You Can Start Me Up

Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones
Freightliner Appreciation Event, October 3, 2016  

How much do you appreciate customers? 

If you’re Freightliner, it’s enough to put on a private party with no less than Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones as the entertainment.

It was the buzz at the early evening reception for the dinner, held at the American Trucking Associations’ annual convention in Las Vegas this week. Once a member of the Stones was spotted by an avid Rolling Stone fan, the cat was out of the band…make that bag. But nobody would believe it: How could a small group of truck fleet owners and managers possibly be at a private party with the legendary Rolling Stones.

Yet in his really hilarious intro to the headline feature of the evening, Daimler Trucks North America President Martin Daum announced the “band” would be the Rolling Stones. There was a rush to the crush to be center stage at this intimate concert with one of the world’s legendary bands.

And it was standing room only the rest of the evening.

It was intimate: There was a center runway and Jagger was the incredibly high-energy on-stage entertainer, not just singing the lines that everybody knows but strutting the stuff as well. It was magic.

Last year, it was Paul McCartney and by sheer luck I had found a corner where I could get up close and view the action without having to fight everyone else for a clear view. It was incredible again this year. The level of energy Mick Jagger puts into a performance is legendary. But you have to see it. And, of course, hear it.

It was a Rolling Stones night to remember, a customer-appreciation party that none but the market leader could do. I make no apologies for making that remark. Daimler and Freightliner set the seal on their dominance of the truck business with the ultimate thank-you party for their customers.