my time in my office and online, authenticating hundreds of autograph submissions per day for AutographCOA (ACOA), and I also help to oversee the RACC community.

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