From Joe Ely's wife Sharon:

Written by Sharon Ely

He served me a cup of tea
It was my birthday , November 8th ... around 1989 ...Bobby Keyes, one of the Rolling stones great saxophone players had invited Joe and me to the Rolling stones concert in Houston that night... Bobby was also a member of the Joe Ely band at that time .Bobby was a great friend to Joe and he had invited us to come to Houston to see him play with the Rolling Stones It was pure luck that the concert fell on my birthday. Joe and I was escorted backstage before the show. the backstage was more like a fancy suite with a banquet of food and flowers everywhere. couches and marble tables to set your food and drinks on. low light from the decorative lamps sitting on the end tables at the end of the couches facing each other. it was all very comfortable and elegant. Joe and i were alone in the room for awhile waiting for Bobby Keyes to show up. then Joe disappeared for a little bit to go find Bobby. I was sitting there by myself on the couch in my new red taffeta dress . There was a man there in the room dressed in all white suit,..He was cleaning up the tables and picking stuff up. He asked if i would like a drink. I told him I did not drink ...so he asked me if I would like a cup of tea. I said yes, that would be very nice., thank you . he kindly came back with the wooden box of sorted teas and let me choose my favorite english breakfast teas. He came back with a teapot, a cup and saucer and the tea brewing in the pot. he also brought a creamer with milk and a sugar bowl.i felt like a queen being served afternoon tea. I thanked him . I appreciated his kindness..shortly thereafter Joe and Bobby and Kieth came rumbling into the peaceful back room where i had been sitting quietly enjoying the tea ceremony. Bobby, Kieth and Joe sat across from me playing riffs on the guitar and laughing telling jokes and drinking their drinks.....Bobby asked if I had met Charlie watts, and he pointed to the man in the white suit .I laughed surprisingly and realized he was one of the rolling stones and not the waiter who i thought he was.
Keith and Bobby left to go get dressed for the show. charlie sat to one side of the room reading. He was already dressed for the show in his white suit. Joe and I sat again in the backstage by ourselves. we got up and went over to the banquet table overflowing with every kind of incredible food one could imagine.there was even a giant ice sculpture . I wondered how the rolling stones could possibly eat all that food before their show.Joe usually did not like to eat before his performances.anyway as we scanned the food selection, and was about to load our plates, suddenly Mick Jagger and his wife ,came in and shook Joe's and my hand and kinda did a curtsy to us as they said hello......but after the mng waved them over to the royal guests at the other side of the room they suddenly realized we were not the royal guests that they were required to meet.. We were quite honored to be welcomed so graciously by Mick and his wife , even though we were the wrong royal guests they were expecting to meet.
We sat there at the couch and coffee table eating our food and I sipped the last of my cup of tea and then here comes Bobby and Keith all dressed for the show. Bobby asked if we wanted to meet Mick. Joe and i tried to explain we already met him by mistake , because he thought we were royal guests...but it was too hard to explain that so we finally just said yes we would like to meet Mick..... so Bobby takes us through the door to where they were finishing Mick'''s make up and hair. Mick stood up from the makeup stand He was all dressed in his stage outfit , which consisted of yellow skin tights and a purple scarf. and nothing else. except some little white slippers . frankly I was shocked at how he was dressed... bobby introduced joe and me to him . we laughed about our earlier meeting...and when bobby introduced me and Mick shook my hand ,all i could think to say to Mick was " nice pants"