I went along as a chaperone when my oldest daughter marched in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade three years ago. We were scheduled to stand in the crowd outside the TODAY studio on the second day we were there when we found out that the guest performer on TODAY's concert series that morning was Bon Jovi.
We got up really early so we were standing outside the barricade when they let us line up at 6:30 that morning. We were able to get really, really close to the stage, on the right hand side, and Bon Jovi ended up performing less than 10 feet away from us. He was fantastic--and take it from me, he and Richie Sambora are just as good-looking in person as they are on their videos!