India RPCV Gene Tackett rocks with the Rolling Stones
Read and comment on this story from the Bakersfield Californian on India RPCV Gene Tackett who recently had the chance to attend a command performance with the Rolling Stones in Las Vegas because of his friendship with David Bonderman, who went from traveler in India to one of the biggest takeover artists in America.
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I always say: Wealthy is as wealthy does
Wednesday December 25, 2002, 04:25:03 PM
If you can't be rich, know rich. Rich people need a certain number of hanger-oners, playmates and foils.
Gene Tackett and his wife, Wendy Wayne,recently rode some velvet coattails into a spectacular weekend using this philosophy of knowing the rich.
It started 30 years ago in India in the Peace Corps when Tackett's roommate, David Copus(the road that intersects Highway 99 is named for his family) got a visit from a friend named David Bonderman.
Tackett, friendly then and now, struck up a conversation and a relationship with Bonderman, who went from traveler in India to one of the biggest takeover artists in America. Bonderman's company, called the Texas Pacific Group, bought Continental Airlines and sold it for 11 times what they paid for it and most recently, along with Goldman Sachs, bought Burger King.
Bonderman is worth billions.
Tackett and Bonderman have exchanged Christmas cards through the years and taken two raft trips together.
In August, Tackett received an invitation to Bonderman's 60th birthday party scheduled for Nov. 16 in Las Vegas. The birthday party was titled "Bonderman rocks Las Vegas."
"He loves rock music so I thought he might hire someone like Chuck Berry to play," Tackett said.
Tackett and Wayne were surprised. So were Bonderman's 500 other friends who he put up all-expenses-paid at the Bellagio Hotel. After dinner in the Bellagio ballroom -- caviar, bass, lamb chops, great wines -- Robin Williams walks onstage and does an hour-long show.
Then the group gets on buses and goes to the concert hall at the Hard Rock Hotel, which Bonderman's rented for the evening. John Cougar Mellencamp is the first act. Who should walk on after Mellencamp but the Rolling Stones.
"I'm not paying for this," Bonderman said. "My kids are."
The Stones played for two hours. Tackett was five feet from Mick Jagger.
The price tag? Everybody wants to know the price tag. Robin Williams cost $1 million. The Stones $7 million. The whole weekend more than $10 million. Wayne, softhearted as she is, was of course thinking about how many shoes $10 million would buy for poor children. Tackett was just digging it. Turns out Bonderman also does a ton for charity as well as funding fellowships for deserving students. Read more about Peace Corps Volunteers who served in India
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - India; Special Interests - Rock and Roll; Peace Corps Humor; What RPCVs are doing today
