Hearts Up (and Down): Bands tell us about their best and worst Valentine's Days

Every February, Cupid arrives to hone his archery skills and (hopefully) bring a little love to people. Whether you stick with giving roses and chocolate and everything turned out fine—or you got dumped in front of the whole school only to walk home in blistering hail only to find out your pet hamster died—one thing’s for sure: Valentine’s Day happens every year whether you like it or not. AP chatted up some of your favorite musicians to find out their best and worst V-Day experiences of all time.

BEST:

My best Valentine’s Day would probably have to be two years ago. Instead of having a romantic dinner, my girlfriend and I decided to go out with all our friends and hit the Tallahassee bars. Afterwards, we went back to our friend’s place and I decided to take the dog out for a walk. The dog took off running before I had any time to react and pulled me down the apartment stairs face first. When we got back to my girlfriend’s house, we went to assess my injuries and realized that I was hurt much more than I had thought. So why is this the best Valentine’s Day ever? I had someone for the first time in my life to take care of me when I was at my worst—somebody who loved me enough to clean my cuts and bruises. Having somebody to pick you up when you are at your worst is the definition of love to me and that day I knew I had that. It was the best.
ALEX REED
Go Radio
 

I remember one Valentine’s Day back when I was in like middle or high school when you could buy someone a card or rose and it would get sent to you in the middle of class. There was this girl a couple of friends of mine knew I liked, but knew that I would never muster up the courage to tell her. Well, they took it upon themselves to buy her a butt-load of Valentine carnations in my name—and to my luck, it happened while we were in the same class together! Luckily, she thought it was a nice gesture and not that I was some total creep!
CISKO MIRANDA
Eyes Set To Kill

Last year was pretty awesome. I was on vacation in Bali, Indonesia with my girlfriend, and we visited an elephant sanctuary. We got a photo with one of the elephants putting a giant pink heart-shaped floral wreathe around our heads and then had dinner outdoors under the stars.
JONA WEINHOFEN
Bring Me The Horizon

I'm thinking my best Valentine’s Day is going to be next week in Exeter. Our tour with Young Guns and Polar will be one day off from ending and since there's been a lot of man love going on this tour, I think I'll be enjoying my Valentine’s Day vicariously through the boys.
JENNA MCDOUGALL
Tonight Alive

The best Valentine's Day I've ever had was the time when my then-girlfriend surprised me by taking me out to dinner at a restaurant in Sea World, which is obviously filled with thrilling sea creatures. I got to eat dinner literally 5 feet away from a killer whale. His name was Corky. It was badass.
JAIME PRECIADO
Pierce The Veil

As a fairly-average-looking twentysomething-year-old who hasn't been in a committed relationship in over 5 years, I don't have much experience with the whole Valentine’s Day thing. That day can be really lonely for hopeless romantics such as myself. You could say based on that fact that every Valentine's Day is a bad experience for me since I'm spending the time alone. You could also argue since I'm not tied down by a significant other, every Valentine's Day is awesome due to the fact that I'm not obligated to give flowers or chocolate for the sake of a certain date on the calendar because “The Man” says I have to or else I won't be getting laid. Moral of the story: Don't get a girlfriend. They drain your wallet and then they'll dump you for someone like me because I have awesome hair and my band is sexy as all hell. Or get a girlfriend and keep her close—keep her very, very close.
BEN WIACEK
A Lot Like Birds

Every Valentine’s Day with my girlfriend is the best. Every day is Valentine’s Day. Not even sure if we've had one together in the same country—it’s just nice to know she's there. Call me a sap, and I’ll call you lonely.
VINNIE CARUANA
I Am The Avalanche

One that comes to mind is Valentine’s Day 1999—I was 15. I remember the Suicide Machines had taken over the local radio station that night and being really bummed that I had to miss out on the punk radio show for a girl. Nonetheless, I had my dad drive me to what I thought was my girlfriend's house. What made it a nice Valentine’s Day was once I got to her house we watched The Princess Bride and made out for several hours. All-in-all, 15-year-old me was pretty pleased with the evening. Twenty-seven-year-old me is also likely to be content with watching The Princess Bride and making out.”
KYLE O’NEIL
Fireworks

Before I ever met my husband, we began talking on the Internet. He had asked me to sing on a project he was doing with Chris Conley from Saves The Day called Two Tongues, so we started emailing back and forth. I was fresh off the divorced block and seriously avoiding the opposite sex, but there was just something super intense and crazy about the connection I felt with him, so we continued to talk. One night when we were chatting—he was in California, I was in Texas—we were discussing Lord Of The Rings and started Googling the actors. We stumbled on a photo of Liv Tyler after recently delivering her child, prancing around on the beach in a state of sheer joy. We found it to be absolutely amazing and started captioning the photo and the one that stuck was, “GLORY BE!”

This was all in late January. A few weeks later, my Valentine's Day gifts arrived in the mail from him—though we still weren't officially dating, we were smitten and sent each other valentines. I opened up my Valentine card and was sold.

It was a piece of paper he had printed from the Internet of the shot of Liv Tyler in her bathing suit, arms raised to the sky and over her head in bold handwriting just said “GLORY BE!” On the back he had written the most amazing letter asking me to be his girlfriend. Before that year had ended, we were engaged. Our fifth Valentine’s together will be this year, our three-year wedding anniversary will be this spring and I couldn't imagine being any happier. GLORY BE!
SHERRI DUPREE-BEMIS
Eisley

A few years ago on Valentine's Day, when I first started dating my girlfriend, I wanted to do something different than everyone else. We had a joke about sidewalk chalk, so I wrote “Happy Valentine's Day Ashlee” on the street of my subdivision. Since Ashlee is never on time for our dates, she pushed our plans back an hour. Well, within that hour, there was freezing rain, which destroyed most of my artwork, then whatever was left of it was covered with a bunch of snow, so I wound up just buying her roses and candy. She was sorry that she was late and pretty bummed that she missed it, but it still turned out to be a good day!
DAVID STEPHENS
We Came As Romans

The best Valentine's Day I've ever had was actually on tour. This girl I had a huge crush on lived in Ohio at the time. I live in Florida, so as you can imagine, we didn't get to see each other often. But it just so happened that we were playing Cincinnati on Valentine's Day. I bought her a beautiful necklace before we hit the road and spent the entire tour making sure it didn't break or get lost, which is harder than it sounds. Anyway, we got to the Cincinnati show and she was there. Just getting to see her again made all the waiting worth it. I ended up asking her to be my girlfriend that night and she said yes. We went on a great, double-date dinner and then had a party with all of our friends. I wouldn't have wanted to spend that day with anyone else.
MAXX DANZIGER
Set It Off

My best Valentine's Day ever happened a few years ago. I spent it with my then-girlfriend at her parents' house, which we had to ourselves. We cooked dinner together, drank wine and had a wonderfully laid-back evening. It was actually the first time I ever made Chicken Saltimbocca. I think I also made asparagus and some garlic mashed potatoes. What made it the best was that I spent it with her, and only her.

Being somewhat of a hopeless romantic, I spent many Valentine’s Days making grandiose gestures of what would prove to be unrequited love (though it was really just adoration). I once made a painting for a girl in my high school who was a couple years older than me, containing a poem that I'd written in her native language. It was pretty ridiculous, and it's embarrassing to think about now, but I'm glad I did things like that and learned hard lessons. I realized later on that I was in search of a mostly fictional, commercialized version of “love,” and that I was chasing something that, had I eventually caught, would've proved unmanageable and indecipherable. What made that Valentine’s Day a few years ago so special was that it was one of those moments—however forced or commercialized in nature—that caused me to reflect on how lucky I was to finally understand the concept of love. It was something I thought I knew about my whole life, but it turned out I had never even felt what it really was.”
ANDREW COOK
A Rocket To The Moon

In high school, my girlfriend at the time made a big cork board with pictures of us and came over while I wasn't home and hung it in my bedroom. My parents let her in mind you, so she wasn't a psycho breaking in. They don't make ‘em like they used to…
KEVIN SKAFF
A Day To Remember

I have been dating the same girl for six years, and I have not once been home for Valentine’s Day. It definitely sucks, because I don't give a shit about Valentine’s Day, but of course my girlfriend does. So, the best Valentine’s Day I was probably on tour somewhere, doing something retarded.
TOM WILLIAMS
Stray From The Path

One Valentine's Day when I was in 6th grade, there was a girl that I really wanted to impress. I went out and bought her a gift with my own money, and made a handmade card for her, which was a huge deal at the time. I walked to her house and asked her dad if I could go on a walk with her. On our walk I gave her the gifts, then we held hands all the way back to her house. When we got back, I leaned in and snagged my first kiss. It was probably the best day of my life.
KENNY GREELEY
The After Party

WORST:

A couple years ago, I completely forgot about Valentine's Day until the day before, and I didn't get anything for my girlfriend at the time. We had been dating over a year and we were pretty serious, so it was an important day to her. On the way to her house, I stopped by the gas station and grabbed a Dr. Pepper, a Reese's and a one dollar flower for her. When I showed up and gave her the gifts, I pretended like I put a lot of thought into it, but she definitely was not impressed.
ALAN BELL
The After Party

In high school, I was dating this girl who had an identical twin who I didn't know, and I thought it would be nice to get [my girlfriend] a single rose. For some reason I thought that was way-classy. (P.S.: It’s not that cool.) Well, I ended up giving the rose to the wrong twin in the quad that day, and let’s just say I was pretty embarrassed. Kids, don't give the rose to the wrong twin…ever.
JAIME PRECIADO
Pierce The Veil

When I was 16, I was dating a crazy person. She drove me nuts. We went to a Broadway show and fought the entire time. She made an art of fighting, and as a 16-year-old, I thought I loved her and no other woman would have sex with me. The relationship ended when she punched me in the face—hard.
VINNIE  CARUANA
I Am The Avalanche

This one time I took my girl to D.C. to see Celine Dion for Valentine's Day. We stayed at this bogus, run-down hotel because the tickets alone were around $300 a pop. We get home and are both covered in these bogus-ass, itchy, red bumps. I went to the doctor and this cat tells me I got bedbugs. He gives me this soap and shampoo and tells me I should be straight. It went away for like two days and then not only did it come back, but everyone in my house got it. Needless to say, we had to trash all our sheets, scrub up with that soap/shampoo and then it finally went away—but not before I took it to college with me and gave it to my dorm roommate. Bogus.
TRAVIS SYKES
Glass Cloud

Worst Valentine’s Day ever was in high school. I forget what year it was, but I spent the entire day and night in jail for stealing the keys to my principal's car and driving it into the school's swimming pool. My girlfriend at the time was bummed because she didn't get her stupid dozen roses. That was the last time I spoke to her.
BEAU BOKAN
blessthefall

I got arrested once on a Valentine's Day because I was in a park that was apparently closed, and there was a call from the zoo next to the park about someone trying to break in—apparently they thought my date and I were the ones who tried to break in. We were held there for probably 45 minutes to an hour. My date was pretty calm, considering the circumstances. Both of us knew we didn't do anything, so we weren’t too worried. The only thing we were nervous about was possibly getting a ticket for being in a park that was apparently closed.
BRETT CALLAWAY
Close Your Eyes

I once got turned down by a girl with dreadlocks. When I went to ask her to go out with me, I was so nervous all I could manage to blurt out was, “I like Star Wars.”
JONA WEINHOFEN
Bring Me The Horizon

My worst Valentine’s Day was really weird. I won’t go into the details but let’s just say it involved a hotel room, the female version of Goldmember, a lady who looked like the dwarf from Lord of the Rings, a cougar and a bottle of Jack.
JULIEN GUY-BELAND
Skip The Foreplay