SHARE

Rock Band Yes Wishes Hackensack Newlyweds Best

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Love of music not only united Hackensack newlyweds Gloria Newman and Michael Morshuk: It delivered a sweet honeymoon treat when they got backstage passes for the classic rock band Yes.

The happy couple and a honeymoon souvenir.

The happy couple and a honeymoon souvenir.

Photo Credit: COURTESY: Gloria Newman-Morshuk
Newman Morshuk with Yes singer-songwriter Jon Davison.

Newman Morshuk with Yes singer-songwriter Jon Davison.

Photo Credit: COURTESY: Gloria Newman Morshuk
At the Port Chester show.

At the Port Chester show.

Photo Credit: COURTESY: Gloria Newman-Morshuk
Michael and Gloria Newman Morshuk

Michael and Gloria Newman Morshuk

Photo Credit: COURTESY: Gloria Newman-Morshuk

"We both have been fans for years, going to shows together and separately before we got married," said Newman, a legal nurse consultant who grew up in Hackensack. "This is going back to 1977 and 1980."

Morshuk, a Rochelle Park native, "had been trying to get a guitar pick from [guitarist] Steve Howe since he was a teenager," she said.

As baby boomers who were teens at the time recall, Yes was one of the seminal progressive rock bands -- along with ELP, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, among others -- beginning at the turn of the 1970s.

Known for lengthy songs packed with mystical lyrics, as well as for elaborate stage sets and album-cover artwork by Roger Dean, Yes has sold close to 50 million units worldwide.

Newman and Morshuk both got caught up in the music while attending Hackensack High School.

"He was my boyfriend's best friend," she said.

The guys are still friends, in fact, and have played together in the local classic rock band Earthgrinders the past 25 years.

Newman has two sons from a previous marriage -- Jay, 27, a computer tech, and David, 24, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who works for Onkyo.

Morshuk, who has worked the past 15 years as a personal stylist at J.Crew in Westchester, has a daughter, Kelsea, 19, from a previous marriage who lives in Connecticut.

"Our paths crossed again three years ago by chance at the Maywood Inn," Newman said.

One thing led to another and....

"We had a very small intimate ceremony with just our immediate family [last month]," Newman told Daily Voice.

"Billy Sherwood, the bass player who took over for Chris Squire, gave us the passes for a show in Port Chester for our wedding," she said. "We met him last year and have kept in touch via Messenger.

"We told him we were coming to the show and hoped to 'run into' him like we did the first time, and he said 'It's too damn hot, come into the air conditioning. I'm leaving after show passes at the box office for you.'

"We had a great night. So many stories. So many beautiful photos that were shared nationally on the band's Facebook pages."

The couple also got a copy of the classic "Close to the Edge" album that band members signed with a special wish (see photo).

And Michael got his guitar pick.

to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE