Bob CollinsTime to do that thing you do so well, Internet.
NPR’s Melissa Block is looking for a stranger who was passing through Minneapolis in late July 2013.
She got the idea during an interview with Mike Rosenberg, a singer better known by his stage name, Passenger, who shared the story about a chance encounter that changed his life.
Last year during a tour stop in Minneapolis, Rosenberg made a late-night gas station trip to buy cigarettes. He struck up a conversation with an older man who was smoking outside next to his motorcycle. He learned that this gentlemen had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was midway through a cross-country road trip to see his family in New York, where he planned to spend the rest of his days.
Rosenberg never got the man’s name, but the experience affected him deeply. He quit smoking and wrote the song “Riding to New York.”
If you think you know the man, email Block at nprcrowdsource@npr.org.
An impossible search? It’s been done before.
