My Date with a Charlie’s Angel

My Date with a Charlie’s Angel: The Day I “Ran” Into Cheryl Ladd

Touring with Christopher Cross meant playing amazing shows in incredible places—and it occasionally led to some unbelievable situations. One of those happened during our stop in Hawaii, where we had just one gig lined up after a long tour across Japan.

I’m an early riser, so as usual, I got up at 5:00 AM to go for my morning run. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon as I jogged along the beach outside Honolulu. The air was perfect, the waves were calm, and everything was peaceful... until I ran straight into a TV set.

Now, picture this: I’m drenched in sweat, trying to do my best “marathoner at sunrise” routine, and there’s a whole crew filming a scene with models in swimsuits. Suddenly, a guy from the set, clearly in charge of keeping random dudes like me out, yells, “Hey! What are you doing here?”

Without missing a beat (and still catching my breath), I throw out the most absurd excuse I can think of: “I’m with Christopher Cross! I’m his piano player! We’ve got a concert in two days, and I came here to personally invite Charlie’s Angels to the show!”

Of course, the guy isn’t buying it. He practically laughs me out of the park, probably thinking I’m crazy. But just as I’m about to make my sweaty exit, one of the models chimes in, “Hold on, let him in!”

And suddenly, there I am, standing in front of three Angels, passing out backstage passes to our show. (I mean, it’s Charlie’s Angels, how could I not?)

Fast forward to concert night, and who shows up backstage? None other than Cheryl Ladd herself, the real-life Angel. She walks over, says hello, and next thing you know, we’re sitting down, sharing a cup of coffee and chatting for about half an hour.

Now, before you get any wild ideas, she very kindly—and quite strategically—made sure to flash her engagement ring multiple times during our conversation. Message received, loud and clear.

So yeah, that was my “date” with Cheryl Ladd: a cup of coffee, some polite conversation, and one very sparkly engagement ring. But hey, how many people can say they asked out a Charlie’s Angel in the middle of a morning jog?