Hi Joe,

I am writing to you in the hope that you would help. I realise you do receive lots of emails like this so I don't have great expectations but I have to try this for my son.

I would't write to you unless I knew the entire team you manage is different and closer to their fans - more "normal" as you said on stage – extremely modest for the star you are for so many years.

We enjoyed every second of the show yesterday evening in Birmingham! What a performance!

Matei, my 16 years old son was absorbing all of it, breathlessly! Needless to say he is a fan, has all the records from 1986 on, sings on guitar some of the songs (he even has an Ibanez Satriani model) and listens to your music all the time - including all the long trips in the car! He plans to take music as an IB high level at his baccalaureate and his love for guitar and moreover, music, started with Joe Satriani. He is studying at a boarding school in England although he is Romanian and he is praised for his music effort.

Last evening Matei went from ecstatic happiness – when you threw your pick directly at him (we were seated in the 4th row, in the middle) - to immense regret when he couldn't find the pick. It maybe the case that somebody else picked it up from the floor (he preferred to watch the show instead of starting to look for it in the middle of the song) or it went through some crack in the wooden floor. We looked for the pick at the end of the show for about 10 minutes until the organisers had to ask us out. The look on my son's face was of a great disappointment although he said nothing apart from a few discrete sighs. I know it would have meant the world to him. The show was absolutely fabulous but somehow, a sort of unfulfillment still stays with me because of this tricky pick! So close to heaven and yet… We did buy t-shirts and even the set of picks available but it's not the same.

I am writing to you in the shameless hope that you would have the time to send us a used pick of yours. Needless to say we would pay for the transport and taxes and whatever is needed. Again, it would mean the world to my son.

My address is: Dimitrie Racovita street, no. 8, Bucharest, Romania.

Thank you in advance for your kindness and for the selfless use of your power to make people happy!

Forever yours, Alex Teodorescu