THE STUFF OF DREAMS: TEEN TAKES STAGE WITH LONESTAR

Dustin McKinnis and his mother Linda talked about Dustin's friendship with baseball greats like Mark McGwire and Jack Buck.

A week ago Sunday, Dustin McKinnis walked from his bedroom and checked to see if the black guitar case was really sitting in the living room, or had the night before been just a dream?

The night before was the stuff of dreams for Dustin, 14, who lives in Cape Girardeau with his parents, Mike and Linda McKinnis.

Three years ago, Dustin decided to learn to play guitar. He took lessons at Keys' Music Store and studied the classics, but really loved newcomers to the country music scene, like Lonestar.

Two years ago, the up-and-coming group from Texas appeared at Cape Girardeau's Riverfest. While down at Keys', Dustin and his dad got a chance to meet band members Richie McDonald and Keech Rainwater. The two performers and Dustin jammed a while in the music store, a chance of a lifetime, Dustin thought. "Nice guys," he said. They invited Dustin to the concert and backstage afterwards. A fan was born.

Dustin soon learned all of Lonestar's hits. He knows all the words. His favorites -- "No News" and "Everything's Changed."

When Pete Poe, president of the SEMO District Fair, asked family friend Dustin who he'd like to see at the fair, the answer was easy. Dustin wanted to see his old pals, Lonestar.

It took two years, but Lonestar was booked for the fair. Dustin learned of their concert date in Cape Girardeau on the band's Web site before the concert was ever announced.

"I just had to have front-row tickets," he said. "I wondered if they would remember me."

Dustin wanted to go to a concert at the fair. Now his parents had a dilemma.

Just drawing a breath is a challenge for Dustin, who was born with a birth defect that makes it impossible for him to breath through his nose or mouth. He has a permanent trachea tube in his neck. To speak, he must cover the hole, sometimes with his thumb, sometimes by tilting his head.

As a result, Dustin is susceptible to infections. Tiny cold bugs turn into serious respiratory infections. He avoids crowds. He is home-schooled. In the winter, he rarely leaves the house.

Dustin has undergone 101 surgeries. The most recent was Sept. 4 to remove scar tissue that continues to build up in his throat.

The most recent surgery buys Dustin about three months, his mother said. But the McKinnises learned long ago to live one day at a time and be thankful for the small things.

In return, amazing things happen to the family all the time. "I don't understand why," Dustin said. "They just do."

The family have long been fans of the St. Louis Cardinal's baseball team. During a visit to the stadium when Dustin was just 6, he met Jack Buck, the famed announcer of Cardinal games. The two became friends. Dustin has broadcast twice with Buck. Whenever Dustin scores tickets to a Cardinal's game, he stops by the announcer's booth to say hi.

Unlike the unruly fans who push they're way through crowds and finagle their way toward the players, Dustin stands quietly by the dugout and waits. He never asks for favors or special consideration. It just comes his way.

The McKinnises home is filled with memorabilia given to Dustin over the years. Brian Jordan and John Mabry and several other Cardinals know Dustin by name.

He was at the ballpark to see Mark McGwire slug out numbers 38, 55, 62 and 63. He plans to see today's season-ender, thanks to strangers who read a story about Dustin in the Post Dispatch newspaper last week. The strangers couldn't use the tickets and insisted the McKinnises take them.

"Things like that are always happening to me," Dustin said. "I don't know why."

Dustin's mother worries that some people might think Dustin is spoiled or using his illness to get special attention. Nothing could be further from the truth. "Dustin would love to be with friends at school," Linda McKinnis said. "He'd love to go swimming or play Little League baseball, or go to the fair. He can't."

Well, he shouldn't. Dustin was determined to go the Lonestar concert in Cape Girardeau Sept. 19 and convinced his parents to let him go.

"I just had to get back stage and talk to Richie and Keech," Dustin said.

He got the chance to go backstage just before Lonestar took the stage. Indeed the band members remembered the young guitar player.

Richie McDonald asked Dustin about his guitar-playing progress. Dustin said he was saving up to buy a new guitar, a Takamine, the kind McDonald uses when writing songs and performing. The conversation was short. The concert was ready to start.

Dustin took his seat down front. "I told them where I was sitting, and they saw me. They made eye contact and I knew they saw me," Dustin said. He was happy.

Suddenly, the music stopped. McDonald announced he had a special presentation to make and called Dustin up on stage. "You can't have mine, but it's one like it," McDonald said, searching the stage for the present.

Dustin recalled: "They couldn't find it. I think it took about five minutes. They were looking everywhere." Finally the gift was located, back on the bus.

It was a Takamine, McDonald's backup guitar, the one he played on the bus and while writing songs. Each band member had signed it. Dustin was in shock.

McDonald broke the tension by teasing Dustin. "OK. Get off the stage," he said.

But the crowd demanded that Dustin get a chance to try out his gift on stage. "It looks like we have a new band member," McDonald said.

The band played the first chords of "Runnin' Away With My Heart." Dustin joined right in. "It was amazing," Dustin said. Later in the concert, McDonald came off the stage to Dustin's seat. He and Dustin sang "You Walked In" together. "It was really amazing."

The night air, the dust, the crowds took their toll on Dustin. He caught a cold, just as his mother feared. Dustin doesn't care.

When he walked out of his bedroom last Sunday morning, the guitar case was sitting in the living room, McDonald's concert tags still hanging from handles. "He wants me to write a song," Dustin said. "Maybe I will."