Stones’ fan stands tall for favorite rock band

LEWISTON – If Scott Peters isn’t the biggest Rolling Stones fan in Maine, he’s almost certainly the tallest.

That’s because of the special boots that the 40-year-old Postal Service employee puts on when he attends a Rolling Stones concert. Peters stands 5-foot-8, but the boots elevate him to 7-foot-1, giving him a better view of the stage.

Peters expects to be putting on the boots frequently in the coming weeks. Starting with Sunday’s concert in Boston’s Fenway Park, he has 12 pairs of tickets for the band’s upcoming tour – and the dates for the winter leg have yet to be released.

On the last tour, Peters caught the band 24 times. Each night’s playlist was sort of the same. There were song sets for arenas, theaters and stadiums, but each time the Stones changed it up by throwing out five unexpected tunes, “the ones I wait for,” he said.

Even on the job, Peters indulges his steady diet of the Rolling Stones.

Nine times a day for the past 11 months, the band’s greatest hits album, “Made in the Shade,” plays in one ear while he walks an 8-mile mail route around town.

Setting off his official U.S. Postal Service uniform is a small metal belt buckle with the Stones’ trademark tongue.

Off the clock, Peters wears Stones’ shirts.

“I’ve been with him since he was 13 – never a day without a Rolling Stones T-shirt,” said his wife, Lisa.

When his wife calls Peters’ cell phone, “Mick Jagger” pops up on the ID. When it’s his best friend, the phone blinks “Keith Richards.”

Peters says he got hooked on the 1980 album “Emotional Rescue.” His mother stopped him from going to a live show the next year. At 17, he was too young. When the group broke up in 1987, he figured he would never see his favorite band perform live.

But since the band reunited, he has seen them 35 times.

“This is what I do. I can’t find anything else better,” Peters said. “Maybe the reason is I’m there with 90,000 of my friends having a great time.”

In time for 2003’s Forty Licks tour, Peters paid $400 for his custom boots.

They’re comfortable, he said, but tricky to run in, at least initially. Peters tried them for the first time in Toronto, where he and a friend had been camped out in line since 3 p.m. the day before. When the gates opened at 8 a.m., he booked it into the stadium, bolted to the front and fell twice. People helped him up. He just kept on running.

Peters said he’s paid as much as $500 for a ticket, $900 for a pair. He’s been all over the United States and Canada and seen three shows in Europe.

“There are lots of fun places I’d never have gone if it wasn’t for the Stones,” said Lisa.